What RAM Does My Motherboard Support? | Get The Right RAM For Your PC In 2021 (2021) — MotherboardMag
When it comes to RAM compatibility, it always relates to your motherboard. Therefore, before you get a new RAM for your PC or Laptop, first check whether it is compatible with your motherboard or not.
That means you need to find out first what motherboard your system has.
You can take the help of a free tool called CPU-Z to find your motherboard’s model number and manufacturer.
Now you have the model number and manufacturer details of your motherboard with you. Now check the specs of your motherboard online.
Enter the manufacturer’s name + Model Number (e.g., ASUS ROG Strix Z390-F Gaming ) in google. Visit the manufacturer page for that particular board, where you can check supported RAM specifications like RAM type, Size, RAM module, etc.
However, if you want to check the specs of your current RAM, you can use the CPU-Z tool. With the help of this tool, you can find the RAM type, size, timings, and module specifications (SPD) of your existing RAM modules.
What you need to check when buying RAM
Make a note of few things before buying a new RAM for your PC or Laptop.
Ensure that you are getting the right generation of RAM, which is usually expressed as “DDR,” and then a number. Your motherboard will specify what type of RAM it supports, and it will most likely be DDR4 or DDR3.
DDR2 is old, and unless you have a PC that has seen quite a bit of history, it’s unlikely for you to have that. You could also find motherboards that say they support DDR that is DDR1. DDR1 is the first generation of RAM, and it is incredibly outdated by now.
Now that you know the generation of RAM that you can get let’s ensure you don’t get too much of it.
Every motherboard has the maximum amount of RAM that it supports. Whether it is 32, 64, 128, 256GB, or whatever other capacities, make sure you don’t get more than that because that would be a waste.
It is also worth checking how many DIMM slots your motherboard has. Those are where you plug your RAM in. There are usually 4 of them on normal size ATX motherboards, but their number goes anywhere from 2 on compact boards to 8 or even more high-performance premium boards.
For example, if your board has 2 slots, don’t buy 4 sticks of RAM.
If you are trying to upgrade a system, you want to ensure that you are not mismatching RAM. Ideally, all of your sticks should be completely identical.
You need to find out what RAM is already installed in your computer and see if you can get your hands on more of the same RAM modules.
If that is not an option, make sure that the Frequency (also known as Speed of the RAM), Capacity, and Latency is the same for the RAM you are buying and the one that you want to pair it with.
One other thing that is easily overlooked is RAM clearance. What I mean by that: If you have a particularly compact board, a huge CPU cooler, or super tall and bulky RAM, you might find that the CPU heatsink will overlap the DIMM slots, not letting you plug your memory in.
To prevent this, you can do a quick google search for the CPU cooler that you are looking to pair with your motherboard and RAM and see if you can find people complaining about RAM clearance issues.
While on the topic of size, it is good to know that if you want to buy RAM for your laptop, you need to look for SO-DIMM sticks. Laptops use SO-DIMM slots, unlike the usual computer DIMM slots for DIMM sticks.
It’s just a different size format, and other than that, the whole compatibility side of things is the same, so everything we have said before still applies here.
Summary
So, to summarise, here is what you need to check when buying RAM:
1) Is it the right generation?
2) Am I getting the right size format (DIMM for PCs and SO-DIMM for laptops)?
3) Do I have enough slots on my motherboard?
4) Does my motherboard support the amount of RAM that I am planning to get?
5) Will my CPU Cooler, leave enough room for my RAM to be mounted?
6) Am I getting modules that have the same specs?
If the answer to all of those questions is YES, then you are good to go! And that’s about it!
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I do hope that this article helped you to identify the type of RAM supported by your motherboard. If you still have any questions about RAM compatibility, let me know in the comments section below.
Kevin Henry
Originally published at https://motherboardmag.com on May 20, 2021.
