How much memory is optimal?

[AFdude06]

I've just looked it up, it is quad channel memory.

Cheerio John

If you have quad channel it will work perfectly fine to add more sticks (I assume you have two?), provided you try to avoid mixing capacity and timings. RAM sticks have varying timings, which are a string of numbers indicating how fast they can perform tasks; i.e. 16-18-18-36. If you mix timings it will default to the slowest speed for all the sticks, and may even cause system instability. Mixing capacities isn't as concerning but can cause the same issues. However, it is possible, so it might just take some experimenting.

 

[johnwhelan]

If you have quad channel it will work perfectly fine to add more sticks (I assume you have two?), provided you try to avoid mixing capacity and timings. RAM sticks have varying timings, which are a string of numbers indicating how fast they can perform tasks; i.e. 16-18-18-36. If you mix timings it will default to the slowest speed for all the sticks, and may even cause system instability. Mixing capacities isn't as concerning but can cause the same issues. However, it is possible, so it might just take some experimenting.

One machine has four 8 gig memory sticks, the other has four 32 gig memory sticks, the sticks are identical other than the size of the sticks. I'm simply going to switch them from one machine to the other. The "new" machine has a slower processor but the magic 128 gigs of memory. I'm wondering what to do with the slower CPU, it's good enough for a NAS / torrent machine but it's finding room for it rather than the smaller box I use at the moment. It was only when I started digging with crucial scan I realised what I actually had, not having taken the covers off.

Cheerio John