I've got a PC with two 16GB RAM sticks for a total of 32GB, but one of them is damaged. I want to replace it myself, but I've never done a component swap before. I'm considering paying a technician $60 to do it, but I'm wondering if it's something I could handle on my own. I've watched a few videos, but I want to be sure I'm not missing anything. How hard is it really? Do I need to download drivers? Will I have to enter the BIOS to set it up? And can I buy just one stick instead of a pair? By the way, my motherboard is an ASUS ROG Strix B550-F in case it matters.
3 Answers
Honestly, swapping RAM takes less than 5 minutes. Just power off your PC, disconnect everything, and touch metal to remove static. Release the old RAM stick by pressing the clip, then lift it out. Line up the new stick in the slot and push down until it clicks. Once you power on your PC, it might take a moment to recognize the new RAM, but just leave it be while it figures things out.
You won't need any drivers for RAM. In the BIOS, just set the XMP profile (or AMD equivalent if that's your case) to get the best performance. If you're careful, it's a breeze to change out the RAM. Just gently push the clips at the ends of the RAM slots to release the old stick and insert the new one until it clicks in. If you have a cooler that gets in the way, you might need to do a bit of rearranging, but still pretty straightforward!
Installing RAM is one of the simpler upgrades you can do! Once you swap out the old stick, just make sure to enable XMP in the BIOS for better speed. It's not required, but it helps your RAM run faster.
What about entering the BIOS? Is it essential to do XMP? I'm not familiar with those options.