Hey everyone! I'm pretty new to PC building and recently received some new RAM sticks as a Christmas gift. I installed them today, but I've noticed that my PC is taking about 30-40 seconds longer to boot up now. I did notice that the new RAM sticks look different from the older ones, but I thought they should work fine since they are both DDR5. I have two of each stick installed—two old ones and two new ones. I'm okay with slower boot times as long as it doesn't affect performance, but if having mixed RAM is going to hurt my system, I might need to reconsider keeping one type of RAM. Any advice?
1 Answer
Looks like you've stumbled into the common pitfall of mixing RAM kits. When you mixed those two different sets, it led to compatibility issues—especially since you're on an AMD platform. DDR5 can be finicky, and you added more hurdles by mixing product lines and timmings. The slower boot time is a sign that the system is struggling to manage those sticks together. Honestly, it's best to stick with one kit for optimal performance.
If you have to choose, go with the kit that has the better specifications and performance ratings. Since you mentioned that the top kit is cheaper but the bottom one might be faster, I'd suggest you stick with the bottom kit if your system booted normally on its own. But keep an eye on performance and stability!