Hi all, hoping to get some advice here. I'm currently running a rig I set up late-2016. At the time, I got myself an ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard, 16GB of Corsair Vengeance LED (2x8GB) DDR4-3200 in Channels 1 & 3 (the SKU is CMU16GX4M2C3200C16), and a SanDisk M.2 SATA 240GB drive (the SKU is SD8SN8U256G1122). So, pretty old parts and 8 years on, I'd like to do a refresh.

My first question therefore is, what is the likelihood that I can get any RAM that will still work in my system other than the 'value' RAM sticks that are 2666Mhz or thereabouts? Would the updated version of my RAM (in this case Vengeance RGB) with the same timings and using the same XMP profiles have any chance of working at all, even if I mix with my current RAM in the other 2 slots (or completely replace, I'm open to that)? Or are my options to either go all in on the cheapo RAM or upgrade mobo/CPU/RAM all at once? 'Cause that's pretty expensive right now, but if I have to, I have to.

My second question is that I've bought myself the WD Blue SN570 500GB NVMe M.2 drive to replace my current SanDisk boot drive. It should work in my mobo, I hope - the M.2 slot accepts either NMVe or SATA, and I don't particularly care that it runs only in PCIe 3.0. More importantly, I'd like to know whether I need to get a heatsink for it - I'm hoping not, since it's not super high-performance or anything, and the kit is just the bare SSD, more or less.

Thanks to all the sifu for your help!

You can go try with all 4 sticks 2666mhz, let the motherboard sort the timings out. Its not guaranteed it will work though. It is always advisable to use all same memory brand and models. 4 sticks of RAM also reduces compatibility.

Heatsinks will help M.2 SSDs run at max performance. It will throttle itselfs once it hits high temperature.

another alternative is to get 2 x 16 GB ddr4 3200 Mhz rams for around 400rm new and sell your older ddr4 rams. (or if you put all 4 in and they work at 3200 Mhz, then you can have 48GB ram)

Is this likely to work? Because 2023/2024 RAM isn't likely going to be on the QVL for a 2016 motherboard, which is what concerns me. I don't mind making a full replacement if I'm guaranteed that this will work in an old setup I don't even mind running everything using slower RAM speeds as long as everything remains stable (let's be honest, the games I can run on this machine won't be anything latest and greatest anyway).

QVL is just what the motherboard maker has bothered to try
just get some new ram and try
if it works great if it doesnt try something else

I would still suggest selling your current 2x8gb 3200 and get say, 2x16gb 3200 if you want to upgrade to 32gb

note, there are many scams/fake ram on laz/shopee these days, do send a link before buying
(tip, kingston sold off the hyperx name, now their ram is called FURY, if you see new hyperx ram it's fake)

as for the ssd
technically you can get by without a heatsink with a gen3 drive but it wont hurt to keep it cool

Thank you all the sifu who have replied thus far. If I do this RAM replacement/addition, I will probably pop down to actual Low Yat with the whole unit and test it onsite. I was just worried about compatibility; if this is less of an issue than I thought, I feel more relieved.

As for SSD cooling, it's really just a boot SSD (my games are on a SATA SSD and everything else is on HDDs) so after the initial imaging from my current SATA M.2 to the new NVMe, the workload should be really minimal. If I can get away without a heatsink without the thing melting or frying or lasting only 2 years instead of 7-8, that's pretty much all I care about.

Am willing to wait for more advice and recommendations, though.

The highest spec proc u can put in is a i7-7700k.

Trust me, 16GB is more than enough, unless u do serious rendering works. How u upgrade the RAM also, the only difference is in benchmark.

A NVME would improve startup time.

like what PRSXFENG mentioned, QVL list is basically the list of rams they bothered to test with said mobo. and usually this list won't be updated when next gen mobo is launched.

3200 Mhz is not that exotic nor fast, so it should work fine.

You have 16GB 3200MHZ RAMS, which is still enough for most use so is there a reason to up the RAM capacity? Your mobo doesnt support higher speeds so faster RAM is moot anyways.

If you do want to upgrade good thing is your current sticks are now regular timings for Corsair basic RAMS, so try to get matched pairs, likely the closest is Corsair Vengence LPX 2x8GB CL16 3200MHZ. Reason why is typically older enthusiast RAMS will get deprecated to basic RAMS segment over the years. XMP might work with all 4x sticks otherwise you may have to drop speeds to 3000MHZ.

For your SSD, that WD is DRAMless, not so good if use as boot drive. Adata SX8200 PRO still better value as it has DRAM. Gen3 not really need heatsink but an aftermarket add on is just RM 10-15 so why not.

Gaming is one thing, I also do a lot of VM testing while additionally running WSL, and the less said about my browser tabs the better. I agree that RAM speed is less of a concern; stability is the primary issue I worry about. I'll see if the Vengeance LPX sticks will work in the mobo; thanks for the recommendation. I do also agree that more RAM is not so important, but my SSD's write life is 0% remaining according to WD Dashboard, so that one I really do have to change out. It annoys me that HWiNFO says it still has 79% life remaining, though.

I bought the WD because of its price at the time, nothing else - it will still be faster than the SATA SSD it replaces. All I want out of this system is another few years before I do a full system refresh. I'm waiting on ASUS to come back to me on whether there will be a new BIOS specifically to deal with LogoFAIL; if not, I might just bite the bullet and buy everything new. At that time, I definitely will go all in with DRAM-cached SSD; possibly 1TB even as a boot drive just for longevity.

I'm an Intel fanboy when it comes to my main machine and AMD for my HTPC/file server, but apparently I should have done it the other way around, because Intel's idle power consumption is better and AMD's X3D gaming performance is off the charts. Oh well. Anyway, if I buy new now, I'll probably go for a last-gen (arguably still current-gen) 13600K/13700K. Possibly an ARC if I can find one. The other GPUs are really priced beyond my liking.

If your in USA, there are ways how to identify the RAM chips used in your current kit and able to search for and buy the exact matching pairs even if its from another Corsair series and if not right can seek to return & refund and search again.

LPX is still your best chance as their performance lineup have moved on to better RAM chips (unless yours happens to be Sammie Bdies)

The worry on DRAMless is VMware might do a lot of disk swapping since your running OS & app from the same SSD. As you can actually max out an SSD lifespan, that should have tens of years, thats a concern. CDInfo might tell you more why your current SSD is 0% cuz it might be other than NAND lifespan.

If your not gonna use for long then its okay and better to replace few years down the line with a DRAM SSD which helps a lot in lifespan.

AMD machine... only if you know how to tinker with settings

Alas, I'm in M'sia so our customer protection laws are, well, they're what they are. I'll just have to bite the bullet and bring the thing down to the shops and test it there if they allow it. My current Corsair RAM is from Samsung, but I haven't a clue beyond that.

According to CrystalDiskInfo, it's the Media Wearout Indicator that's giving the red light warning. Yeah, the WD SSD is a stopgap because after all, my machine is getting on in years. I'll just run it for as long as it will go and then move on. But that's also why I want to have a lot of RAM so running VMs isn't so taxing. In any case the VMs are stored on spinning platters so hopefully any paging in the guest OS happens on the HDD. The VM software itself, well, that's where the extra RAM comes in, or so I hope.

You can mix with value ram at rated speed mean your current RAM will down clock by the system to 2666 as well since the value ram have no xmp profile and value ram rated speed only 2.6k Mhz

You want your configuration like
Example (n) for new and (o) for old for the RAM slot
A1/B1-A2/B2
N / O - N / O
If you configure
NN and OO during memtest mostly bsod the system will force to restart that my personal experience.

you buy different size of same model same brand the timing will have slightly off like 20 vs 18 but the system will workout for you without worrying then 4 RAM stick after wall power turned off next day for first boot will take longer i don't know why probably my RAM have slightly timing off like old RAM cl 18 new RAM cl 20 end up system automatically configure cl 22 for stability i guess? So far i have no issues new mix with old RAM 16gb kit and 32gb kit both 3.2k Mhz

Storage part i have not much comment or worry but some setup got to convert from MBR to GPT for features like direct storage thing mostly there are guide over YouTube without need windows reinstalling if you found out yours isn't GPT

This post has been edited by zuozi: Mar 17 2024, 12:15 PM

You could try using Thaiphoon to get the SPD to confirm the RAM chips. If its sammie Bdies its easier to target but these arent cheap & most Bdie kits have gone way past 3200MHZ.

So for RAM its a risk to take.

As for your SSD it seems the NAND got worn out which is not so common in normal use case but then the manufacturer quoted lifespan also cannot be really trusted. By upgrading, your PC usage might again outstrip your SN570 SSD lifespan so maybe the next time your SSD about to die again this time do total system change. Thats my 2sen.