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I have the H110M motherboard with 2 4gb sticks of RAM, the motherboard has 2 memory sockets and I wanna increase my memory.

Should I buy a new motherboard with 4 sockets and then 2 8gb ram sticks, or just buy a 16gb stick and remain with the current motherboard?

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  • It may be hard to even find a new LGA1151 motherboard these days. The 4th gen Intel CPUs have been discontinued for a couple years by now, and only specific models of motherboards will continue to be stocked. When upgrading RAM, if you are worried about performance it is good to ensure that all of the RAM is the same model/size/speed. Mismatching RAM will disable dual-channel and use settings from the slower of the two sticks.
    – Romen
    Commented Sep 19, 2019 at 15:57
  • @Romen LGA1151 is the most common Intel socket nowadays. The socket has been used across multiple generations, starting with Skylake (6th gen) and continuing through the current 9th gen Coffee Lake Refresh. Gustavo's H110m is not a 4th gen motherboard, but instead a 6th/7th gen motherboard. It is still possible to find these used locally or online, albeit not the easiest. Everything you wrote about RAM is correct though.
    – Evan
    Commented Jan 29, 2020 at 14:13
  • @Evan, I mistook 1151 as the Haswell/Broadwell socket. (1150). It's too late to make a correction to that comment, but that's where it was coming from.
    – Romen
    Commented Jan 29, 2020 at 14:52

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I would recommend purchasing a kit of 2x8GB DDR4 RAM (2133mhz or 2400mhz), replacing your existing RAM entirely. If you wanted to go to 32GB, you could purchase a kit of 2x16GB DDR4 RAM as well, although 16GB is more than enough for the typical user. Then just sell your existing RAM kit (2x4GB) locally, online, or save them for another system. The 2x8GB kit should run around $50-60, and then you can sell your existing kit to help offset the cost. The H110m is a 6th/7th gen Intel-compatible motherboard (1151 socket). They are not the easiest to come by, although I have personally purchased three in the last two years. Due to the current low availability of these boards, the cheap cost of RAM, and the wide-availability of RAM, I would recommend purchasing a kit of RAM over a new board, and call it a day.

Good brands for RAM: G.Skill, Corsair, Crucial, HyperX

Here is an example: https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-2400MHz-Desktop-Memory/dp/B017NW5NZY/

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  • I agree with @Evan. If this is a gaming PC, I would substitute the RAM speed to 2800MHz or up, but keep the storage size. (Am I wrong for saying storage size on a memory stick?)
    – Trevor Hummer
    Commented Jan 28, 2020 at 17:16
  • @TrevorHummer The H110m board supports a max speed of 2400mhz for RAM. Gustavo could purchase faster RAM, but it would just clock down to 2400mhz, or in some cases, just not work. And I would just say size when referring to how many GB or MBs a RAM stick contains. You could say capacity too, but I just stick with size.
    – Evan
    Commented Jan 28, 2020 at 18:47
  • okay, I new storage size wasn't right. I thought the H110m went up higher, but I am probably wrong, as I'm looking to buy a Z390 chipset board.
    – Trevor Hummer
    Commented Jan 29, 2020 at 20:04
  • Forgot to respond, but I did what you said Evan, I bought 2x8GB and sold my 2x4GB, thanks anyway :)
    – Gustavo Gabriel
    Commented Jan 29, 2020 at 21:40
  • Glad it all worked out! Enjoy my friend :)
    – Evan
    Commented Jan 30, 2020 at 14:16
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Check the specs of your current motherboard and if it has dual channel memory then buy 2 x 8gb (or even 2 x 16gb) identical sticks for it and discard the 4gb ones. Still cheaper than buying a new board and new memory. Check the Gigabyte website for compatible memory for this board.

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consumer grade LGA1151 motherboards are basically all limited to 16gb DIMM's. And memory is DDR = dual data rate == dual channel. So you always want two DIMM's installed. Will just one DIMM work, I'm not sure but it will definitely perform slower if it does than having two DIMM's based on how DDR works.

the H series vs the Z series, either can only use up to 16gb size DIMM's. The H series having only two DIMM slots maxes out at 32GB of RAM, whereas the Z series having four DIMM slots maxes out at 64gb RAM. So that will basically be your driving factor, if you don't need more than 32gb ram then H series would suffice. But also check out on the features included in the Z series which you may want.

for something like a high end Z390 motherboard, you will still see limited to maximum 64gb memory. But they have 4 dimm slots, if you can do 2x32gb ram and leave 2 dimms empty I don't know, check with manufacturer.

so... for 16gb DDR4 288-pin desktop memory dimms

32gb ram = $110

64gb ram = $220

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  • There are a few false claims in this answer. 1) Dual Data Rate (aka DDR) is not the same thing as Dual Channel. 2) The performance difference between dual-channel and single-channel RAM configurations is negligible for most users. 3) Almost every motherboard will work with just one DIMM installed. Problems only arise when the single DIMM is installed in the wrong socket.
    – Romen
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 21:11

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