Ram stick combination

Question

Hi, so I have a (2x4gig) ram configuration on my vostro 14. Was wondering if I could remove 1 and replace with an 8gig of same configuration making it 12gigs (slot 1 8gig , slot 2 4gig)

Would it boost my performance or crash my PC?

U2CAMEB4ME · Accepted Answer

Welcome to the Dell Community @Kelvinyoungluv

12GB is supported on your laptop.

Configurations supported

4 GB DDR4 at 2666 MHz / 3200 Mhz (1x4 GB)
8 GB DDR4 at 2666 MHz / 3200 Mhz (2 x 4 GB)
8 GB DDR4 at 2666 MHz / 3200 Mhz (1 x 8 GB)
12 GB DDR4 at 2666 MHz / 3200 Mhz (1 x 8 GB + 1 x 4 GB)
16 GB DDR4 at 2666 MHz / 3200 Mhz (1 x 16 GB)
16 GB DDR4 at 2666 MHz / 3200 Mhz (2 x 8 GB)

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/vostro-14-3400-laptop/vostro_3400_setup_specs/memory?guid=guid-d56522c0-055f-4af4-acd6-be06b36d77ec&lang=en-us

And NO you will not lose Dual Channel completely.

The first 4GB of the 8GB SIMM will work in Dual Channel mode with the single 4GB SIMM

The rest of the 8GB SIMM will run in Single Channel mode.

Best regards,

U2

NOTE: Dell's BIOS may refer to Dual Channel as Dual Interleave.

Kelvinyoungluv · Answer

Dell vostro 14 3400 11th gen core i5

JOcean · Answer

If you post the exact model number of your system it will be possible to look up the specs. In general though with 12 GB of RAM you would not have dual channel on all 12 GB only on 8 GB of the total RAM. The more practical solution, if you want to improve performance, would be a kit of 2 x 8 GB for a total of 16 GB.

StardustOne · Answer

Best advise, never ever mix RAM module sizes, you will lose dual channel mode completely. Also if you can afford it, do not mix and match RAM modules, always either install the exact same model that came with your notebook or replace both RAM modules with a kit of 2 RAM modules from a reliable vendor.

If you now have 4GB RAM installed, remove this RAM and get 2 x 8GB if you want to have 16 GB of RAM, it is way better than only having added an additonal 8GB RAM module for a total of 12.

You need to look at this from this aspect, you probably would only open your notebook once, so since it is already open, replace the pre-installed RAM and keep it in case you need to service your notebook (this is what I did, I did remove the pre-installed RAM, and kept it stored with the original box, in case I need to send my notebook in, I will re-install the factory RAM module, because you never know what happens to the RAM you installed on your own if you send the notebook in for repairs).

Vostro

Ram stick combination

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