In this video, part of our “Back to Basics” series I’m going to show you how to install DDR4 in your
motherboard and then not only how to install it but then how to configure it so let's get started
now the motherboard that I’ll be using for this example is the Asus ROG STRIX b550-F
Gaming Wi-Fi motherboard it's basically going to be the same for any DDR4 motherboard there
will be some differences but I’ll go over that in one second so first off.
these are our DIMM slots DIMM standing for dual inline memory module so you'll notice there is
DIMM B1 DIMM B2 DIMM A1 and DIMM A2, so B1, B2, A1, A2, B2, and A2 they're essentially one
and then B1 and A1 they're essentially one what I mean by that is when you buy memory
modules typically they're going to come in a set of two though sometimes they'll come
in a single one but in the case of two you're going to be installing them in B2 and A2 so
first off what we're going to want to do is unlock the memory so to unlock we'll just go ahead and
push this out and then that's B2 and then this is A2 so now we've just unlocked the
DIMM slot some will also have it on this left side but on this particular motherboard it just
slides in so you'll notice there's a little line right over here on the motherboard that
goes ahead and coincides with the little notch on the memory module with that little line
if you were to drop in a stick of RAM incorrectly you'll notice the lines right over here but
the line on the motherboard is right over here that's not going to allow the RAM to sit properly
so the RAM is not going to go all the way in it's going to see-saw there whatever you do,
do not force it in you'll break that and you might end up breaking a little bit more so
turning lifting this out and turning it around we can go ahead and line the RAM in place here.
And then we can just go ahead and push down which will go ahead and
lock this in place automatically that went ahead and locked in locking the memory in place.
That locks right in here again I’ll go ahead and just drop it right in here.
And now we'll go ahead and do the same with this module right over here and I’ll slide it over a
little bit so you can see it coming from over here I’m sliding it right in the little notch
right over here first off right in here and then dropping it in the notch right over here.
And just pushing down and that goes ahead locks it over here and then it locks it over here
as well be very careful when you install RAM that you don't push so hard that you actually end up
slamming the memory forward or backwards potentially damaging the DIMM slots
right along here this is for two modules now there are times when you only buy one module
for that you would install the RAM in slot B2 right over here where we installed it in before.
And we'll just go ahead and lock this one not that we need to but
it just makes it look a little bit nicer and we'll go ahead and take this one out.
Now there are times when you'll be buying.
Four sticks of RAM one would think you just dropped them all in one two three four and
you're good to go you have to make sure like we did before on B2 and A2 that you have the matching
sets all together for example you'll notice right under here and it's going to be different
on every single memory module but for example on the G-Skill Trident Z NEO for example right
down here in very tiny font we'll see ending in 295 that's actually the date and lot code now
grabbing another random module we'll see right up here this ends in 294 we got lucky on these,
these are matching but for example if we have 294 over here and then we have 296 right over
here these may not work together they're typically programmed together in a set of two or if you're
buying a complete kit all in a set of four if you already have a kit of two and later
on you're going to buy another kit of two and then you're going to build your machine you have to be
incredibly careful that you match up the different types of memory so for example like I showed you
we installed the memory in B2 and A2 so what you're going to do here is you're going to grab
294 and then 293 put these two this one on B2 and this one on A2 and then you're going to grab 296
and 295 and install this one on B1 and this one on A1 that way you have these two on one channel.
And these two on another channel now some of you may already have four modules working together
even though they may not be on the same bank and chances are they will work but there are
occasional chances that they won't work and they will work better once you match it up the way I
mentioned here also on top of that they're going to work much better once you tighten the timings
enable XMP and do different things like that so once you're playing with XMP settings and
tightening times you're going to want to make sure that everything is perfect now you're
asking what is XMP and what are timings well for that I need to bring you over to a machine
so let's go over there real quick you'll be able to get into the bias by hitting the delete
key F2 whatever your motherboard requires to get into the bios then we'll come into
advanced mode then we'll go to ai tweaker and mind you it'll be different in every single motherboard
but for example you're going to want to make sure that your RAM supports XMP profiles XMP
profiles are great because they automatically set everything for you so for example under ai
overclock tuner this is an Asus board we'll click auto here and then we can select XMP1 extreme
memory profile one or extreme memory profile two we'll select one over here and you'll notice when
we did that it automatically set XMP to XMP DDR4 3603 megahertz running at a cast latency of 16 19
39-1 so the lower the latency the faster the RAM and then if we go over here to ai overclock tuner
click on that XMP we'll go to two many times it'll have a completely different
XMP profile maybe a little bit faster or maybe a little bit slower so we'll go back
under one over here one we selected XMP profile number one we'll go down over here
and we'll go down under dram timing control we'll notice it set the cast latency to 16 the rest to
cast latency to 19 the raspberry time to 19 and the rest at time to 39 now the one that we saw
the dash one would be the command rate we can put that to one end here but we can also leave it to
auto as well because it's auto set to the XMP profile and this goes ahead and sets everything
for you XMP is going to be just about on every motherboard the original board I showed you was an
AMD chipset for an Asus board on this particular board it's an intel chipset in this bios it's
called XMP on the Asus AMD board it's called DOCP direct overclocking profile now aside from that
they're the same we can go ahead hit F10 to save and exit and then easily enough we'll be back
into windows in a matter of seconds of course depending how your system is set up but since this
is a brand new board chances are you have to reinstall windows or install windows
now unfortunately it's not always this perfect sometimes you'll have either faster or slower RAM
and you have a perfect XMP profile set or you have your timing set and maybe the RAM dies
something happens and you have to replace the RAM but the RAM that you bought has different timings
and you have to adjust things in order to get that to work you're going to have to do a little
surgery it's not horrible so first off if it's not already off go ahead and shut it off real quick
every single motherboard has a CMOS battery on this particular board it's right over here and
I’ll show you on the other motherboard in a second so that you get a better idea the location of the
CMOS battery of course depends on the model of the motherboard so what I’m going to do is on
the power supply flick the power switch off so now I’m going to go ahead and remove this CMOS battery
okay I just pulled it out I used my nail and just kind of pulled it out
of there now I’m going to give it about 30 seconds 30 seconds with the CMOS battery
outside of the system and no power going to the system erases the BIOS now afterwards we have
to go back into the bios and reset everything I’m doing this in the event that we pop in the memory
and the system doesn't post okay what this will do it'll set everything back to factory defaults
so that we can go in and actually enable the DOCP or XMP and then of course we'll
have to go back in and set all the settings so I’m going to go ahead and put this back in
Now I’m going to turn the system back on.
So now we see on the screen please enter setup to recover BIOS settings because we've just erased
everything so now we'll hit F1 to run setup which means go into the BIOS now again we'll go back to
F7 advanced mode we'll go into exit and load optimize defaults and then we'll go ahead and
set all the settings but the main setting we're going to set now is ai overclock tuner XMP profile
which again enables everything and sets everything automatically for us for the memory timing and
the frequency and let me just set up the, the rest of everything real quick to save and exit.
And as it occurred before the system turns off because we've made so many changes in the bios
now that we're in the operating system we can right click on the start button go to task manager
we'll go to performance and then we'll click on memory and then here we can see the speed of
our RAM slots used 204 form factor DIMM mind you we can use a bunch of different programs to see
all of this but this is built right into windows and lets us see everything so in this video we've
gone over how to install your new RAM be it one module two modules or four modules then one thing
incredibly important is also how to match them up by date and lot codes that way you make sure
not only that you get your RAM working but you get your RAM working perfectly then after we've
physically installed it we went into the bios and then manually set it to XMP that way we don't have
to worry about setting manual cast rash trash and command settings it all automatically set to force
voltages as well but of course if you wanted to you can always do that manually I showed you the
easy way with XMP or DOCP but after that that's all on you so I hope I’ve helped you in on that
now during this video we did talk a little bit about loading into windows and everything and if
you have any issues on that on the video right up here I showed you how to install a brand new SSD
and then how to install Windows 10 onto it Windows 11 will be just totally the same
hopefully I’ve been able to help you and if you have any questions comments or concerns
please do leave them down below I answer all questions Iggy with ThisBytesForYou out, see you.