ASUS K55A
In Reaper, with 8 midi tracks, drum track going to Cakewalk SI Drums and 7 others going to SampleTank 3. I was fishing through samples while looping a short section. All was going fine for a while and then it locked up. Forced shut down was the only way out. The PC restarted in some guest user I haven't seen in a few years. I restarted manually and all is back to normal. But, I wonder if the rapid loading/replacing sample in ST3 cause my RAM to choke out.

I currently have 4GB. Crucial .com says 8 is the max. Around $18 for 2 2GB sticks. Should I go for the max? Is there any particular brand or type of RAM I should install on this laptop? Crucial .com shows 2 compatible sticks of RAM. I've only upgraded RAM on one other computer and that was 10 years ago.
I'm assuming it has 2 2GB stick in it. Do I need to keep them all same brand?
Does adding RAM cause other components to work harder?

ASUS K55A Windows 8.1
Intel Core i5-3230M CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.60 GHz
RAM 4.00 (3.89 GB usable)
64-bit

I tried to do a screenshot of my specs but spent too much time trying to figure it out. Ended up with that puny picture so here's my specs.

You just had to crop that pic, you can use Irfanview it's free, just drag your mouse over the pic then use Ctrl+Y.

If you get you Task manager up, right click Taskbar, go to process and look for Reaper.exe it will show how much ram it's using.

But $18 for 4gig I would just get it.

Tobias, the following are the ram specs for your machine.
The brand of RAM doesn't matter. What are important are the speed, 1600 MHz, and the type, DDR3 SDRAM. There is no need to spend money on faster specs as this is the fastest it will run.

Memory

Max Supported Size 8 GB
Technology DDR3 SDRAM
Speed 1600 MHz
Form Factor SO-DIMM 204-pin
Slots Qty 2
Empty Slots 1

In conclusion buying any brand of DDR3 SDRAM at 1600 MHz will run fine in your machine.

On a side note I had to increase my laptop ram from 4 to 8 gigs because even without using it for music it was a dog with Win 10. 8 gigs is the bare minimum for any 64 bit Windows machine IMHO.

I hope this helps.

One thing to consider; you probably can't 'add' RAM sticks to it (ie buy two more 2 gig sticks).
The physical machine likely has only two RAM slots, so you'd need to buy two 4 gig sticks and replace what is in it currently.

RAM does appear to be the weak point there. If 8 is the max do it.....

rharv is right. There is only one empty slot.
I've narrowed it down to 2 possibilities on Crucial website. I want to be sure I'm getting the correct thing. They both look the same to me but have different item numbers. Both same price $31.99. So, what's the difference.

Can anyone help me choose?

Crucial 4GB DDR3L-1600 SODIMM

CT3315709



• Brand: Crucial
• Form Factor: SODIMM
• Total Capacity: 4GB
• Warranty: Limited Lifetime
• Specs: DDR3 PC3-12800 • CL=11 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1600 • 1.35V •
• Series: Crucial

Or

Crucial 4GB DDR3L-1600 SODIMM

CT3315698



• Brand: Crucial
• Form Factor: SODIMM
• Total Capacity: 4GB
• Warranty: Limited Lifetime
• Specs: DDR3 PC3-12800 • CL=11 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1600 • 1.35V •
• Series: Crucial

Aren't those specs identical?

Yes, So, get either one???
I was also wondering if I need to get 2 matching sticks. Or, will the add-on be compatible with the factory one?

I know unmatched brand RAM sticks should work if they have the same specs, and regularly do, but I've also had experiences where they don't. Likewise some of the columns in PC tech magazines over the decades recommend getting matched RAM.

My rule of thumb is to always get matching RAM sticks. That would eliminate the matching problem that Matt has stated. I also have seen different RAM sticks with the same specs cause problems, even if the sticks came from the same manufacturer.
YMMV.

Is there a difference between 2.6GHz and 1.6GHz. All I can find are 1.6GHz sticks. Mine is currently at 2.6GHz and I assume that matches something in the motherboard. If I add a 4 GB stick that runs at 1.6GHz does that cause a problem? I don't know enough to do anything with the BIOS. And, I don't want to have problems I can't figure out without hiring somebody.
I've attempted to contact ASUS with this question but I have to do it through their website and enter my serial number but it does not accept my serial number.

It's been years, but the last time I needed memory the vendor's site had a way to look up the motherboard and tell me what to order. I normally buy Crucial or Kingston RAM.

Sorry I thought you had a PC but it's a Laptop.

According to the ASUS site your K55A takes 1.6 MHz RAM. see here:

https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/K55A/specifications/

{EDIT} - Note that it is MHz and not GHz.

I think you are confusing CPU speed (2.4 gHz) with RAM speed (1.6 gHz or 1600 mHz).

Though they are both on the motherboard, the CPU and RAM are entirely different things (though they work as a team a lot).
A given motherboard can often use multiple RAM speeds and the manual usually shows you the range.
If you want ultimate performance, the fastest RAM your motherboard can support would be the optimal choice. However, it's one of those things you can pay a lot more for and get no real noticeable ROI in every day use. (Note that you also need other supporting things to even really use these higher speeds efficiently, like Cas Latency)
FWIW, I think 1600 is the top RAM frequency for the board on this machine also. I think I opted for slower RAM and more of it, but again make sure your total expected number of RAM sticks physically fits into the computer.

If RAM is indeed an issue you'll likely see much more performance increase by simply doubling it (even at the same speed), than if you doubled it and then added the faster RAM aspect.. the faster RAM difference would likely be negligible.

I would of had that ram in by now !

Been busy with other projects for a while. I ordered through Crucial website. 2 stick of 4GB installed about a week ago and system is working great. I can now reopen my Reaper projects with multiple VSTi's going on and it runs stable. Doesn't seem any faster as far as I can tell but at least I can run a lot of stuff at once. The real problem I had was; I could have SampleTank running and add synth tracks one by one and it would run fine. Then I saved the project. Upon reopening it tried to load the whole project including each and every SampleTank synth track all at once. That's where it choked. Problem is; there is no clear warning that I have exceeded my RAMs ability to open a project if I where to save and close it in that exceeded state. So, If I max it out again with having 8GB RAM I'll be stuck and unable to reopen a project.
Maybe it would be wise to convert a few keeper ST3 tracks to Audio/WAV to reduce the re-opening load on RAM.

Thanks for the help everyone.