PC builder creates leaning tower of RAM, somehow PC mostly still boots

A picture of many RAM risers installed on a PC.

(Image credit: mryeester)

Ever wondered how many RAM risers you could add to a PC and have it still operate? Didn't even know there was such a thing as a RAM riser until now? The answer to the first question, according to one PC builder's tests, is five. And the answer to the second question is yes, there are. Why you'd want to increase the height of your RAM is another thing entirely, but they do in fact exist.

Experimental PC builder mryeester is who we can thank for this newfound knowledge. They used what appears to be DDR4 memory test protection risers in series to create a wall of RAM from the system.

@mryeester
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Despite loading a total of five RAM risers into their system, it still booted. Apparently there was some difficulty in getting it to boot but generally the system still functioned as intended.

Six risers was one too many, however. The system refused to boot, and that's going to be down to the signal loss from adding in so many needless circuits.

If you want further information, in case you're seriously thinking of doing this (you do you), mryeester has also uploaded a video to YouTube with more information on how the RAM performs with all that extra height. Unsurprisingly, the results suggest the more you add, the worst the RAM performs. Though perhaps it's surprising that there's not a major loss in performance as a result of stacking risers up to the heavens.

Until it doesn't boot at all, that is.

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog, before graduating into breaking things professionally at PCGamesN. Now he's managing editor of the hardware team at PC Gamer, and you'll usually find him testing the latest components or building a gaming PC.