Mixing RAM brands works more often than not.

Yes, but it’s not guaranteed. 16GB + 16GB from different brands (Corsair and G.Skill) will probably work fine if they share the same specs: DDR4 vs. DDR5, speed (e.g., 3200MHz), timings (CL16-18-18-38), and voltage (1.35V). But “probably” is doing a lot of work.

The real issue isn’t the brand sticker — it’s the underlying memory chips. Two sticks from different brands might use chips from different manufacturers (Samsung, Micron, Hynix). The memory controller on your CPU can get confused when timings don’t match perfectly, even if the specs say the same numbers. That can cause crashes, blue screens, or just not booting.

If you already have both sticks, try them. Pop them in, run MemTest86 for a few hours (or at least a full pass). If it passes, congrats. If it doesn’t, you’re better off buying a matched kit than troubleshooting intermittent failures for the next year. Matched kits are tested together for a reason.

Future You hates random reboots more than you hate spending $60 on a new kit.