21 replies to this topic

[Shahadet]

Hey guys!

So - I'm finishing up my order and want to send it in tonight, but I'm still confused about RAM, how it works with the different speeds (1600, 1866, 2400(OC), etc), and what I should get.

So - assuming I will want to start with a stock system, and then overclock (and watercool) in the future as part of my upgrade path, AND assuming the $30 difference in price doesn't currently matter to me, THEN, which RAM should I consider getting to use with an Asrock Performance z77 board?

Mobo: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157298

RAM option #1: (1866 Patriot 16 GB)

http://www.newegg.co...-20220694-L012D


RAM option #2 (1600 G.Skill 16 GB)

http://www.newegg.co...-20231568-L011D


(And YES - I realize that I only need 8GB for a gaming rig. That's not the question, since this rig will be more than just gaming. The question is - Which of these RAM options would you choose, if Overclocking is in your future, but not for at least 24-36 months?)

Thanks!

[Aznpersuasion89]

16gb isnt necessary.....lol. why the heck do you need 16gb? id go with 8gb and use your savings for a nice dinner. im limited in knowledge but believe that a given CPU must be compatible with certain ram clock speed. also as far as noticing a difference i believe will be almost nothing to a mere human. looks like super high awesome ram speeds are mainly used for people who benchmark their machines. i have these and the work mega super awesome http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820103006

[Vulpesveritas]

you're looking at slightly faster, USA made RAM for $30 more (slightly faster entails less than half a quarter frame per second in games.) for the basic comparison.

[Grey Weasel]

Aznpersuasion89, on 14 August 2012 - 05:00 PM, said:

16gb isnt necessary.....lol. why the heck do you need 16gb? id go with 8gb and use your savings for a nice dinner. im limited in knowledge but believe that a given CPU must be compatible with certain ram clock speed. also as far as noticing a difference i believe will be almost nothing to a mere human. looks like super high awesome ram speeds are mainly used for people who benchmark their machines. i have these and the work mega super awesome http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820103006

CAD, for instance. Then again, a good 6GB video card would be better for that if you want to shell out $4 grand.

[Shahadet]

Vulpesveritas, on 14 August 2012 - 05:11 PM, said:

you're looking at slightly faster, USA made RAM for $30 more (slightly faster entails less than half a quarter frame per second in games.) for the basic comparison.

Okay - but is 1866 a better speed to have for future overclocking than 1600?

[BFett]

If you really want to choose between the two cards you posted I suggest the G.SKILL because it has lower CAS Latency, which you can read about here.

[JFlash49]

the hell? the game just needs 4 minimum 8 is recommended. no need for 16 :\

[Aznpersuasion89]

Grey Weasel, on 14 August 2012 - 05:17 PM, said:

CAD, for instance. Then again, a good 6GB video card would be better for that if you want to shell out $4 grand.

thats what i figured, just wondering.

[Blaze32]

Aznpersuasion89, on 14 August 2012 - 05:00 PM, said:

16gb isnt necessary.....lol. why the heck do you need 16gb? id go with 8gb and use your savings for a nice dinner. im limited in knowledge but believe that a given CPU must be compatible with certain ram clock speed. also as far as noticing a difference i believe will be almost nothing to a mere human. looks like super high awesome ram speeds are mainly used for people who benchmark their machines. i have these and the work mega super awesome http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820103006

im going 12 GB and you would use it for 3D modeling such as Autocad which the minimum amount of ram is 8 to run it and it sucks at 8GB of ram

Edited by Blaze32, 14 August 2012 - 06:13 PM.

[Vulpesveritas]

Blaze32, on 14 August 2012 - 06:12 PM, said:

im going 12 GB and you would use it for 3D modeling such as Autocad which the minimum amount of ram is 8 to run it and it sucks at 8GB of ram

Don't use 12 GB of RAM unless you're running LGA 1366.

[Vulpesveritas]

Shahadet, on 14 August 2012 - 05:30 PM, said:

Okay - but is 1866 a better speed to have for future overclocking than 1600?

Depends on the RAM itself. As a generalization, lower voltage RAM tends to overclock better as you have more voltage overhead for your overclocking.

[Shivus]

If you're overclocking an intel K chip then the 1600 will be fine.

If you're trying to squeeze an extra 100-200 mhz out of a non K chip or overclocking bulldozer then the 1866 will offer more flexibility.

[Dymitry]

Why would you want to overclock ram, anyway? From a performance standpoint is next to useless.

[Dymitry]

Anyway, to answer you question, have a look on OC websites, one of the most overclockable ram module was some cheap samsung 1600 that could be pushed to the likes of 2.4 ghz, if I remember correctly.
Personally I would get some Amd performance edition 1600. It goes for the price of that g.skill but its patriot, has a much better heat spreader and looks better.

[Randall Flagg]

get 8 gigs (2x4) of option B and call it a day.

[Draxa]

as someone who has built many systems, and used several brands of ram, I would go for the Gskill. I have never, ever had a single problem with it.
Patriot is good, but I have run into one bad stick, and another stick that would not run at rated speed, but would run at a lower speed.

also, intel CPUs aren't real sensative about ram speed, anything past ddr3 1300 is not going to make much difference. However, latency will make a small difference, lower latency is better. again, the Gskill wins.
Just my 2 cents anyway

[xxx WreckinBallRaj xxx]

You're failing to mention the CPU, which is important here. That board can indeed slot both types, but they will only run as fast as the CPU can use them. The CPU is what processing the RAM, not your motherboard. In other words, if the CPU with that board is only optimized for 1600mhz RAM, then any RAM faster than that will simply be downclocked to 1600mhz. You shouldn't spend more for excess that you are going to waste due to a CPU bottleneck. The memory listed with the board is just a compatibility listing. The memory listed with CPU is how fast you can actually run it pre-overclocking. The board may be over 2k but if the CPU only runs memory at 1k then guess what; your 2800 or so RAM is running at 1k. If you want high end RAM speed you need a high end CPU to actually run them at that speed; and you didn't mention your processor here. We can't select one for you without knowing your CPU too.

I for instance am going to buy:
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819116501
Notice this:
"Integrated Memory Controller Speed
Dual-channel DDR3 Memory Controller supports DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1600 memory"
This means that if I slot RAM above 1600 the CPU will downclock it to 1600 anyway; because that is how fast it can read/write RAM at 100%. Thus I am going to couple it with:
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231416
1600 RAM. Any faster than this is wasted excess with this CPU. If I went with faster RAM I'd just be paying more for speed capacity that my CPU isn't going to take advantage of. It'd make more sense to just slot more of these instead for space capacity.(Which I will later do by adding 2 more for 16gbs)

[xxx WreckinBallRaj xxx]

Blaze32, on 14 August 2012 - 06:12 PM, said:

im going 12 GB and you would use it for 3D modeling such as Autocad which the minimum amount of ram is 8 to run it and it sucks at 8GB of ram

The issue with having 12 GB off of 2 slots is that you'll have to slot dual 2s to hit 16 because your max is probably 16.

Shahadet, on 14 August 2012 - 05:30 PM, said:

Okay - but is 1866 a better speed to have for future overclocking than 1600?

Technically a faster stock speed would mean you don't need to overclock; but if your CPU isn't up to 1866 memory controller speed then you'd have to overclock the RAM, even if its listed as 1866; just to get it up to 1866. But the downgraded 1866 would likely OC up to 1866 better than the 1600 since the RAM was designed for 1866 anyway. It would basically just be an OC on the CPU where as with a 1600->1866 it would be an OC on both.

[Hexcaliber]

Despite posts to the contrary, you can make use of 16 Meg or more, my own PC has 32 and often that's not enough for image rendering, simple people forget the PC is used for a great deal more than playing games on.

While this game will not make use of that much memory, you can utilise it in other ways, such as creating a ram disk and loading all of mech warrior into it, which would give you instantaneous transitions into maps and different screens. The extra memory can also help if you stream, if that's something you are into, or for creating virtual work spaces running another OS simultaneously.

Nor do we know what may be just around the corner, in the hunt for ever more realistic game environments games are getting larger, currently one of the limiting factors in image quality is the amount of ram and graphics card memory in the average gaming system.

Further the post that claims "entails less than half a quarter frame per second" is just horseshit, and pulling an arbitrary figure out of thin air, if I knock my memory timing back from 2600 to 2400 I get a considerable frame rate drop in many games, systems that notice little difference are cpu limited.

In addition, the faster ram allows a higher ceiling if and when you get to the point you want to overclock. As already pointed out, to use higher end ram to its quoted clock speed's most systems require an overclock, I cant say I am familiar with Asrock mobo's at all, but I currently use and Asus p8z77-v where I can overclock the memory timings separately.

As with most things pc, faster is always better, but do not look for the fastest clock speed at the expense of CAS timings, there, lower is better, try and balance clock speed and CAS timing within your budget.

Edited by Hexcaliber, 15 August 2012 - 04:05 AM.

[Shahadet]

Many thanks to all your help gents, particularly Bluten and Hexcalibur - very good stuff to know!

I ended up going with the G.Skill, and (to answer Bluten's query), it is being coupled with an i5-3570K, which has the same kind of memory controller as the i7 he is using: 1333 and 1600 is supported. So the 1866 would have been wasted money.

So it all worked out - and I may just grab more of these G.Skill sticks while they are on sale, for many of the reasons that Hexcalibur points out (RAM disk, streaming, image rendering, etc).

Thanks again!