Originally Posted by
Kleer Kut
I'm going to have to disagree with two of these three sentences. DDR3 1600 is plug and play for all of the systems I have used it on, none of which are capable of using it at full speed. It works on my Haswell Celeron, works on my Core2Duo, works on a J1900. No errors, no reboots, just stock timings at the slower speed which was max for the system. The cost difference is minimal to none, quite often that the 1333 can cost MORE since it isn't the most popular RAM anymore. Yes, you can compare a single sale at a single place vs a full retail price in a specfic instance, but that would be the exception.
I
DO agree that getting faster RAM means you may need to adjust settings. Actually I wouldn't use the word need. I would say want. If you want optimum performance, then you go through the RAM timings and tighten them up. Takes a few minutes of your life which you will easily get back over the lifetime of a typical stick of RAM, as the system will respond much faster with a latency of 6 or 7 vs the typical 9-11 of many other sticks. If these are simply placeholders until new gear arrives, then maybe it isn;t worth the time to optimize unit the new gear shows up. But I would do it.
It has been a solid decade since I have built a computer for myself that I replaced every single component at once. Last year they released the G1850 Celeron and I bought it the next day. It was cheaper than the rest of the lineup, and cost me $44 shipped plus $55 shipped for the mobo. Stole a stick of RAM from the C2D, old case/PSU/HDD and I was in business for hardly $100. The other stick of RAM in the C2D crapped out on me several months later, so I upgraded to a faster stick for the new PC, and slid the old stick back to the C2D. I got about 4 years out of the old stick so I can hardly complain about it (I didn't pay for the old stick either, it was given to me in exchange for building a computer for a friend). I
would question the idea of upgrading today, just to buy new stuff 6 months down the line. Especially with Skylake around the corner, as far as I know using DDR4 exclusively. But if the OP already has an upgrade path lined up using DDR3, and can buy the RAM today to get a little more out of his current rig, then I see no reason not to do it.