[gardar]

Hey guys...

I am slowly building a rig with a ga-ex58-ud5 and a 920 i7 and I need a bit of memory advice...

I want to buy 3x1gb ddr3 or 3x2gb ddr3 and I'm wondering what mhz and timings I should be aiming at..

I'm not looking at advices on what brand to get but then I would just get some fanboy replies

I want to be able to clock my system pretty hard, until my cpu or motherboard can't take more... I don't want the ram to stop me.

Would just any 1600mhz be enough, or should I go higher?

 

[MrLinky]

get a 3x2 kit, 3 gigs just doesn't cut it some times. 1600mhz or higher is good if you plan to do some high overclocking, but 1333mhz is sufficient for most. Cas 7 or 8 timings are generally good too.

If you don't plan to do alot of ram overclocking get some cheap g.skills or crucial ballistix... inexpensive and get the job done. If you are into ram oc'ing, some high quality g.skills or corsair ram will get you the best results.

 

[gardar]

On my current setup I just have 3gigs and I have never fully used it... Linux isn't that ram hungry

But yeah the price different isn't that much so I'll probably go for 3x2gb...

I am thinking about overclocking pretty high... Will 1600mhz be enough or will I gain something with 2000mhz?

 

[MrLinky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gardar I am thinking about overclocking pretty high... Will 1600mhz be enough or will I gain something with 2000mhz?

I can underclock my ram (below stock 1600mhz) with a 4.4ghz oc. That said, you can spend the extra for ram rated up to 2200mhz, but most people are just fine with 1600mhz ram.

 

[liberalelephant]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gardar On my current setup I just have 3gigs and I have never fully used it... Linux isn't that ram hungry But yeah the price different isn't that much so I'll probably go for 3x2gb... I am thinking about overclocking pretty high... Will 1600mhz be enough or will I gain something with 2000mhz?

1333MHz is fast enough for anything. RAM speeds are a bit overkill once you pass 1333, but 1600MHz is at a great price point. Since it is barely more expensive than the 1333, go for 1600MHz 6gb kit. Anything over 1600MHz is wasting money if you are looking for cost efficiency.

 

[gardar]

Great, that's a bit of a relief! The price jump is pretty big between 1600mhz and 2000mhz...

What timings should I aim at with the 1600mhz ram?

 

[MrLinky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gardar Great, that's a bit of a relief! The price jump is pretty big between 1600mhz and 2000mhz... What timings should I aim at with the 1600mhz ram?

cas 7 is the best (i dont think any ddr3 2x3 kits come in cas 6), cas 8 is average, and cas 9 and 10 can be thought of as budget timings.

 

[liberalelephant]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrLinky cas 7 is the best (i dont think any ddr3 2x3 kits come in cas 6), cas 8 is average, and cas 9 and 10 can be thought of as budget timings.

You can get CAS 6, but CAS 8 is really just fine unless you are unRARing files all day and need every ounce of RAM speed. I would stay away from CAS 9 or 10 only because they are the same price as CAS 8.

 

[MrLinky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by liberalelephant You can get CAS 6...

yeah, but they're only available for amd mobos (higher voltage tolerance) and dual channel kits for i5/i7 8xx. I could still be wrong, but im not finding anything on newegg or google

 

[liberalelephant]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrLinky yeah, but they're only available for amd mobos (higher voltage tolerance) and dual channel kits for i5/i7 8xx. I could still be wrong, but im not finding anything on newegg or google

I remember they had Mushkin CAS 6 at Newegg for awhile and it was $250/6GB BEFORE the prices went up, so now they would be like $350.

 

[Monst3r]

3x2gb kits is what your after, as for speed and timings i recommond the corsair Dominator GT's, I wouldnt go anything lower then 1600mhz