[yamo]

Well I've been seeing a lot of deals on ram the past few days, and was also going to move the current sticks i have into another build for a friend. I got a new mobo C4F and was wondering what kinda sticks i should get, I know its probably been asked way to much, but as i keep reading posts about it i get more confused lol.

I know that AMD likes tighter timings, and I know that being picky with ram will only gain around 4% boost, but this is ocn right? even its its +1% its still important to me haha, however i am on a budget and all recommendations will be considered.

So im mainly concerned with if i should go 4 or 8, everyone says 4 is good enough for gaming, but i also multitask as in listen to music, surf the web etc, (some guy said he used up to 3.9gb doing this) not really doing any video encoding tho.

So where im confused...
I alt tab a lot will more ram help with the speed of this? (takes me like 8sec to tab from TF2 to desktop)
Does ram affect my overclocking capabilities on the cpu?
2 sticks or 4 sticks better?

 

[justarealguy]

I always go with less sticks of RAM because it allows for an upgrade in the future. I can't comment on it but one would assume it's a bit harder on the memory controller running more sticks which can hinder overclocking.

4GB is the minimum for enthusiast gaming (imo) and 8 is generally perceived as overkill. However, if you run VMs (like I do) you definitely want the RAM.

It really is hard to say. You have 4GB at the moment according to your sig, is it enough for you? Are you capping (or near the cap) in applications?

 

[xd_1771]

The likelihood is you'll never need more than 8GB of RAM
Which means a good 2x2GB kit will leave you room to upgrade in the case that you need to
Without any video encoding/RAM intensive work I say you're fine with 4GB, just don't have too much running in the background.

There are decent 1600Mhz 2x2GB kits in the $30-45 range, or you could snap on a good 2x4GB deal as they go for $75 nowadays for 1600Mhz kits.

 

[yamo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by justarealguy It really is hard to say. You have 4GB at the moment according to your sig, is it enough for you? Are you capping (or near the cap) in applications?

I'm not sure if its good enough, I'm using 2GB right now, with TF2 in the background and surfing the web. Not really sure what to use while monitoring my system other than just the task manager. Then it bumps up a little when playing TF2 maybe to ~2.5.

I'm more interested in finding out if more ram will lead to faster alt tab times and faster loading times, like waiting for a map in SCII or Crysis to load. Because I have a 5870 my friend has a 260... we either load the same or he loads faster ***... thats all i gota say and I'll pretty much say everything in my sig rig is better than his

 

[justarealguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by yamo I'm not sure if its good enough, I'm using 2GB right now, with TF2 in the background and surfing the web. Not really sure what to use while monitoring my system other than just the task manager. Then it bumps up a little when playing TF2 maybe to ~2.5. I'm more interested in finding out if more ram will lead to faster alt tab times and faster loading times, like waiting for a map in SCII or Crysis to load. Because I have a 5870 my friend has a 260... we either load the same or he loads faster ***... thats all i gota say and I'll pretty much say everything in my sig rig is better than his

I'd be more than happy to time how long TF2 loads/closes but it's not just the RAM at work there. You've got HDD access too

 

[yamo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by justarealguy I'd be more than happy to time how long TF2 loads/closes but it's not just the RAM at work there. You've got HDD access too

Hahahaha good point... I wonder if it has anything to do with my steam being on the WD drive and not my SSD... the only thing on the SSD right is W7, and thats cuz it failed on me a few months ago... could that be why I have such iffy alt tabs

 

[xd_1771]

Your SSD failed a few months ago? Or what do you mean by "failed on me a few months ago"

 

[yamo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xd_1771 Your SSD failed a few months ago? Or what do you mean by "failed on me a few months ago"

failed a few months ago and had to rma it, so now i don't write anything to it except the os in fear of it doing the same thing

wish i bought the vertex 2 but i got this on sale for like 70 bucks last year.

 

[xd_1771]

Go nuts, or give me that 60GB and just buy a 30GB or something instead

Just keep backups of your program data

 

[yamo]

Haha, well i think ill still keep this thing around untill the warranty is dead, by then ssd's should be better. I'm probably gona go with the 8GB since I sorta wana see the difference in my every day use, and if I don't like em I guess Ill sell them, I was thinking about picking up those snipers, since im on a budget, or should i get 4GB ECOS instead?

edit: also just saw these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231402

1333 7-7-7-21, and hopefully can tighten those timings, what do u guys think? snipers, these, or should i stay with 4GB and get ECOs or Ballistix tracers with blue leds lol.

 

[xd_1771]

Those would be a fairly good 2x4GB choice I guess especially for the price
You could probably just run 4 DIMMs of 1600Mhz ECOs (giving you 8GB then) just fine on that processor as long as it is a C3 revision

 

[yamo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xd_1771 Those would be a fairly good 2x4GB choice I guess especially for the price You could probably just run 4 DIMMs of 1600Mhz ECOs (giving you 8GB then) just fine on that processor as long as it is a C3 revision

Yeah it is a C3, but if i buy the ECOs I won't be able to buy all four sticks I'd just have to settle for 2x2gb, and I wouldn't mind. I heard running 4 would affect some OCing capabilities tho, I wanted to run them at 6-8-6 timings.

 

[xd_1771]

ohh, I see. Running 4 at 1600mhz on a C3 should be fine, it's higher than that where it starts to get finicky.