1600 vs 1833 vs 2133 MHz memory

[gam0reily]

hey folks!
i was looking for a good RAM for my projected build.
It will be mostly used for gaming, file transferring, watching and converting videos.

So what RAM should I take??

1600 MHz or 1866 MHz or 2133 MHz ??

I didn't see much noticeable difference between the three in tom's benchmarks.

I plan to get a 2 X4GB kit, probably from GSkill.

Thx in advance! 😀

 

[nikorr]

Whats the rest of the HW parts?

 

[Pinhedd]

It's all going to depend on what CPU you have. Intel's Sandybridge 2XXX series only supports 1333 Mhz RAM officially, but runs 4 DIMMs at 1600Mhz without issue. The Sandybridge 3XXX and 2XXXm series (enthusiast and mobile platforms) both officially support 1600Mhz but at only 1 DIMM per channel, however running 2 DIMMs is just fine. AMD's bulldozer platform supports 1866 Mhz RAM out of the box. Nothing officially supports 2133Mhz RAM.

If you're going with an Intel solution, I highly recommend getting 4x4GB 1600Mhz RAM, this will run just fine at the advertised speeds and timings despite not being officially supported. This means that while it will require an overclock (just select the XMP profile in BIOS otherwise it will only run at 1333), it should be stable and effortless in 99% of all cases.

EDIT: 4x4 @ 1600Mhz will only run you around 100-120 bucks (less if it's on sale), probably far less than 1866 or 2133.

 

[intel4eva]

IMO priorities for RAM are as follows

1. max out all slots
2. max capacity
3. min latency
4. frequency

It should be obvious that 1600Mhz is what you're looking at for minimum.

 

[nikorr]

[fixed]It will be mostly used for gaming, file transferring, watching and converting videos.

So what RAM should I take??

1600 MHz or 1866 MHz or 2133 MHz ??

I didn't see much noticeable difference between the three in tom's benchmarks.[/fixed]
U are still not going to tell noticeable difference between them even @ 1333MHz

Get as much as u can afford and make a RAMdisk and edit video in it.

 

[gam0reily]

@nikorr, its gonna be an i5 2500k.

and what do u mean by RAMdisk??

and should I max out all slots now? i was thinking more like 8Gb today, + 8GB later (nxt to nxt year I think).

& since I am not much acquainted with installing dual channel RAMs in preferable slots, i wud also like to know in what config. should I place my RAM? 1st & 2nd slot or 1st & 3rd slot?
its gonna be probably a 2X4GB 1600 MHz now.

 

[gam0reily]

plus a Z68 motherboard, i think, from biostar. i am trying to keep the costs low as ASRock is not sold in my region.

 

[tisue001]

first and third slot is where you should install 2 sticks of dual channel memory (or 2nd and 4th slots).

I can't remember where I read it, but there's an indepth article comparing memory speeds, and basically what the conclusion said was you won't notice a big difference past 1600mhz. Go for 1600 and put any extra money towads larger quantity, such as 16gb vs. 8gb. With 4x 4gb sticks you would then fill all those slots up

 

[gam0reily]

Best answer selected by gam0reily.

 

[rushib1]

first and third slot is where you should install 2 sticks of dual channel memory (or 2nd and 4th slots).

I can't remember where I read it, but there's an indepth article comparing memory speeds, and basically what the conclusion said was you won't notice a big difference past 1600mhz. Go for 1600 and put any extra money towads larger quantity, such as 16gb vs. 8gb. With 4x 4gb sticks you would then fill all those slots up

why should we put them in 1st and 3rd slot(2nd and 4th slot)?

 

[Agera One]

first and third slot is where you should install 2 sticks of dual channel memory (or 2nd and 4th slots).

I can't remember where I read it, but there's an indepth article comparing memory speeds, and basically what the conclusion said was you won't notice a big difference past 1600mhz. Go for 1600 and put any extra money towads larger quantity, such as 16gb vs. 8gb. With 4x 4gb sticks you would then fill all those slots up

why should we put them in 1st and 3rd slot(2nd and 4th slot)?

Because the motherboard is designed to work like that.. You can see your motherboard RAM slots have different colors.. 2 being in one color and the other two being same..

 

[rushib1]

first and third slot is where you should install 2 sticks of dual channel memory (or 2nd and 4th slots).

I can't remember where I read it, but there's an indepth article comparing memory speeds, and basically what the conclusion said was you won't notice a big difference past 1600mhz. Go for 1600 and put any extra money towads larger quantity, such as 16gb vs. 8gb. With 4x 4gb sticks you would then fill all those slots up

why should we put them in 1st and 3rd slot(2nd and 4th slot)?

ok what if i want to put 4*8gb sticks in my motherboard

Because the motherboard is designed to work like that.. You can see your motherboard RAM slots have different colors.. 2 being in one color and the other two being same..

 

[Agera One]

???

 

[Tradesman1]

The mobo here can run dual channel slots 1-2 consist of channel A and 3-4 channel B, you want to ideally populate both channels with and qual amount of DRAM to have full dual channel operations. DC can provide up to a 10-15% boost over single channel. Also yes you will see little difference in BMs, however when really using your DRAM in the realworld, (multi-tasking, do things like video, imaging, CAD, VMs, etc, using large data sets, etc is where higher freq DRAM shines as it can handle more DRAM at a time per clock cycle

 

[Agera One]

ok what if i want to put 4*8gb sticks in my motherboard

If you motherboard supports quad-channel, the 4 memory sticks will work together in Quad-channel..