16gb ddr3 ram .. is it worth it ?

brianthesnail

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just found a good deal in the shape of "16GB ARIANET Value Micron (2x8GB) 1333 (PC3-10666) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM CAS 9-9-9-24 1.5V "( http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/16GB+ARIANET+Value+Micron+%282x8GB%29+1333+%28PC3-10666%29+240-Pin+DDR3+SDRAM+CAS+9-9-9-24+1.5V+?productId=51963 )
however im using 4gb of 1333mhz ram at the moment... would another 12gb of ram be useful or just a waste.... ive read posts were even 8gb is wasted .... and by the time i will ever need that much ram i will probally be using a totally different platform .....
im at a loss on what i shall upgrade.... a cpu upgrade is the most needed,however the core i3 upgrade i had hoped for is out of my budget at the moment ... and ive recently added a 128gb ssd so thats not needed
basically the memory looks the only worthwhile upgrade .. but the amount is debatable ...... should i go 8gb or 16gb .....
motherboard is the gigabyte ga-h61ma-d2v and my cpu is the pentium G620 ... gpu is the asus GTX550ti

any idea,s
 
This is highly dependent on what your system use looks like. It looks like gaming may be something you want to do.

With windows 7, I am now recommending to most folks at least 8 gigs of ram. Its just more cost effective. I have also heard that the system will use as much ram as it can, which was verified through testing. So if you have a good deal on 16GB, I can see no reason not to go for it.

However--if you are concerned about future proofing your system then I would recommend that you get at least 1600 speed memory. In your shoes, I would even look at 1866 kits because one could downclock it for the current CPU but I can not judge your experience level for BIOS ram clocking, etc. It is likely if the memory is on the motherboard's approved list (1866 speed) then it would probably default to 1600 speed. And I think that Pentium CPU has a 1600 speed memory controller.

I'm not sure about that memory kit, so you had better check your motherboard's web site for compatibility. These days you can't just stick any old ram in your machine and expect it to work. Use only approved modules if you want to avoid problems.
 

brianthesnail

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thanks buzznut
ive only recently moved from lga775 ( using ddr2 ram ) so i wasnt up to speed on ddr3 memory,however ive now discovered i can use any speed on my gigabyte ga-h61ma-d2v motherboard. .. so allthough it only supports up to 1333mhz ( officially ) i can install 1600mhz ram and it simply runs at 1333mhz ....
so taking into consideration a future 1155 mobo upgrade a 1600mhz kit actually makes sense ..... the best price i have found for a 2 x 4gb kit is the "8GB Exceleram Black Sark LP ERS303B (2x4GB) 1600 (PC3-12800) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM CAS 9-9-9-24 1.5V "( http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/8GB+Exceleram+Black+Sark+LP+ERS303B+%282x4GB%29+1600+%28PC3-12800%29+240-Pin+DDR3+SDRAM+CAS+9-9-9-24+1.5V+?productId=51651 )
since i have no window on my chassis im not bothered about the looks of the module ... so is this ok ... however for £7 more the "Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) "( http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory+-+RAM/DDR3/Dual+Channel+-+%281600MHz%29/Corsair+Vengeance+Low+Profile+8GB+%282x4GB%29+DDR3+PC3-12800C9+1600MHz+Dual+Channel+Kit+%28CML8GX3M2A1600C9%29+?productId=45511 ) looks good
the final kit i was looking at was the "GeiL Enhance CORSA 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666MHz 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit "( http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/GeiL+Enhance+CORSA+8GB+%282x4GB%29+DDR3+PC3-10666MHz+1333MHz+Dual+Channel+Kit+?productId=46291 ) as looks go this is the best... and ive used geil before and never had any probs....
so before i purchase can you guarantee that a 1600mhz ddr3 module will work on my gigabyte ga-h61ma-d2v motherboard ( http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4090#sp ) ... the exact words on the memory specs for this board are as follows :

2 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory
* Due to Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than 4 GB.
Dual channel memory architecture
Support for DDR3 1333/1066/800 MHz memory modules
Support for non-ECC memory modules

cheers
 

Smeg45

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That board is locked to 1333MHz due to the cheapo H61 chipset. Personally, you don't need more than 8GB unless you do heavy rendering or encoding. Otherwise 8 is sufficient. It won't change much in the future either - consoles don't even have 1GB of RAM. Future consoles, who knows, but they won't have 16 and I doubt they'll have 8.
 

brianthesnail

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8gb it is..... however 8gb is still a insane amount of ram for me... i can remember my 1st windows pc ( running windows 95 ) and this had ( wait for it )... 16mb of ram and when i bought it this was seen as high end ... the graphic card had 1mb of ram and my hard drive was 1.5gb ...... also it used a isa soundcard.....how things have changed
i do some light video editing but only using windows movie maker ..... and in regards to using faster memory i will buy a 1333mhz kit.... this ensures 100% compatibility and they are also the cheapest.... im going with the GeiL Enhance CORSA 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666MHz 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit ( http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/GeiL+Enhance+CORSA+8GB+%282x4GB%29+DDR3+PC3-10666MHz+1333MHz+Dual+Channel+Kit+?productId=46291 )

thanks mate
 

brianthesnail

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just ordered some ram..ive opted for the "Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit "( http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory+-+RAM/DDR3/Dual+Channel+-+%281333MHz%29/Corsair+XMS3+8GB+%282x4GB%29+DDR3+PC3-10666C9+1333MHz+Dual+Channel+Kit+%28CMX8GX3M2A1333C9%29+?productId=45516 ) .. is used this on my previous lga775 platform ( but the xms2 pc2-6400 instead ) .. and as a memory brand they are pretty much hard to beat
obviously the budget brands are cheaper,however in the past ive only ever had issues with budget memory,so for the sake of £6 its worth going with the branded corsair ram
 

Timstertimster

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Awww. I remember playing video games on a commodore 64 that had... Wait for it... 1024 kb RAM. That's kilo bytes.
 
16Gb ram and disable swap file makes computer fast as shit. Most cases ur computer will never need the swap file with that much ram. I game and i have a ssd. to lower the write ware to my drive i don't run the swap but when i did that i notice games and swiching apps is a lot faster even over just having a ssd