Here's something that never seems to be answered when I read the majority of reviews. I realize many of these components are for gaming but there are some people, such as myself, who tweaks them for content creation since the ROI is a bit better for me. I've used some motherboards, RAM, and graphics cards for gaming platforms and they've have met my needs reliably for years. I just can't afford a Xeon processor and some workstations are outrageously priced so I've gotten used to the watch and wait method for shopping.
I'm looking for DDR4 RAM that will work for the ASRock X99 OC E-ATX motherboard and it's been confusing. I want to max out with 16GB per slot but since I'm using the i7 Intel 5960 Extreme to overclock it (and upgrade to Xeon 18 core later) I don't think I'll need much more than 32GB of RAM to start but I'm having trouble finding anything that states it's X99 chipset compatible. However, I keep maxing out the systems I've built and since future proofing is an expensive fool's game I'm trying to keep things as functionally reliable as possible. Would two 16GB sticks of DDR4 RAM (32GB total) work just fine for me to start with? I don't care about the looks - I care more about bang for the buck and reliability. My old system is humming along but I purchased PF Track only to find that my system is so ...um...old.. that it doesn't have enough cache, RAM, or just plain CPU power for me to work on matchmoving, which is very CPU, RAM, and graphics card intensive.
Yes, that's a facepalm moment if there ever was one! I bought a shiny new program without considering the hardware I currently work with. You can point and laugh now. ;-P Well here are my thoughts on my newest build (my current one is nearly 9 years old) since I'm changing up workflow and adding a new skill set. Oh and before you ask why I waited here are my reasons: Student loan repayment and a really nasty recession.
1. Start with 2 sticks of 16GB RAM (DDR4) at 2133 for a total of 32GB. Trying to find anything at 16GB is a pain.
2. i7 intel extreme 5960X E Haswell CPU to overclock it at 4.0 GHz
3. Deep Silence DS6 Gigantic tower so I can upgrade to a HTPX motherboard, etc. later.
4. ASRock X99 OC FORMULA LGA2011-v3/ Intel X99 (no USB 3.1 add on) E-ATX
5. I have two 2TB hard drives - want to add 4 TB and run RAID 10 for a total of 6TB.
6. No SSD but pricing for my new build looking at 250GB minimum.
7. Current graphics card is GEForce GTX760 2GB OC GDDR5 and yes, I'm looking to upgrade to a NVIDIA Quadro card due to the types of programs I use. (Maya, ZBrush, Adobe CS6 and 5.5 suites, learning SolidWorks, Blender, PF Track, and Nuke)
8. Upgrading old 1000 watt PSU to a 1200 or 1500 watt PSU.
9. Looking to keep to air cooling and getting the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan and additional fans for the new case.
Other than that I'm not sure about the RAM ironically. My work consists of the following so I think 32GB of RAM is justified.
1. Intensive texture painting, texture baking and animation (for Unreal game engine and ZBrush)
2. Intensive video editing, rendering, playback.
3. Work on a portfolio piece utilizing game engines
4. More detailed models (ZBrush can be very tough on systems)
5. Work on engineering product design
6. Render, CPU, GPU intensive matchmoving, compositing special effects (SFX work)
7. Physics animation and visual effects (VFX) - smoke, fire, etc.
8. 3D printing check for models and mold making.
Yes, it's varied and every build I've had has been able to deal with whatever I throw at it until now, because I had the fun of scrambling for work in the Great Recession. Like others I'm sure that we need to upgrade but it's been hard to justify it. Well, I can't run some programs and my computer is choking. My 4 core won't cut it with 4GB of RAM. It's time for some shiny new toys - er tools!
Any advice on the RAM is appreciated and I'm sure that a 32GB kit is better per dollar since I can add another kit for 64GB total down the road. My issue is trying to find such kits and Newegg is where I usually go but they don't have much for variety in this area.
Happy building this season!