Best Computer Memory: March 2015 (Archive)

[adamovera]

Here are the best performing RAM kits we’ve tested: computer memory that’s ideal for gaming, video editing and graphics-heavy applications.

Best Computer Memory: March 2015 : Read more

 

[adamovera]

Archived comments are found here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2633305/computer-memory-march-2015.html

 

[bikerman7502002]

Are the DD4 prices really old? I've been tracking quad channel kits for months and haven't seen prices this high... For example the Ripjaws V 16GB DDR43000 (4x4) kits on Newegg are currently $130 ($160+ on amazon for the Ripjaws 4). Other kits have been priced similarly, is it possible to update?

 

[RavingPriest]

There's a typo in the DDR4 section. The first sub-heading reads "16GB (4x 8GB)", it should be "16GB (4x 4GB)".

 

[bwhiten]

Yeah this article appears to have several typos and price screw ups.

 

[Daniel Ladishew]

How is there no recommendation for the "best" DDR4 16GB (8X8GB) kit? With plenty of motherboards only supporting 2 DIMM slots, this seems like a pretty obvious oversight. As someone who enjoys building smaller computers, i'm disappointed.

 

[jtd871]

Any "best" memory without the ridiculously garish "heatspreaders"?

 

[blazorthon]

From article:

Updates

Memory prices for both DDR3 and DDR4 have continued to decline throughout the summer. Traditional 16GB dual-channel performance kits (2x 8GB) are now starting at around $70 for DDR3 and $80 for DDR4. Do feel free to pay more in order to assure higher data rates or better timings, as we often do in our System Builder Marathon machines.

While other companies were first to the press box, Corsair was the first brand to release a 128GB Quad-Channel memory kit, and a price drop from $1600 to $1080 could put it within reach of premium system builders. Defying our expectations concerning supply-driven discounts, modules containing 8Gb (1GB) ICs retain an approximate 50 percent price-per-capacity penalty over those using 8Gb ICs.

Last sentence: 8Gb ICs have a 50% price per capacity penalty over 8Gb ICs :O
I assume it means that 8Gb memory is still 50% more expensive than 4Gb memory, and that sounds about right to me.

 

[Crashman]

Are the DD4 prices really old? I've been tracking quad channel kits for months and haven't seen prices this high... For example the Ripjaws V 16GB DDR43000 (4x4) kits on Newegg are currently $130 ($160+ on amazon for the Ripjaws 4). Other kits have been priced similarly, is it possible to update?

I'd like to know why the prices aren't updating, but they are pulled from Amazon so there must be some kind of software issue.

Any "best" memory without the ridiculously garish "heatspreaders"?

I'd go with these:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/adata-xpg-z1-crucial-ddr4-x99,4007-3.html
Unfortunately, I was still keeping my standard for awards a little too high when we tested these.

Last sentence: 8Gb ICs have a 50% price per capacity penalty over 8Gb ICs :O
I assume it means that 8Gb memory is still 50% more expensive than 4Gb memory, and that sounds about right to me.

Thanks!

 

[hapkiman]

Any "best" memory without the ridiculously garish "heatspreaders"?

It does seem like the reviewer likes flashy (and unnecessary) heat spreaders on RAM. He also apparently is a huge G. Skill fan. I have been running these Corsair sticks for two months on a Z170 board and am very happy with them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233852

 

[Dantte]

Best DDR4 Kits
16GB (4x 8GB)

Last time I checked 4X8 = 32!

 

[Crashman]

Any "best" memory without the ridiculously garish "heatspreaders"?

It does seem like the reviewer likes flashy (and unnecessary) heat spreaders on RAM. He also apparently is a huge G. Skill fan. I have been running these Corsair sticks for two months on a Z170 board and am very happy with them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233852

Or, a more realistic perspective might indicate that the reviewer doesn't get very many bare modules and that G.Skill the most-frequent contributor of samples. Of course that's a more-mundane explanation, but such is life.

Best DDR4 Kits
16GB (4x 8GB)

Last time I checked 4X8 = 32!

I just realized that the typo was within the area I can access, so I changed it. My bad for thinking it had been coded into the adjacent box

 

[tacgnol06]

I'm not sure why high speed DDR4 is being pushed so hard when a 2400 set is so much cheaper with a negligible performance cost in real-world use.

 

[Crashman]

I'm not sure why high speed DDR4 is being pushed so hard when a 2400 set is so much cheaper with a negligible performance cost in real-world use.

There are only three sets in the recommendations and the current prices aren't that far off 2400 (the G.Skill 3000 is only $125 for a four-module kit). We don't get a lot of 2400, so there is no "hard push".

 

[POPPYDUMB]

Here is a great video explaining how much RAM you need for your pc!
https://youtu.be/OBifNu3-994

 

[nayrnayr1]

What about PNY RAM?

 

[Crashman]

What about PNY RAM?

They don't send it often, but we occasionally buy it for ourselves. You'll see it in the upcoming System Builder Marathon.

 

[FlyingBlind]

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!

 

[Crashman]

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...
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!

The good news is that your motherboard is good with RAM, better with recent firmware. The RAM is also getting better all the time.
The bad news is that piecing multiple packs of modules together doesn't always get you the memory "speed" you wanted.

Here's what I'd do: Buy a pair of 1.2V DDR4-2400 16GB modules for Z170 boards. Yes, they'll work. By default, they'll operate at DDR4-2133, because anything faster is an XMP profile.
You can keep adding those over time, and as long as you keep letting it default to DDR4-2133, you shouldn't have any stability issue.

Two modules kill quad-channel capability, but my X99E-ITX/ac review showed that the difference isn't noteworthy in most programs. And of course you can get it back when you add two more modules.

Depending on the release date of your firmware, you may need to update it to get proper support of any 16GB modules. I'll assume that you bought it recently from a site that refreshes its inventory rapidly.

 

[FlyingBlind]

Thank you. I'll look for some and add it to the rest of the order. I figured it would be limited but reliability was key and appreciate the videos and articles on actual RAM performance. If I can save money in the long run it could be put towards the graphics cards.

 

[Crashman]

Thank you. I'll look for some and add it to the rest of the order. I figured it would be limited but reliability was key and appreciate the videos and articles on actual RAM performance. If I can save money in the long run it could be put towards the graphics cards.

For the most part, when you get high-quality DDR4-2400 and run it at DDR4-2133, you open up a whole bunch of "fudging" capability without much risk of errors. Part of the reason I said that is because, for now and the near future, all 16GB modules should have the same organization. There's always some risk when you mix modules, but things get much dicier as you attempt to run them at higher data rates, and harder to configure when the modules are organized differently.

 

[Cuong_1]

great

 

[Cuong_1]

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