Choosing RAM and RAM overclocking

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di11on

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Feb 26, 2015
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Hi folks,

I'm looking at putting together a dual-use machine as follows. It's for work (cpu intensive simulations) and gaming... e.g. Arma 3 and GTA V. My question is about the RAM.

The RAM I've chosen is rated 1600MHz which is the stock RAM speed of the board (which supports higher RAM speeds with overclocking. Will using 1600MHz RAM prevent me from overclocking the CPU or make overclocking the CPU less effective? Are the CPU speeds and memory speeds linked? I don't intend overclocking at the start, but perhaps late in the machine's life.

Second question re RAM... between these two, which is best?

- Kingston 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 DIMM Kit of 2 XMP HyperX Savage
- Kingston 16 GB-Kit 1600MHz DDR3 CL9 DIMM XMP Beast Series

Proposed build:

New components:
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K Box, LGA1150
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H, Sockel 1150, ATX
RAM: Kingston 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 DIMM Kit of 2 XMP HyperX Savage
Video: MSI GeForce GTX 960 Gaming 2G, 2GB GDDR5

From existing machine:
SSD (OS): Samsung SSD 830 Series (256GB)
HDD (Data): Samsung HD753LJ (750GB, 7200RPM)
PCI Sound card: Creative SB X-FI Extreme Gamer (Move audio processing from CPU to dedicated hardware)
Case: Antec Sonata III (500MW PSU) (I will be modding this to add a front intake fan and perhaps some top fans).
 
Solution
M
If you're using the machine for CPU intensive simulation work, I advise a different approach.

E5-1620 V3 ~$300
GIGABYTE MW50-SV0 ~$320
2X 8GB DDR4 ECC RDIMM's ( CT8G4RFS4213 ) ~$180

If the software you're using scales well across cores, go with an E5-1650 V3, and if you have some more money to throw at it, go 4X8GB instead (for quad channel interleave).
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im no cpu/ram/overclocking genius. however i don't and couldn't imagine a direct link on how over clocking ram would affect the cpu in a bad way. and i personally prefer the - Kingston 16 GB-Kit 1600MHz DDR3 CL9 DIMM XMP Beast Series
 
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Thanks Jacob. I suppose I'm wondering what the relative impact of overclocking RAM is compared to overclocking the CPU. For example, if I overclock the CPU and not the memory, will the system then be bottlednecked by the memory so as to limit the effectiveness of the CPU overclock?
 
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1600mhz, transfers at around 12.8 gbps. now when u got 4 ram sticks. even if you did clock it to the next step (1866mhz) which is 14.9 gbps. in reality your not gonna notice a big difference. in reality no matter how big your system is, something is always gonna be bottlenecked. but really its nothing to be worried about. trust me
 
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If you're using the machine for CPU intensive simulation work, I advise a different approach.

E5-1620 V3 ~$300
GIGABYTE MW50-SV0 ~$320
2X 8GB DDR4 ECC RDIMM's ( CT8G4RFS4213 ) ~$180

If the software you're using scales well across cores, go with an E5-1650 V3, and if you have some more money to throw at it, go 4X8GB instead (for quad channel interleave).
 
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Solution


Thanks for that mdocod. It's nice to see another take on this. How would this setup work for gaming compared to my original setup? What are the advantages of this setup apart from being able to install more RAM (they both seem to have the same cores/threads)? I can't get benchmarks for the XEON to compare with the i7.

 
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The difference in performance will, in most cases, be roughly proportional to the difference in clock speed. The 1620 V3 is clocked lower than the i7, otherwise, is pretty similar. Both are quad core hyperthreaded haswell architecture CPUs. The i7-4790K runs 4.0-4.4ghz, while the 1620 V3 run 3.5-3.6ghz.

If you can afford the 1650 V3, that's 6 cores running 3.5-3.8ghz.
 
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Darn it... I've been looking into a Xeon based system and I can see the advantages particularly in stability, multhithreaded operation and longevity under load. Also the ECC memory could be important. The thing is, I would need to leave simulations running overnight from time to time and I can see that a Xeon system would be ideal for this. And, I guess, the system would be just as good at gaming. Only downside is I couldn't overclock but I could stuff it full of RAM at the end of its life.

The problem I have is that the components you've mentioned are more difficult to find and not available from the supplier I was considering... so the price premium will be significant (more than the paper price difference since I'll have to source elsewhere, or from multiple sources).

What to do!?
 
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So I priced up the Xeon build. The problem with Amazon.co.uk is that not all sellers send to Ireland and the components are all available only from different sellers meaning high shipping costs. Using Irish based sellers and Amazon for the motherboard because I can't find it elsewhere, the total would be around €413 EUR more expensive than my i7/Z97 based build (this includes a whopping €67 shipping charge for the Gigabyte board from Amazon). Is the Xeon build _that_ much better for workstation tasks?
 
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Try and look for packages delivered/fulfilled by Amazon.

 
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Thanks to everyone for pitching in here. Particularly to Mdocod for opening my eyes to the XEON / ECC Ram option. In the end, the XEON based build components would have cost me a lot more to source (and I have checked out all the options). I don't think my occasional use of the machine for simulations etc (I have remote access to a network of servers for this) would justify the significant increase in cost. So I've decided to go with the i7 build.

Thanks again all.
 
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