Guide for ram(speed, cas, overclocking)...help!!!

[dpassenger97]

hello
im about to buy a new 8GB ram for my new pc...i was wondering that can we take 1600mhz ram and overclock it to something like 2400mhz but what will determine the overclocking of the ram, i mean like heat sink or what?? also when overclocking, can we play with latency(increase by overclocking it??) or is it fixed and how much is the difference between a ram with 9cas and 10 cas???
and is meant by ecc and buffered ram...and whats the difference between a super expensive ram like dominator platinum and kingston blu.....
help me plzz

 

[pm4]

I ll start from bottom.
ECC and buffered rams are for servers. Desktop motherboards do not support them (99,9% of cases) so dont buy those.

2nd You can take slower ram and you should be able to tweak it to run higher voltage BUT currently there is much better way by getting ram rated for higher speed and use XMP profile to pick right speed and CL you want to use. All you need is for example 2400 MHz ram with XMP profiles. Motherboard supporting 2400MHz and XMP. After you install go to bios/uefi bios and you should be able to change XMP profile. By default i think it will be at 1600MHz all you need to do is pick right XMP profile and it should auto overclock to that speed and hopefully everything will be stable.

Usage of XMP is safer as you do not tweak voltage and other stuff manually and rams rated for such speed should be able to get there without problem. By buying 1600 Mhz and trying to get to 2400 you risk a lot and it may not work at all.

To lat question difference between brands is neverending story. Generally all those G.Skill, Corsair, Crucial, Kingston, ... are reputable manufacturers and make good memories. So go by find size you want (2x4gb for 8gb is best best), find frequency you want (1600,1866, 2133,2400,3000 ...) whichever you want, try to find lowest latency and after that lowest price of any of those brands I named and you will be good.

Warning: Using XMP is considered overclocking so it can technicaly void warranties on cpu and other components. Other thing is that unless you tell them during RMA process they can't prove you used it.

EDIT: I assumed you use intel as XMP is intel technology. AMD use something called AMP.

EDIT2: I forgot one question about difference in CL. Generally difference is not big. For games it's minimal bigger difference is at computation heavy applications (some video editting, complex calculations, ...). Here is nice comparison of how different MHz with different performed 1333 cl 7 to 3000 i think cl 12. Link

 

[dpassenger97]

I ll start from bottom.
ECC and buffered rams are for servers. Desktop motherboards do not support them (99,9% of cases) so dont buy those.

2nd You can take slower ram and you should be able to tweak it to run higher voltage BUT currently there is much better way by getting ram rated for higher speed and use XMP profile to pick right speed and CL you want to use. All you need is for example 2400 MHz ram with XMP profiles. Motherboard supporting 2400MHz and XMP. After you install go to bios/uefi bios and you should be able to change XMP profile. By default i think it will be at 1600MHz all you need to do is pick right XMP profile and it should auto overclock to that speed and hopefully everything will be stable.

Usage of XMP is safer as you do not tweak voltage and other stuff manually and rams rated for such speed should be able to get there without problem. By buying 1600 Mhz and trying to get to 2400 you risk a lot and it may not work at all.

To lat question difference between brands is neverending story. Generally all those G.Skill, Corsair, Crucial, Kingston, ... are reputable manufacturers and make good memories. So go by find size you want (2x4gb for 8gb is best best), find frequency you want (1600,1866, 2133,2400,3000 ...) whichever you want, try to find lowest latency and after that lowest price of any of those brands I named and you will be good.

Warning: Using XMP is considered overclocking so it can technicaly void warranties on cpu and other components. Other thing is that unless you tell them during RMA process they can't prove you used it.

EDIT: I assumed you use intel as XMP is intel technology. AMD use something called AMP.

EDIT2: I forgot one question about difference in CL. Generally difference is not big. For games it's minimal bigger difference is at computation heavy applications (some video editting, complex calculations, ...). Here is nice comparison of how different MHz with different performed 1333 cl 7 to 3000 i think cl 12. Link

so i got a list of few rams....which is the best and is it worth spending extra 15 pounds (around $25) on higher performance rams?

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f317000cl11d8gbxl
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/patriot-memory-pv38g160c9k
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/kingston-memory-hx318c10frk28
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f32400c10d8gtx
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f317000cl9d8gbsr
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/kingston-memory-khx18c9t3k28x

thank you

 

[Tradesman1]

Before jumping in, first things first what CPU and mobo - the CPU is the primary factor in determining what DRAM it can even run, second is the mobo and whether it can support what you want - no sense in spending on sticks you won't even be able to run

 

[dpassenger97]

Before jumping in, first things first what CPU and mobo - the CPU is the primary factor in determining what DRAM it can even run, second is the mobo and whether it can support what you want - no sense in spending on sticks you won't even be able to run

motherboard will be asus z97 ranger and processor is either going be 4770k or 4790k(depends in the release date)

 

[Tradesman1]

Sweet combo! and the skies the limit....of those you show, would go with the Trident X in 2400.....I am playing with the new Z97 now (it's the slightly bigger brother to the Ranger) and was playing with DRAM on it yesterday, thus far I've run the Tridents 2133/9 (16 and 32GB), the 2400 sticks both (16 and 32) and have the 2x8GB 2666/16 2x8GB set in right now, running at 2800 (this is with a 4770K, am waiting the release of the refresh K models, not sure if I want to go 4790K or pop a 4690K, I'm running the Z87 Hero with a 4770K at 4.6 and 32GB of 2666)

 

[Xantosh]

sorry to hijack your thread, but i have a question that i can't seem to find the answer for, do i need a K on the processor number to be able to use say 2400mhz ram with a board that supports it?

i'm looking at building a pc for my nephew, he likes intel, but i'm an amd fan (don't hate me, because i don't hate intel, im just a tight arse!) and im used to amd's being fully unlocked from the start!