[SOLVED] Needing advice on completing my newest build - RAM questions

[ChrisR34000]

Dear system builders,

the time has come to upgrade my beloved oc'd Intel i5-2500K build and I need your advice.

I currently have the following system:

CPU: Intel i5-2500K oc'd @ 4,5 Ghz
cooler: Scythe Mugen v.2 with Arctic Silver MX4
RAM: 4 x 4 GB Ripjaws DDR3 800 Mhz
Mainboard: Asus P8P67
SSD: Samsung 850 Evo 250 GB
HDD: 1 x WD Gold 6 TB, 1 x WD Gold 10 TB
case: Nanoxia Deep Silence v. 1
PSU: Seasonic S12II 330W
GPU: Geforce GT 1030 2 GB
sound: Asus Xonar DX PCIe card + external headphones DAC (Audio-GD compass)
monitor: Dell UltraSharp U3415W 34"
OS: Windows 10 Pro

This system is my personal desktop machine. I am mainly using it to browse the internet, to edit Photos with Photoshop once in a while and as a 24/7 fileserver for my Nvidia Shield and other devices / computers the home network. I do keep a lot of firefox sessions with many tabs open and I want to keep doing this without experiencing lag, as I do know. I am not gaming at all, nor do I intend to on this machine.
I plan the following upgrade:

CPU: Ryzen 9 3900 X (already bought)
Cooler: Noctua-DH15
Mainboard: MSI Tomahawk x570 WIFI
RAM: DDR4 32 GB, either 3200 or 3600 Mhz
SSD: Samsung 980 Pro 500 GB (already bought)
case, PSU, GPU, sound: same as above

My expectations from this systen are that I can open and use many programs at the same time (many browser sessions, Photoshop, other tools), without experiencing any lag or freezes.
I am still relatively unsure what RAM to choose and have following questions:

1. What CL should I aim at? Does it really matter if I get CL14 or 16 or 18 for my purposes? I want to auto-OC the Ryzen, maybe tweak it manually to get an even better OC. RGB is not important to men.
2. Is it important to get Samsung B-dies? I noticed that these sticks have a lower latency, but that does it really matter in real life applications? Is it worth the price premium?
3. Do Samsung B-dies have a better mainboard compatiblity? Or does this not play a big factor and I should just get something from the QVL list and this would be fine?
4. If I get two 16 GB RAM sticks and I would want to upgrade in a few months to 48 GB RAM by adding 2 x 8 GB RAM, is this easily doable? Or do I have to match the kits really well (same vendor, same timings, same chips)?

It is important for me to get a kit which gets along very well with my chosen motherboard. I don't want to end up building the system, get no POST and have to RMA the RAM and get another. I'd rather go for something which is being successfully used by many others. Also I don't want to go overboard with the budget. If the lower latency is not worth the money, I'd rather save here. It should also be a choice, which leaves room for an easy upgrade to 48 GB or 64 GB in the near future.
Would I go wrong with something like the Crucial Ballistix 32GB, DDR4-3600, CL16-18-18-38 (BL2K16G36C16U4R)? Or do I need to invest more?

Thank you very much for help!

 

[Eximo]

Overclocking the clock on Ryzen, not that critical. With a decent cooler like you have picked out you will see numbers very close to the advertised max boost. From what I have seen people average only like a 50Mhz improvement.

Samsung B dies are touted for their ease of overclocking. Ryzen is basically limited to 3600/3800 max, so not really any reason to go higher. The infinity fabric inside the CPU runs at the memory speed, 1800Mhz is about all it can do unless you get very lucky.

Lower CL the better, though it can get quite pricey. CL16 3600Mhz is pretty common in Ryzen builds.

Ideally you use a single kit, two identical kits have a better chance of working, particularly if purchased near the same time. Mixing different capacities is possible, but again, there is no absolute guarantee it will work. Yes, always try to match it up as close as possible when mixing memory, it will increase chances of it working without having to set timings manually.

I think the Crucial Ballistic will work okay. Particularly for what you are doing with the Noctua cooler, should fit fine. You can always try to lower the timings manually, this is also a form of overclocking.

"RGB not important to men" made me giggle

 

[ChrisR34000]

Thank you for your answer. I really appreciate it a lot! I talked to a friend of mine and he would sell me his G.Skill TridentZ Neo F4-3200C14D-32GTZN (2x16 GB, DDR4-3200, CL 14-14-14-34)
for a good price, so I think I am going to get that.