Question What are some good budget DDR5 RAM kits?

Jun 27, 2024
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I have an MSI B760 Gaming plus Wifi motherboard and the i7-12700kf. I'm looking for something in the $100-$200 price range, I'm also a first time pc builder so I still don't know much.
All help is appreciated!
 
Jun 27, 2024
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I first wanted to get the G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO RGB (2x16) but on MSI website it said its incompatable with my motherboard. Does anyone have like experience with this?
 
Here is the G.Skill RAM Configurator for your motherboard model:


However, with a 12th gen CPU, maximum DRAM Frequency may be limited. DDR5-6000 and lower should work fine.

Trident Z5 RGB is designed with Intel XMP, however if you really want the NEO version, DDR5-6000 and lower should be able to work as well.
 

35below0

Respectable
Jan 3, 2024
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In my opinion the price difference between budget and "value" kits, and really good mainstream kits is minimal. Not worth cheaping out on RAM when all you save is peanuts.
And you say you're not experienced so you may not realize the difference in price is not due to quality or stability but speed and latency.

Ideally, with DDR5 you want to look at latency of CL 30 or CL 32 for kits that are rated at 5600 MT/s or 6000 MT/s. Higher latency RAM is ok for non-gaming use but for gaming, lower latency is better.
Higher speed kits will tend to have higher latency, and they will cost more.

Final word of advice, try to buy 2x kits rather than 4x. Populating all four slots usually adds to the memory controller's workload and many motherboards will force a lower speed when using 4 sticks of RAM.
There are exceptions to this. Some AMD CPUs benefit from 4 sticks but you have to check.


G.Skill, Corsair, Teamgroup and other reputable and dependable brands are just not that much more expensive, when comparing same spec kits.
The one exception is Crucial who make excellent memory but they don't make their kits look nice, and they usually do not sell low latency gaming kits. So you could save some money buying one of their CL40 kits. You get top quality RAM for considerably less money.
But if gaming is your main concern, the latency will negatively affect performance.
 
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