What Memory with what Motherboard

[Smyco]

Hello Tom's and Hello all.

I am new here and want to learn how to build a system.

I have never done so but do repair computers so I am not completely unfamiliar with it, possibly more on the software than hardware side of things. The computer I use now is very old and so I set out to build a new one since I can't really find an attractive offer for a ready built system.

But I am also generally very interested in how this is done. I find it cool to work with the hardware as well having done some much work with software. Ideally there is the dream of a water cooled high-end system but for now I want to learn the basics.

From what I understand when building a system for a medium to high-end workload it is good to have fast memory and a motherboard that supports it. Just before I have been picking memory on pcpartpicker and come to see that there is DDR3-2800 memory available.

This now I don't quite yet understand. The 2800 is the speed of the memory and the 3 after the DDR is the type of it? So this then should be the fastest memory out there?

If someone were to use such DDR3-2800 memory what motherboards options are out there?

On the other hand I read a lot about the 3770K as a CPU and a Z77 chipset motherboard. What would be the fastest memory one could use for such a CPU? DDR3-2133? At least that is the max speed I get for a 3770K CPU on pcpartpicker. Perhaps someone has a good link to some information about this and memory and CPU types with focus on the various combinations available. I guess knowing some theory can't be bad.

This then leads to the next big and still a mystery to me question: What motherboard to use with such fast memory?

I am asking this more on a theoretical level rather than wanting to know makes and parts. Rather trying to understand what lies behind it. So I am also not thinking about weather such a motherboard should be able to support double and more graphics cards or not. I am merely for now trying to see what routes there are given the memory speed and corresponding chipset and motherboard that support such high "speeds" if one can say so.

I invite all newcomers and veterans to chip in the conversation and look forward to your replies.

 

[Smyco]

Something just came to mind.

When thinking about the logic of how to compose a new system ideally one starts with wanting to know how much memory and how fast the memory should be.

Then the decision about the CPU, chipset, motherboard and graphics card follow in that order.

Is that about the right basic logic without thinking about what workload or what purpose the system would be for?

 

[tsnor]

Hi,

With the very large caches available on most modern processors the speed of memory is not really that relevant. Check a few benchmarks-- the memory can make a few percent difference at most. The benchmarks I remember showed that current AMD processors are high overclock seemed to benefit from lower latency memory more than Intels, but that is from memory.

Memory performance has two major components: bandwidth and latency. Bandwidth is a measure of how much data is delviered. Latency is a measure of how long it takes the first chunk of memory to reach the CPU. Both are important. You can have a high bandwidth part with poor latency or visa versa. Read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_latency

Net for system building, now that memory controllers are embedded in teh processor chip and not the MB chipset, CPU benchmarks will accurately reflect memory performance. Just pick a fast CPU and match it with a reasonable amount of memory and you are set plus/minus a few percent.