What RAM should I pair with a Ryzen 5 1600x, and will I need to put more fans in the computer I will be building soon?

[lukeelstrott]

What RAM should I pair with the Ryzen 5 1600x? I'm only putting in 8 gb for now, or maybe 12 if that's possible and within my budget. will be upgrading to 16 eventually. And if I get a Fractal Design Focus G mid Tower will I NEED to get more fans if I'm over clocking my CPU and GPU and getting a Dark Rock 4? how much of a difference would they make if I don't need them? I'm going to be getting a GTX 980 Ti gpu.

 

[richiestang_78]

The first gen Ryzen chips do better with 3000+ speed RAM where 3200mhz seemed to be the sweet spot. The new 2nd gen 2600 is less picky about RAM speed and offers better gaming performance, so you may want to consider spending the money and getting the 2600 if possible. Regardless of what you pick make sure you buy RAM in dual channel, so for 8gb buy the kind sold as a pair of 4gb stick, 16 a pair for 8gb etc.

One last thing, if this is your first build dont buy a cheap PSU, get something like a 550 watt sicne you have a 980ti and they can be power hungry. Budget wise Corsair CX and CXM (the ones with white and black lettering, not green) are pretty good and same with Seasonic S12II and M12II (they are sold at 520 watt which would be enough)

Also save your money on the cooler, get something like the Crorig H7, people get fairly moderate overclocks off the stock AMD cooler so you don't need massive expensive cooler unless for whatever reason you want one.

 

[lukeelstrott]

The first gen Ryzen chips do better with 3000+ speed RAM where 3200mhz seemed to be the sweet spot. The new 2nd gen 2600 is less picky about RAM speed and offers better gaming performance, so you may want to consider spending the money and getting the 2600 if possible. Regardless of what you pick make sure you buy RAM in dual channel, so for 8gb buy the kind sold as a pair of 4gb stick, 16 a pair for 8gb etc.

One last thing, if this is your first build dont buy a cheap PSU, get something like a 550 watt sicne you have a 980ti and they can be power hungry. Budget wise Corsair CX and CXM (the ones with white and black lettering, not green) are pretty good and same with Seasonic S12II and M12II (they are sold at 520 watt which would be enough)

Also save your money on the cooler, get something like the Crorig H7, people get fairly moderate overclocks off the stock AMD cooler so you don't need massive expensive cooler unless for whatever reason you want one.

why can't I buy 2 4gb sticks now and then get 2 more 4gb sticks in the future?

 

[richiestang_78]

You can, that's what I'm saying.

Just for example something like this https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313772

 

[lukeelstrott]

You can, that's what I'm saying.

Just for example something like this https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313772

okay, that's good to hear. But I found out I may have trouble updating the BIOS with the R5 2600, do you know how I can avoid that? Also how much of a performance difference is there between 2400 MHz RAM, and 3000?

 

[richiestang_78]

Alot of the AMD new motherboards have already been updated to support 2nd gen Ryzen, if if you get one that hasn't https://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/2Gen-Ryzen-AM4-System-Bootup.aspx AMD will send you a single core CPU to do the update. Consult the individual motherboar manufactures to ensure there is support for 2nd gen Ryzen, but IMO the 2600 is worth the cost over the 1600.

Performance difference between RAM speeds can vary, on Intel and 2nd gen Ryzen its not a huge difference but for first gen I've seen games get 10fps+ more. I would still suggest getting 2666, its usually about the same cost or a few bucks more then 2400 stuff.