What ram to get?

[jake15ulery]

I'm going to get an A320M-HDV mobo and I'm looking at the qvl for ram and have become furiously confused. I can find ram kits around 40-60$ for a 4gb kit. but I can't find any in this price range that appears on the qvl, does anyone have this motherboard and know where to get some cheap ram?

 

[WildCard999]

The QVL is only what has been tested, most DDR4 should work on that board and just buy a kit (or stick if budget dictates) through PCPartpicker.
https://pcpartpicker.com/

 

[Barty1884]

Remember, a QVL is not an exhaustive list - it's simply what the manufacturer's have tested/verified.
That's not to say any other given kit will not work.

What are you specifically looking to use this rig for?
1. Different workloads will require different RAM configs.
2. A 4GB 'kit' is really low by modern standards. 8GB (2x8GB) would be more 'mainstream', with 16GB being the typical 'sweet spot'.

Ryzen compatibility has improved dramatically since launch. Realistically, any mainstream kit from a reputable brand *should* be fine, with speeds up to ~2966MHz, although there are slight risks. Just ensure your retailer of choice has a solid return policy.

Also note, Ryzen will benefit from faster memory (3000MHz/2966MHz kits being the 'sweet spot' here), faster, if they'll work, can be beneficial, but that's in diminishing returns territory.


FWIW, the A320 chipset is a bit of a disservice to Ryzen chips IMO. They really do benefit from OCing (and it's pretty easy to do, too). That's only an option on B350 or X370 chipsets....

 

[jake15ulery]

so lets say I find a 16g kit 2x 8g of ecc memory (ddr4 obviously) that should work then? or should I be careful with ecc memory?

 

[Barty1884]

You want "non-ECC" for a consumer platform. The chances you need the error-correcting aspect of ECC memory and not requiring other, server etc type hardware are slim.

Non-ECC, unregistered.... that's what you're looking for.

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/#t=14&Z=16384002&sort=price&page=1

 

[dontlistentome]

I'll second the recommendation to buy 'name' brand ram. It's worth the cost, since the headaches of troubleshooting problems only to find it's because of the cheap ram you bought wipes out the savings of buying cheap ram. DDR4 is expensive these days, there's no getting around that. If you need to skimp on something to save money, I recommend you skimp on something else(NOT the power supply either).

 

[jake15ulery]

yeah, I've decided with the prices of OS and the confusion of what parts to get; I'm going to get a prebuilt. I've found one that's about $650 and if I were to build it myself with OS, any extra cables, fans, ssd's, warranties, ect. I might want I would probably have to spend $1000. so this rig will be much better and much more stable than my current rig. then I can worry about building my own 'gaming/rendering workstation.'