Which should I buy?

[claykiller2010]

I am building a desktop computer right now and I am trying to choose between the Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 2133 MHz (PC3 17000) and the Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800). Can someone please tell me what the major differences are and which one is better? Thanks.

 

[rolli59]

The difference is speed with the one at 2133 the other at 1600. The benefit of faster than 1600 is not much on overall performance so if you have substantial price savings going with the dominator I would go with it.

 

[Tradesman1]

What all do you do with your rig, other than price, the 1600 is fine for basic task and gaming, while if you multi-task, do imaging, video, CAD, VMs, use large data sets, anything of the like, you see the benefits of the faster sticks. What CPU and mobo as that may be a factor, i.e. very few AMD CPUs can even run 2133, and on the Intel side will want a K model CPU

 

[NHDataHound]

To paraphrase Tradesman: More info please. If you already have a motherboard and processor picked, that info will be necessary to know what memory speeds and voltages are supported.

 

[claykiller2010]

Right now I have Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P LGA 1155 Intel 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard , Geforce GTX 770 2gb GDDR5 superclocked, an Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 and I'm running Windows 7 from a Samsung SSD 830 series SATA 6 Gb/s. BTw I should have mentioned that I'm replacing some parts. I was in need of a new GPU and I decided that I wanted to upgrade the ram.

 

[rolli59]

With that setup I would go with the 1600 ram.

 

[Tradesman1]

With the 2600K I'd go 1600/9 as bare minimum, 2133/9 sticks are a good pairing, I run 32GB of GSkill Ripjaws X on my 2500K SB build...What actual models of DRAM are you looking at, the Vengeance Pro 2x8 has about 4 2x8GB sets, think 2 in CL9 and 2 in CL11 (would avoid the CL11 (slow) and the CL9 sets are generally rather overpriced ($230+), I'd look at the GSkill Ripjaws X F3-2133C9D-16GXH, about $190 or the Trident X F3-2133C9D-16GTX $180

 

[claykiller2010]

I actually have no idea if they are CL9 or CL11. Do you mean Latency? the Vengeance Pro is 11-11-11-27 and the other is 9-9-9-24

 

[rolli59]

CL = Cas Latency!

 

[Tradesman1]

With the timings you are looking at the CL11 2133 sticks, his is their 2133/9 set

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233674