RAM buying

[EvanJackPenn]

Hey guys.

I'm looking at buying 2 x 4gb sticks of DDR3 RAM. I originally thought it was an easy affair - all you need to know is size and amount of pins. But then I look and find latency, speeds, voltages, fancy cases, etc.

What does any of it mean? What makes this RAM £58 more expensive than this one?

I can see the latencies are different, 8-8-8-24 compared to 9-9-9-27. One has a heat sink as opposed to a heat spreader. The more expensive has DHX and XMP. Will any of these things really affect me and my PC? Is it all just a "I'm better, I have more letters" case?

Thanks

[Walker]

well i wouldn't really worry about latencies if you're not planning to over clock, but if you are then the less these numbers are, the better. and also the less the voltage is, the better.
as for heatsinks or heatspreaders, in my opinion they don't add any benefit to the performance of the RAM and they're just mainly for looks.
if i was you I'd look for 1600MHz speed, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.5v
what motherboard do you have?

[Sputnik]

I agree with Walker, I'd go for 1.5v memory as it will have a better resale value at a later date.

Something like this http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-%...9-9-24-xmp-15v

Edit: Do make sure your motherboard can use 1.5 volt memory first.

[EvanJackPenn]

I'm looking at an ASUS P8P67 PRO. Does overclocking RAM yield much of a performance increase, a la CPU/GPU?

[Walker]

I'm looking at an ASUS P8P67 PRO. Does overclocking RAM yield much of a performance increase, a la CPU/GPU?

I don't think there will be a real performance benefit from overclocking the RAM, plus you won't even need to worry about RAM speed when overclocking the CPU with a P67 board, becuase you'll be dealing with the CPU multiplier only.
so I say save your money, and get a nice low profile kit with 1600Mhz, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.5v
and don't go with something with a giant heatsink, you might run into compatibility issues with aftermarket CPU coolers

[ik9000]

Anandtech did a big comparison of different types of RAM speeds and latencies for Sandy Bridge. The result? Provided you have at least 1600MHz Ram, there is little difference.

Full test report can be found here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/s...-the-best-ddr3

I agree with the posts above, get 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 1.5V XMS3. It's decent RAM and has no over-sized heatsink to worry about clashing with the CPU cooler.

Rather than a P67 motherboard I'd get a z68 motherboard which supports on-board graphics as well as discreet GPU to make use of the Sandy Bridge QuickSync and SRT features. More versatile all round and better re-sale value in future.

[Blackmage]

Nope higher speed ram barely makes a difference, one or two seconds, maybe 20 seconds on a big video encode.

Not worth the price increase these will fine.

[EvanJackPenn]

Anandtech did a big comparison of different types of RAM speeds and latencies for Sandy Bridge. The result? Provided you have at least 1600MHz Ram, there is little difference.

Full test report can be found here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/s...-the-best-ddr3

I agree with the posts above, get 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 1.5V XMS3. It's decent RAM and has no over-sized heatsink to worry about clashing with the CPU cooler.

Rather than a P67 motherboard I'd get a z68 motherboard which supports on-board graphics as well as discreet GPU to make use of the Sandy Bridge QuickSync and SRT features. More versatile all round and better re-sale value in future.

I read that as clashing with the CPU colour So this set would be all good?

On another note, I was also looking at all of those chipsets. Z68, P67, etc. What is the biggest difference between them all? You say that it uses on-board also, but I'm getting a discreet card. Does it make a difference?

Thanks for all of your responses!

[Walker]

There are several differences between P67 and Z68, the main ones is that Z68 supports onboard graphics which won't be much of a benefit if you get a high end discreet graphics card, and the other is Intel SRT technology which allows you to get an SSD and a HDD and combine them together to boost up the speed of the HDD upto 4X using the SSD as cache. Another plus is that there are some Z68 boards that have support for the upcoming Intel Ivy Bridge 22nm processors

[EvanJackPenn]

Intel SRT technology which allows you to get an SSD and a HDD and combine them together to boost up the speed of the HDD upto 4X using the SSD as cache.

Now that is interesting. Because I'm on a budget and can't afford a 1TB SSD (who can?!) I was looking at SSD/HDD combinations. That sounds really good

[chief@xrs.net]

at DDR3, generics value ram will not be the bottleneck of the PC, the cpu will be

[ik9000]

I read that as clashing with the CPU colour So this set would be all good?

On another note, I was also looking at all of those chipsets. Z68, P67, etc. What is the biggest difference between them all? You say that it uses on-board also, but I'm getting a discreet card. Does it make a difference?

Thanks for all of your responses!

Z68 supports onboard graphics which won't be much of a benefit if you get a high end discreet graphics card,

WRONG. As I said before z68 motherboards which support onboard graphics are also able to make use of Quicksync where it uses the onboard GPU for encoding/decoding thereby speeding the whole process of say, ripping a DVD, up. This is irrespective of whether you have a discreet GPU. A feature that is well worth having IMO.

[Zak33]

there ARE differences but only on older cpu/board/memory stick combos

CPU's now have memory controller in the CPU and not the motherboard...so using higher voltage ram (1.65v) for AMD and lower (1.5v) in Intel was essential.

However.. it seems to have lessened and many people are now using opposing combos.

[EvanJackPenn]

Back on the subject of RAM, is there any difference between 8-8-8-24 latency and 9-9-9-24 in terms of noticable performance? And does XMP make much difference in ease of use - I'm a first time newbie Would a lower voltage, e.g., a 1.35v compared to a 1.5v, mean anything such as in this kit (which also happens to be low profile)?

[ik9000]

theoretically CAS8 is better than CAS9 - it should give slightly faster performance. On an X58 system it would be an advantage for overclocking but Sandy Bridge just doesn't require you to tweak the RAM timings. Similarly the need for premium RAM with Sandy Bridge just isn't there. You're not driving the voltages up so the RAM isn't at special risk of overheating.

As the Anandtech link I gave shows, save your money buy 9-9-9-24 1.5V XMS3, you won't notice the difference compared to Venegance.

[EvanJackPenn]

As the Anandtech link I gave shows, save your money buy 9-9-9-24 1.5V XMS3, you won't notice the difference compared to Venegance.

Yeah, I've read quite alot now that says it makes no real world difference.

Looking at Scan, the only difference I can discern is XMP. But the Vengeance is currently £5 cheaper than the XMS3. So I assume it's still sensible to buy the Vengeance?

Many thanks