3600mhz or 3200mhz for a 5700X?

[keef247]

So I was about to pull the trigger on a 2x16gb cas CAS 16-19-19-36 3600mhz Corsair Vengeance kit for £88 delivered... I know I simply enable xmp on my b550m msi mortar max wifi board and it 'should work'...

But I'd forgotten AMD states 3200mhz for compatibility?

Is there any gain when I'm not going to be overclocking the pc and infact undervolting it.

Should I just get the same kit but in 3200mhz cas 16-20-20-38 form for £64 delivered?

Will I have any issues using the 3600mhz?

This is the first rig I'll have built in like 15 years so all I've got to go on is what I've seen mixed opinions of online...

The price difference doesn't bother me, but I want this machine to be rock solid and not end up with a nasty surprise and find out it's the ram at fault!

Open to your experiences!

[MrJim]

I'm using a 5900X paired with 3600 RAM (running XMP profile), also on an MSI motherboard (X570 Tomahawk). It's been perfectly stable since I put the system together. 3600 RAM is supposed to offer close to optimal price to performance on Ryzen 3 since it's close to the infinity fabric clock speed. That said, I doubt very much you'd notice a difference in performance were you to run 3200 RAM, but that might depend on the workloads you're running on your system.

[Saracen999]

At the risk of a quick (I pomise) thread hijack, how is the Tomahawk, MrJim?

I had settled on an Asus X570 but the furore over 'overvolting' and cooking X3D chips on some Asus boards, and more especially the way they've been reacting (or not reacting) and handling it, has put me right off Asus.

[keef247]

So I was about to pull the trigger on a 2x16gb cas CAS 16-19-19-36 3600mhz Corsair Vengeance kit for £88 delivered... I know I simply enable xmp on my b550m msi mortar max wifi board and it 'should work'...

But I'd forgotten AMD states 3200mhz for compatibility?

Is there any gain when I'm not going to be overclocking the pc and infact undervolting it.

Should I just get the same kit but in 3200mhz cas 16-20-20-38 form for £64 delivered?

Will I have any issues using the 3600mhz?

This is the first rig I'll have built in like 15 years so all I've got to go on is what I've seen mixed opinions of online...

The price difference doesn't bother me, but I want this machine to be rock solid and not end up with a nasty surprise and find out it's the ram at fault!

Open to your experiences!

Thanks mate, so should I do it for the sake of £24 extra? I'm only using it to game on nothing else, have macs for everything else.

[MrJim]

At the risk of a quick (I pomise) thread hijack, how is the Tomahawk, MrJim?

I've been very happy with the X570 Tomahawk so far - it's been extremely stable & worked flawlessly since I put the system together. The only (very) minor criticism - which is true of most X570 motherboards - is that it does have the small chipset fan, which could be the cause of some unwanted noise if you're running the system hard. The other thing to consider though, is that B550 motherboards of the same era offer 95% of the features of X570, and are generally a bit cheaper too.

[MrJim]

Thanks mate, so should I do it for the sake of £24 extra? I'm only using it to game on nothing else, have macs for everything else.

I think that's probably a decision only you can make! If you're putting together a new system, you could argue that putting that £24 towards a better GPU, cooler etc might be worthwhile? Overclocking the RAM is always an option. I watch quite a lot Buildzoid's videos on 'Actually Hardcore Overclocking' over on Youtube, & he's a bit of an expert on RAM overclocking.

[keef247]

I think that's probably a decision only you can make! If you're putting together a new system, you could argue that putting that £24 towards a better GPU, cooler etc might be worthwhile? Overclocking the RAM is always an option. I watch quite a lot Buildzoid's videos on 'Actually Hardcore Overclocking' over on Youtube, & he's a bit of an expert on RAM overclocking.

Someone else just said to me "3600 is indeed optimum because it's essentially zero effort infinity "tune up" to increase it from 1600 up to 1800 MHz." so yeah no brainer at this point!

Screw it I'll stick to the original plan and get it, it can only give me some bonus fps in the future when things start getting harder to run/benefit if I go 1440p at some point, for the sake of a bottle of JD screw it!

I've only got the psu/ram/7900XT left to buy now so may as well!

Cheers for everybodies help

[Percy1983]

As prices are close 3600mhz is a no brainer, I wouldn't even consider 3200mhz.

With that I am running 32000mhz and have no plan to upgrade so the cost just isn't worth it (When I bought it years ago 3600mhz cost a lot more).

[keef247]

As prices are close 3600mhz is a no brainer, I wouldn't even consider 3200mhz.

With that I am running 32000mhz and have no plan to upgrade so the cost just isn't worth it (When I bought it years ago 3600mhz cost a lot more).

This was my theory, I just got worried it might not be compatible based on AMD's site as this is the first build I've done in 15 years haha! But had heard on b550m it was fine, so wanted to double check as I get terrible luck!

[Saracen999]

I've been very happy with the X570 Tomahawk so far - it's been extremely stable & worked flawlessly since I put the system together. The only (very) minor criticism - which is true of most X570 motherboards - is that it does have the small chipset fan, which could be the cause of some unwanted noise if you're running the system hard. The other thing to consider though, is that B550 motherboards of the same era offer 95% of the features of X570, and are generally a bit cheaper too.

Thanks for that.

It'll be in my home "office" so unless it's very noisy, and more so than the NAS, I'm not too worried about that. As for features, I'd rather go higher and not regret missing something, than lower and regret not having something I turn out to need, unless the difference in cost is very substantial. From what I've seen, it isn't great.

Thanks. I'll butt out of keef's thread now.

[Saracen999]

Thanks mate, so should I do it for the sake of £24 extra? I'm only using it to game on nothing else, have macs for everything else.

I tend to think of that kind of question in terms of "What will the £x (£24 in this case) buy me if I save it?"

Everybody will answer that differently.

If it's "food for several days for the family", save the £24.

If it's "A quarter bottle of good champage", get the faster RAM, 'cos you can clearer afford it if buying good champers.

In my case, probably 6 mediocre cups of coffee in a big chain, or about 40 cups of better coffee if I brew it myself. Ummm. Am I going to not buy coffee 'cos I bought the faster RAM? Nope. So I would buy it.

What I'm getting at, I guess, is how much £24 means to you. For some people, especially these days, it means a lot. For others, it won't really affect many if any decisions. That said, £24 is £24, and I'm not about to rip up some notes and put 'em through the shredder any time soon, but nor is it going to change my lifestyle if I actually did.

That principle, IMHO, applies to much larger sums too. I saw an interesting looking new coffee pod machine yesterday. But, about £800 and quite expensive on pods too. Would I like one? Yeah, if someone gave it to me, but am I buying one? Aw hell, no. The £800 is staying firmly in my bank .... for my graphics card, etc.

[MrJim]

It'll be in my home "office" so unless it's very noisy, and more so than the NAS, I'm not too worried about that. As for features, I'd rather go higher and not regret missing something, than lower and regret not having something I turn out to need, unless the difference in cost is very substantial. From what I've seen, it isn't great.

The chipset fan certainly hasn't bothered me in the least - I'm not even aware of it over the other fans in the system. You can set the behaviour of the chipset fan in the fan profile section of bios, but you can't stop it from activating completely (to maintain system stability should the temps get too high, I imagine).

[DanceswithUnix]

If you ever get doubts from the 3600MHz ram, you can always underclock it to 3200. There may well be an XMP setting for that speed at very low latency.

[keef247]

I tend to think of that kind of question in terms of "What will the £x (£24 in this case) buy me if I save it?"

Everybody will answer that differently.

If it's "food for several days for the family", save the £24.

If it's "A quarter bottle of good champage", get the faster RAM, 'cos you can clearer afford it if buying good champers.

In my case, probably 6 mediocre cups of coffee in a big chain, or about 40 cups of better coffee if I brew it myself. Ummm. Am I going to not buy coffee 'cos I bought the faster RAM? Nope. So I would buy it.

What I'm getting at, I guess, is how much £24 means to you. For some people, especially these days, it means a lot. For others, it won't really affect many if any decisions. That said, £24 is £24, and I'm not about to rip up some notes and put 'em through the shredder any time soon, but nor is it going to change my lifestyle if I actually did.

That principle, IMHO, applies to much larger sums too. I saw an interesting looking new coffee pod machine yesterday. But, about £800 and quite expensive on pods too. Would I like one? Yeah, if someone gave it to me, but am I buying one? Aw hell, no. The £800 is staying firmly in my bank .... for my graphics card, etc.

Nah in my case mate I'm already too far down the rabbit hole so would rather spend it than not and make everything the best I can for the budget i've spec'ed which already included this, it's the first pc i'll have built in 15 years since a first gen quad core so I'm going 7900XT as well and have everything bar the ram/psu/gpu now and all of that is achievable so screw it haha!

If you ever get doubts from the 3600MHz ram, you can always underclock it to 3200. There may well be an XMP setting for that speed at very low latency.

I was hoping you were going to say that or surely I just don't enable xmp full stop and it'd run at that?

[Saracen999]

I don't blame you, and am much the same. My last build was a Q-something .... not Q6600, i think it was Q8200 which was a bit faster IIRC, but low TDP. But either way, same era/age.

And given that Im spec'ing the whole machine, £24 on the overall system price is peanuts. So I'd do the same.

[keef247]

I don't blame you, and am much the same. My last build was a Q-something .... not Q6600, i think it was Q8200 which was a bit faster IIRC, but low TDP. But either way, same era/age.

And given that Im spec'ing the whole machine, £24 on the overall system price is peanuts. So I'd do the same.

Haha mine literally was a q6600 2.4ghz and i had it rock solid at 38C ambient 58-64C load at 3.8GHZ on air via an antec 900 case with a 200mm iirc top fan and many more 120's, and I wasn't even running them at full whack either as all had built in fan controls. I did get it to 4ghz but I couldn't be bothered fine enough tweaking everything.

That was a weapon that rig! Since then I've had a few macs and been more into modifying cars and drifting, but the time has come now for another beast gaming rig build!

Yeah £24 now gets you a lot more than later haha!