The most efficient 8GB and 16GB RAM available.

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HaroldFinch

Honorable
May 10, 2013
17
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10,510
Hey,
I am currently trying to decide what memory will be best for my first PC build. I may go for 8GB but given that I have the funds and there is not a great deal of difference in price between the 8GB and the 16GB I think that I would quite like to buy the latter.

My PC will have an i7-3770 and I am willing to spend up to £130 for good memory.

I was initially planning to buy the Corsair family of RAM but I've heard that the high head of the memory sticks can be affected by the cooling fans inside the machine. I don't know if this is true so I would appreciate some advice in regards to that matter. Would the low profile Corsair sticks be better?

Also, is there a difference between the blue and black Corsair editions? Finally, is there much of a difference between 1600 MHz Ram and 1866 MHz, if so in what way?

Thanks!


http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/RAM/DDR3/Dual+Channel+1600MHz/8GB+%282x4GB%29+Corsair+Vengeance+Blue+Low+Profile+1600MHz+CL9+DDR3+Dual%2FQuad+Channel+Kit+%5BCML8GX3M2A1600C9B%5D+?productId=45510

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/RAM/DDR3/Dual+Channel+1866MHz/8GB+%282x4GB%29+Corsair+Vengeance+Jet+Black+1866MHz+CL9+DDR3+Dual%2FQuad+Channel+Kit+%5BCMZ8GX3M2A1866C9%5D+?productId=50688

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/RAM/DDR3/Quad+Channel+1600MHz/16GB+%284x4GB%29+Corsair+Vengeance+Jet+Black+1600MHz+CL9+DDR3+Dual%2FQuad+Channel+Kit+%5BCMZ16GX3M4A1600C9%5D+?productId=48126

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/RAM/DDR3/Dual+Channel+1600MHz/16GB+%282x8GB%29+Corsair+Vengeance+Jet+Black+1600MHz+CL9+DDR3+Dual%2FQuad+Channel+Kit+%5BCMZ16GX3M2A1600C9%5D+?productId=55441

 
Solution
I recently upgraded my ram and went with 16GBs of DDR3 1600MHz ram. As you mentioned the price difference considering the extra 8GBs is next to nothing. I've also maxed out what my win7 home premium 64Bit can handle. So I won't need to worry about upgrading the ram again. I also know that most programs, or at least the ones I use, won't use more then 2-3GBs of it. But this means I don't have to close programs down. I leave all the programs I use open now, and switching between them all is as fast as normal. No longer do I need to worry about closing something and wait while things are swapped back into ram. I simply alt tab and use the program.

I'm not sure what you mean by "most efficient" but I went with the G.Skill...
With ivy bridge, there is negligible difference in real app performance with ram faster than 1600.
Read this:http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3

With ram so cheap today, I think I would buy a 16gb kit. You may not need it lt, but windows is good at keeping code in ram available for instant reuse.

Blue/black specs looks exactly the same to me. I would buy low profile versions to insure that you have no clearance issues with aftermarket cpu coolers.
1.5v ram actually does not need any heat spreaders. They are mostly marketing.
 

4745454b

Titan
Moderator
I recently upgraded my ram and went with 16GBs of DDR3 1600MHz ram. As you mentioned the price difference considering the extra 8GBs is next to nothing. I've also maxed out what my win7 home premium 64Bit can handle. So I won't need to worry about upgrading the ram again. I also know that most programs, or at least the ones I use, won't use more then 2-3GBs of it. But this means I don't have to close programs down. I leave all the programs I use open now, and switching between them all is as fast as normal. No longer do I need to worry about closing something and wait while things are swapped back into ram. I simply alt tab and use the program.

I'm not sure what you mean by "most efficient" but I went with the G.Skill DDR3-1600 2x8Gb 10-10-10-30 @1.5V. Hasn't gave me any grief and its low profile as well.
 
Solution
For daily usage, you only need 8GB that is enough even the RAM is cheaper (but it still costs more compared to few months ago), but if you use the PC for heavy photo/video editing software you need 16GB RAM.

Also if you use aftermark cpu cooler you don't want buy the RAM with heatsink because the fan of the cooler will block the memory slot. You need the low profile RAM instead if you have the cooler.
 
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