Highest quality RAM available?

khubani · Nov 12, 2013

Hi, I will be building a new system soon and have decided on the i5-3570 - and I will not be overclocking. What is the best quality RAM I can buy to supplement this processor? Is DDR 3-1600 sufficient? Or is 1866 considered OC? Either or, I have heard that RAM with a CAS latency of 9-9-9-9 is extremely important. Can someone recommend some type of memory for me?

Tradesman1 · Nov 12, 2013

For a non-K 3570, can look to 8 maybe 16GB of 1866/9 or up to 32GB of 1600/9, you don't mention your mobo so in general would look at the GSkill RipJaws X or their Snipers

khubani · Nov 12, 2013

Yeah I'm still working on the mobo. Isn't anything above 1600 OC? Or do I have that wrong

Tradesman1 · Nov 12, 2013

Technically - yes - but with Ivy Bridge, most K model CPUs can take 1866 fine with no OC, same as 1600, simply enable XMP and select profile 1

khubani · Nov 13, 2013

Ok, but in this specific case, if I were to get a motherboard that supports 1866 and an i5-3570 - would I be possibly (emphasis on the possibly) be putting myself in a bad situation in the event that the processor cannot take the overclocked ram? Or would it HAVE to be a 3570K? And, if it HAS to be the K model, am I still in a bad situation in terms of just trying to use the RAM at 1866? Or do I have to OC the cpu, too?

Tradesman1 · Nov 13, 2013

I'd go the the 3570K, but if you choose to go 3570, I'd give it about a 90% that it will run the 1866 sticks, if not you're not out of it, can always drop to 1600 and run at tighter timings to get near same as 1866 performance

khubani · Nov 13, 2013

Ok. Is there preoverclocked RAM or is 1866 preoverlocked?

Tradesman1 · Nov 13, 2013

The spec freq is the freq of the sticks, you aren't really OCing the DRAM, unless of course you take 1866 and go to run it at 2133 or whatever, you casically are OCing the Memory controller to above it's spec of 1600 (though with the Intel Gen3-4 CPUs it's really more of a native 1866 but INtel understates everything

PassMark · Nov 14, 2013

I assume you want the highest quality RAM available as you value reliability and stability. With performance being a secondary factor.

If this was the case, then have you considered using error correcting ECC ram with a Xeon or AMD CPU instead?

leeb2013 · Nov 14, 2013

I don't think RAM above 1600 makes much difference (in gaming anyway). Although I have Gskill Ares 2133 with my 3570k. It'll go up to 2400, but with the CPU o/c to 4.4GHz, I find the RAM benchmarks nearly as well at 1600 and slightly tighter timings.

khubani · Nov 15, 2013

@PassMark: No, I have not because I have not heard of that. I do have a specific focus on gaming, but I want the gaming and quality to be hand-in-hand. I want this build to be looked at as if it were your own - and ideally, have a system that virtually (to you all) has no obvious bottlenecks where, in most cases, there will always be one.
@leeb2013: Understood. So staying at 1600 or going higher may give a benefit but not worth taking the risk for since the gains are so marginal?

PassMark · Nov 17, 2013

If you are only gaming, then you don't need ECC RAM. It tends to be a bit slower even if the quality and stability is much better.
ECC RAM really only makes sense for 'mission critical' applications. e.g. banking, medical, safety systems, high end business uses, etc..

Search

Highest quality RAM available?

khubani

Distinguished

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum

khubani

Distinguished

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum

khubani

Distinguished

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum

khubani

Distinguished

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum

PassMark

Distinguished

leeb2013

Honorable

khubani

Distinguished

PassMark

Distinguished

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page