Need help deciding RAM for new Haswell setup.

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Dr_Tee

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Jan 16, 2014
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I'm currently the process of setting up a fairly decent gaming rig, and I'm at the stage of small final decisions, one of which is deciding between three relatively identical pairs of RAM. I've narrowed down my options to Ripjaws X, Trident X, and Corsair Dominator Platinuim (All at 2133, 2x8gb and 9cas). I cannot find any clear advantages/disadvantages (other than possibly the voltage? apparently Haswell can't handle anything above 15.75V at stock clock, some clairvoyance there would be appreciated as well) between these three options and would greatly appreciate some clarity as to which performs better.

Setup:
CPU - Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz
Mobo - Asus Maximus VI Hero (I know this isn't the forum for it, but would an upgrade to the formula really be that much of an improvement?)
GPU - EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB
PSU - SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold Certified
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

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Jun 5, 2013
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the 1.5 is recommended at 1600 sticks (the MCs default), I generally recommend sticking with 1.5 up through 1866, 2133 and above is fine w/ 1.6-1.65 the higher freqs require the higher voltage (INtel even certifies these higher freq sticks at 1.6 and 1.65), on the Hero I'd go the Tridents, they were (and are) the best I've run on mine and have most all their sets on it, also most of the other higher end GSkill models as well as a large number of Corsiar sets and a few others. and when looking check the Trident 2400/10 set , they've been selling at basically the same price
 
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Dr_Tee

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Jan 16, 2014
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Wow thanks for taking the time to answer me, especially in such a specific manner. Just so I get this right, there's no issue with the 1.6V/1.65V RAM as long as they're 2133+? Also, I read a pretty neat article on the best RAM for Haswell CPUs and I believe the conclusion was that the 2133 sticks, followed by 1866, were the best matches. Though, I'm no memory expert so I may have misread the chart, it may have had to do with value and whatnot. Will the 2400/10 kit truly offer better performance?

EDIT: Also, this may be irrelevant, but the specs for the all Trident X's say optimized for Z77 chipsets/Intel 3rd gen while the Dominator Platinum mentions it's advanced compatibility with the 4th gen Intel CPU's, is this important in any way?
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
Jun 5, 2013
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Probably read the Anandtech article,

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell

if not, it's a good read, and yes for most the 1866/2133 is the swweetspot for Haswell, however, if you are heavy into video, imaging, CAD, VMs, or other memory centric apps then kicking up to 2400 or even higher, will see performance increases, I'm running 32GB of 2666 and whenever I go and run even 2133 sticks to test, I see a difference
 
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Dr_Tee

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Jan 16, 2014
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Seems simple enough. I will probably end up going with 16gbs of the 2400/10 as the price is literally equal for more performance, and again I'd like to say thanks for answering with such specificity. Completely new here and this was a great first experience.
 
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Dr_Tee

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Jan 16, 2014
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Oh yeah, one last thing - is the optimal chipset for the memory important? In the spec summaries of the Trident X series it is lists as optimized for Ivy Bridge(Z77 Chipsets) while the Corsair is listed as optimized for Haswell(Z87 Chipsets). Will this have any impact on performance?
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
Jun 5, 2013
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The Tridents were brought out while Ivy was out, they were basically early releases the line itself was aimed at Haswell, they were making and stockpiling sticks - especially in 2666 and up long before Haswell was released and when there basically weren't any CPU's that could run 2666 and up (a few 3770Ks could run 2666/2800 but that was it), that's one reason the Tridents are so well priced in the upper freqs 2133 and up - good example I picked up the 32GB s2400/10 Tri's in May of 2012, Corsair didn't get a 32GB set of 2400 out until just about 4-5 months ago (think Sep or so of 2013)
 
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