What ddr3 memory to choose with this build?

Max33 · May 5, 2014

i7 4770k
MSI radeon r9 290x (is this a good deliverer or should I choose saphire or something else)
RM750 750W PSU
MSI Z87-G45 (or maybe i'll go with this one: Asus H87I-plus)

I guess that only 8gb is enough? As a complete noob here, when it says "capacity" on the ddr3 that means how much ram it has yes? What are other important things to notice as well about the DDR3 card/chip? What does eg. 1600Mhz or 1800MHz mean? And what is the difference (what is the best?) between a card that is 8 (2 x 4) and just 8 (8 x 1)? I intend to play games like crysis 3, AC black flag and bf4 on ultra with the most fps possible (I don't like anything under 45fps but that's okay with me). My budget is 330$ max on buying a DDR3 chip/card. But i'd really prefer not spending that much on it. I have no idea what the average DDR3 chip/card costs any way. A solution will be picked!

Adrian Ocampo · May 5, 2014

The best memory for that build that both has price and performance in mind is a 8gb(4gbx2) 1866 CL9/CL8 Memory.

Max33 · May 5, 2014

Adrian Ocampo :

Thank you, but I have some other quick questions as well

What is the difference (what would be the best?) between 8gb (4 x 2) and 8gb ( 8 x 1 )? And also what does eg. 1600Mhz, 1800Mhz, etc, mean?

damric · May 5, 2014

These are low voltage dimms that work great with Haswell CPU.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-bls2k4g3d1609es2lx0

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f31600c11d8gisl

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f31600c11d8gisl

Get dual channel (2 or 4 dimms) for maximum performance. The 1600 in DDR3-1600 means the amount of mega transfers per second. DDR means double data rate so a DDR3-1600 kit runs at 800MHz and 1600MT/s. the other numbers are the latency so a 9-9-9 kit is faster than a 11-11-11 kit.

qwertyDS · May 5, 2014

I suggest going with RAM with lower CAS latency numbers (how much cpu ticks it requires to respond). As with speed do not worry much about that since speeds diffrences like 1333Mhz vs 2400Mhz in the real world is almost no diffrence since I think you dont care if your web browser opens in 1.4 second or 1.2 second. As with capacity if your primary work is gaming go with 8gb its enough no need for more, and with memory modules go always with 2 lower capacity over 1 higher because if your motherboard supports dual-channel architecture it will double the bandwith, in this case go for 2x4gb of memory. I suggest buying memory from brands like Crucial,Kingston,Corsair and G.Skill

Max33 · May 5, 2014

qwertyDS :

Ok so 1600Mhz is fine then and 8GB is also fine. But how low should I go on latency numbers and how much of a difference is there between them? And with that you mean the 9-9-9 and 11-11-11 numbers right? What do the numbers stand for? s? ms?

damric · May 5, 2014

When it comes to real latency it's measured in in nanoseconds.

qwertyDS is dead wrong about memory speed affecting gaming performance though. RAM speed can make the difference between playable FPS and unplayable when you are in heavy CPU intensive areas of the game.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/comparisons-of-cpu-gpu-ram-overclocks-and-comparing-bottlenecks-fm2-cpu.196940/

Anyways, just get the Crucial kit I linked. It's low voltage DDR3-1600CL9

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/update-on-my-fx-4100-more-tuning-performance.161062/

Max33 · May 5, 2014

damric :

Ok so:
8gb check
1600Mhz is enough?
Is 9-9-9 CAS good enough?

damric · May 5, 2014

Yes 1600MHz is enough. If you want, you can get a faster kit but it will be higher voltage like 1.5v or 1.65v. Your CPU is recommended to use the low volt kits, but it's a rule that is often broken anyway when overclocking.

Max33 · May 5, 2014

damric :

Ok, so what about this one? https://www.komplett.no/crucial-ddr3-ballistix-sport-vlp-8gb-kit/770200#!tab:extra The reason i'd rather get this one instead of the one you recommended is because I don't live in america and this one I can buy from my country (the one you talked about I can't buy here for some reason).

damric · May 5, 2014

Yes that's the model to get.

Max33 · May 5, 2014

damric :

Ok, thank you very much for the help

damric · May 5, 2014

No problem. Have fun with your build

qwertyDS · May 6, 2014

Max33 :

For DDR3 memory you should pick between CL9 and CL8 because its the most common numbers, like I said the lower the better, for numbers like 9-9-9-24 these numbers are indacting how much cpu clock cycles it takes to perform certain operation.as with the CL Latency it goes with the timings as well. the lower the better.
If you want to look up for more detailed information read this articale
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Understanding-RAM-Timings/26/1

qwertyDS · May 6, 2014

damric :

LOL like few extra fps is a huge diffrence
because as frequency increases also increases CL latency and also timings so it has almost no benefit from higher frequency ram
look this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWgzA2C61z4

damric · May 6, 2014

qwertyDS :

damric :

LOL like few extra fps is a huge diffrence
because as frequency increases also increases CL latency and also timings so it has almost no benefit from higher frequency ram
look this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWgzA2C61z4

lol, noob. I'll stick with my DDR-2400CL10. K Thx.

Maxert · May 6, 2014

1600 mhz is great at cl9, the higher the mhz goes the higher the cl rating too... in the end, it counter balances to equivalent performance. Unless like the person above 2400mhz @ cl10, that's really good performance. 1600 mhz is good actually.

I would like to give some tips regarding your motherboard.
First of, you have to check if your motherboard even lets you have higher mhz memory or not.
I would go for the MSI board than the Asus, (of course if you are building itx based small PC, then go for the asus) however the MSI have 4 ram slots (just incase you need more in the future).
Also remember to have two stick of ram instead of one, because motherboards run in dual channel and it's more efficient and faster that way.

Your build at 8gb is top notch with that processor and that gpu, your build can be used for good video editing and other rendering stuff. If so, you can higher RAM or have that MSI board for future upgrade incase you are planning to do some video editing or heavy application usage.

What ddr3 memory to choose with this build?

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