Which Ram should I get?

JasonJJJ

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Oct 19, 2015
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Hi all,

Do you have any suggestions on which ram I should get for the build below? I'm not sold on the Trident and the ram does not have to be RGB.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wQnjLJ

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($369.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte - Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 (rev. 1.0) ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($218.50 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Pro 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($92.99 @ Newegg Business)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB FTW3 GAMING iCX Video Card ($804.98 @ Newegg Business)
Case: Corsair - Crystal 460X RGB ATX Mid Tower Case ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.67 @ OutletPC)



As a bonus, is there another motherboard that I should go for? Should I go for a Z390 instead? Are any of the below a better choice than the Gaming 7? I'd like to have a motherboard that has great on-board audio (if there is such a thing), has a Type-C port and is good for overclocking in case I want to go that route. I don't care if the motherboard is RGB or not.

Z370
Z390


Thanks so much for you help!




 
Why are you not sold on the Trident Z? It's practically impossible to get better memory, especially if you are going with a Samsung B-die model within the Trident Z family which would be highly recommendable.

There are Corsair Dominator modules that use the B-dies but they are generally a bit more expensive than G.Skill for the same or less quality.

Any Corsair or G.Skill 3200mhz module other than the Flare-X modules should work fine with that build though.

Are you going to be planning to add sleeved cables to the PSU later on, or sleeve them yourself?
 

JasonJJJ

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Oct 19, 2015
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Thanks so much for your help here Darkbreeze. I honestly didn't know what B-Die Ram was until I just google'd it. The ram doesn't have to be B-Die. The Dominator Platinum Special Edition DDR4 look amazing but they seem to be sold out. https://www.corsair.com/us/en/dominatorplatinumse If you were doing the build that I was, what ram and motherboard would you go with?



 
Are you going to be overclocking the CPU?

Do you plan on overclocking the memory, or tightening down the timings, or just running it at it's XMP profile?

Also, looking more closely, I think you want a higher end CPU cooler for that 6/12 processor. Minimum I'd recommend would be the Cryorig H5 or Noctua NH-U14S. Some kind of decent quality 140mm cooler. 120mm is not going to give you enough headroom for any decent overclocking at all, and might even be rather borderline for stock operation if you don't want it running at high speeds a lot.
 

JasonJJJ

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Oct 19, 2015
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Apologies for all of the back and forth and thanks again for your help.

I'd rather not overclock right away but I will want to overclock eventually. I was just doing some research and the 9700K is pretty much the same price as the 8700K so for future proofing I think it's best that I just get the 9700K and a Z390 board.

I hate the looks of the Noctua NH-U14S. Could I use a Cryorig H5 for a 9700K?

What Z390 do you think I should get? I don't care about RGB on motherboard, onboard audio is important to me and the option to overclock with an easy to use bios for when I decide to go that route.

In regards to timings vs. XMP profile, I'm not sure. I really just want to have a hands off build with minimal manual tinkering that comes with over-clocking.










 
It's VERY, VERY hard to beat the Maximus Hero boards without paying significantly more. In the mid range, the Z370/390, or any gen, of the A series boards are good choices with MOST of the features found on the ROG boards, but the Hero has most of what the very high end Extreme and similar boards have including usually the same sound chip, replaceable DAC, etc.

They also have very good power phase, high quality, good looks, many features and header options. As usual, that would be my go to. The Gigabyte boards are high quality, but having just swapped a Z170x-Gaming 5 (Almost identical to the gaming 7 in the bios and elsewhere) for a Hero VIII, even this late in the game years after it's release, it was like going from night to day. The Gigabyte boards tend to not have as good of granularity in the bios. DRAM voltage only adjustable by .020v increments instead of .005v increments like the ASUS and ASRock boards. That pretty much translates throughout the bios.

Better fan controls. Intel LAN. Lots of little things that make a big difference in the end.

I'd definitely be looking at either the Hero boards or the ASRock Extreme4 or Taichi.

I'd also forego Z370 and use Z390. Power phase and delivery is supposed to be improved on Z390. There is also supposed to be native support for USB 3.1 gen2 and Thunderbolt 2, although I haven't bothered to look and see if that's true yet or not.

Z390 has TWIN 8 phase power delivery. 8 channel ROG SupremeFX S1220 High Definition Audio CODEC. Kind of hard to beat.

Overclocking should ALWAYS be done manually. Automatic and preset overclocking features should be avoided. The "err to the side of caution with overly high voltage settings" these kind of overclocking features bring to the table make them less than palatable and usually result in a far lower overclock, with much higher thermals, than doing it manually through the bios which is not terribly difficult anyhow.

As for memory, just using the XMP profile is not a bad or unwise thing anyhow. There isn't a lot to be gained, gains are small, tinkering with timings and tightening things up. Mostly, for those of us who enjoy doing it, the small gains are just a bonus.

Also, while the G3 EVGA units are pretty good, for a build of this caliber I think I'd highly recommend at least looking into the Seasonic Prime Ultra units. Especially the Platinum and Titanium models. These units have exceptional, even mythical voltage regulation, ripple and noise levels, without needing to use in line capacitors to achieve it. Other, lower tiered Seasonic and as far as I know, ALL EVGA G2, G3, GQ, P2 and T2 models use inline caps which means if an inline cap fails or if you swap out the cables for an aftermarket set that are individually sleeved, you will sacrifice a fair share of those units rather good levels of ripple and noise test results. If you try to sleeve them yourself, you'll have to cut out the inline caps as they can't be sleeved with them left in the ends of the cables.

Plus, the Seasonic Prime Ultra units have longer warranties, and actually live up to them. Don't get me wrong, those EVGA models that I listed are still very good, but not to the same level by a fair margin.
 

JasonJJJ

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Oct 19, 2015
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Thanks again for all of your help, I greatly appreciate it!

I already purchased the EVGA G3 650 PSU and the Corsair 460X RGB case so I can't return those.

For the motherboard, I want a good build but I can't go over-board (no pun intended) with the costs and the Maximus Hero is too expensive. What are your thoughts on the ROG Strix? Would the below be a good option?

ASUS ROG Strix Z390-E Gaming LGA 1151
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813119151&cm_re=asus_z390-_-13-119-151-_-Product

For CPU I will try to go with the 9700K (prices are much higher right now than they were this morning).

For cooler I'll go with the CRYORIG - H5.

I'll most likely go TridentZ 16 gig DDR 4 3200 or possibly the Corsair Dominator Platinum.

What are your thoughts on the above? Will that be a good build and all compatible?






 
The ASUS A series boards are excellent. They are practically exactly the same in most cases as the ROG boards, but without as many bells and whistles. They are also significantly less expensive. Good for overclocking and usually have about the same audio codec as the Hero on most generations.

I wouldn't hesitate to use this board whatsoever in my own build if I was unable to afford the Hero.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: Asus - PRIME Z390-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($189.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $189.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-17 00:27 EDT-0400