Intel i5 memory compatibility questions

[willng]

Hi everyone this is my first post here and I would like to have some answers from you guys. Few years ago I built my last PC which is still useful. I used one of the first c2d, a 2.3ghz, 2gb ddr2 667 RAM, 8600GT and 500GB sata I HD. In that time, it was the fastest gaming gaming machine you could build.

So it has been a long time since I disconnected myself from the pc building and gaming stuff. Now I want to build a new pc based on i5. I got into Newegg, but to my surprise, things are all different. Now I see 12mb L3 cache, 2200 ram speeds (wow), and they have a new stuff called latency. (which thanks to this forum I learned how it works, etc.

The point is, I want 4 or 6GB DDR3 ram but only few items says "P55/i5 compatible"... does that means the other ram are not? and some other say "designed for i7" but i dont see it mention i5 in the spec or reviews?

Can you link me to good memories that are not that expensive? I dont care about the mhz because that won't do a huge speed increase, more importantly I would like a lower latency.

Thanks

 

[Mongox]

Generally, any DDR3 RAM with voltages between 1.5V - 1.65V is i5 compatible. You might see 3 stick sets listed as i7 compatible, but any module suitable for i5 is OK for i7. There can be extra features such as XMP - a semi-automatic overclocking feature, found on i5/i7 RAM.

With the i5, you'll be going for either 4GBs or 8GBs. Buy 2 x 2GB kits equal to 4GBs.

Both of these are good quality with low latency in 1333 speed. And both $89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231276
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227478

 

[willng]

Thanks for such a fast and precise answer.

And since this thread is posted on mobo and memory section...

Could you point me to a good mobo? Not looking for a gaming board, I want something stable that can fit a big 260GTX in it. Overcloak also not important to me.

 

[willng]

What about this mobo?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128401

 

[Mongox]

Well, I'm using the built-in grahpics with my board - so I'm a bad person to ask on matching GPUs and MBs.

My opinion, Gigabyte and Asus make the most popular boards here at the forum and both are good quality brands with solid companies behind them. I've had 3 Gigabyte boards in the past 12 yrs or so and happy with all of them.

But, I'm an AMD user and not familar with all the advantages of different chipsets for Intel CPUs. What I would recommend is to take a brand, like Gigabyte, then go to their page for the series you're looking for - in your case i5, Socket 1156, P55 Chipset:
http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_List.aspx?VenderType=Intel&CPUType=socket+1156

Look over all the boards there, open their specs in separate browser tabs and get familar with what the different model boards offer - such as SATA and eSATA, # and type of PCI-e, etc... Decide what features are important to you.

Repeat it at the Asus site.

Then compare prices. Once you have perhaps a one or so boards from each maker picked out, search here for topics that mention them. See what problems users had and how they were solved. Consider how many posters were familar with the issues or said they had that board.

In my case, I bought the Gigabyte board I actually didn't like as much as another, but realized it was a FAR more popular board. This was enough to make my decision.

Also, once you have the choices down some, ask in the MB specific forums here for Asus and Giga.