Which RAM chips would you buy?

[Zinosys]

Hello everyone!

I'm planning to build a semi-high end PC, and was wondering if I could get your (yes, your) input on choosing RAM.

My choices are:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104132

-and-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231254

They're both DDR3 2000MHz chips with a Cas Latency of 9.

What I'm wondering is the actual chips INSIDE the rams...

I heard that the Kingston rams use hynix chips and the G skills use ProMOS (?) chips... ...Which I heard are better...

...whatever.

Just which one would you buy? They're about $5 apart.

 

[tortnotes]

Disclaimer: I don't know much about RAM.

But you did ask for my (yes, my!) advice, so... both of these RAM kits are probably going to be great (even overkill) for a "semi-high end PC." I doubt you'll run into problems from such highly-rated memory as this unless you're doing some major overclocking.

I'd buy the G.Skill because it's actually in stock.

 

[Zinosys]

Hehe, thanks for the quick response!

Well, in-stock doesn't really mean much to me now. The build is in the planning stage, and I'm just looking for an outline.

As for "semi high-end", to be more specific, i7-930/ex58a-UD7/5770VX.

Well, I'm not going to be doing any major OC'ing, but perhaps a bit (~100MHz+ hopefully?)

Thanks for your input!

 

[obsidian86]

the g skill run bit cooler and can run on lower voltage then the kingston ram and i have got the g skill set(4gb) but look out for the team ddr3 2000mhz cl 8 they tend to be the same price as the g skill's

 

[sminlal]

IMHO, memory is one of the least things to worry about in terms of PC performance. Because of the huge caches used on modern CPUs, RAM memory may only be involved in a few percent of instructions. This means that if even if you were able to find a brand of RAM that was TWICE as fast, the overall system performance for most typical tasks would only improve by a percent or two.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

Doritos and Lay's make pretty good chips.

 

[Zinosys]

@HundredIslandsBoy, don't be a troll.

@Psycho, why?

I can't get Team where I live, and even if I can find it, it's a 2GB 1600MHz kit for $120. :|

Thanks obsidian86!

 

[delluser1]

@HundredIslandsBoy, don't be a troll.

He could at least try to get it right.
Doritos and Lay's are made by Fritolay.

Sorry, I had to.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I wouldn't buy DDR-2000 .... read the article here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-scaling-i7,2325-11.html

I'd go for lower CAS timings ...... and 1600 DDR unless you're thinking LN cooling and 5-6 Ghz CPU speeds.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

I've used both Kingston and G-Skill. My last 4 sets, matched pairs, were G-Skill and they've had no issues. I made those choices because right before that my Kingston RAM modules failed, literally burnt up, bubbled from no heat sink.

 

[Zinosys]

@delluser1, you're a horrible person lol.

Cool stuff, Jack. Hmm.. Well, I was wondering a while back whether I should get low latency 1600MHz or higher latency 2000MHz. I determined that multi-threaded applications can make more efficient use of faster memory...

I read an article a while back and DDR3-2000 @ CAS9 heavily outweighs DDR3-1600 @ CAS 6-7.

The question is if it's really worth the extra $40-50. :|

I pretty much decided on the G.Skills, so now it's between this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231335

...and this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231254

I might be doing a little bit of RAM OC'ing, but nothing to thorough. (and definitely no liquid nitrogen will be involved!

 

[Zinosys]

@HundredIslandsBoy, well, I definitely havent had my chips bubble up yet (!), but everyone is telling me to go G.Skill.

So now, it's just between High bus speed, high latency, or low bus speed and low latency...

 

[hundredislandsboy]

@HundredIslandsBoy, well, I definitely havent had my chips bubble up yet (!), but everyone is telling me to go G.Skill.

So now, it's just between High bus speed, high latency, or low bus speed and low latency...

Hope this makes sense to you but high bus speed, high latency is just overclocked low bus speed and low latency modules. I've taken my G-Skill DDR2 800 and overclocked them full-time with no issues. So I won't pay the premium for the higher rated speed.

 

[Zinosys]

^^Yup. Makes sense. I've seen the tridents at 1600MHz/CL6. Now 2000MHz CL9...

They look pretty much the same, and I bet the actual chips on the PCB are the same too.

Then, G.Skill Pi it is!

Well, wait a second. Let me bother you some more.

What about this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231335

versus this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231247
?

They look pretty much the same, except for the timings... 7-8-7-24-2N vs 8-8-8-21.

Hehe, Uhmm.. I'll leave it to you guys to tell me what to get. I don't know too much about timings...

Which one would you buy? They're the same price (and probably the same chips), just as H.I.B. said.

Thanks!

 

[hundredislandsboy]

Same chips, different batch (or maybe same batch) but for sure different firmware flash for the timings. You won't see any noticeable difference and memory benchmarks will be less than one-tenth pecent.

I think performance wise they're the same. But to catch the enthusiast's eye, the ones they bench tested at the factory and got them to be more reliable at the lower latency through the torture tests (lol) they packaged with the lower numbers! So if I had to decide, I'd get the ones with 7 instead of 8 hoping when I overclock I can keep them as lower than the ones with 8. All this just for a difference of less than probably a quarter percent!

 

[Zinosys]

Hehe, well, I'm not spending any more money!

I think I'll shoot for the CAS 7 ones. I already knew that lower latency = better, but what was puzzling is the fact that there were no ratings for the cas7 chips, and 55 for the cas8 ones.

Odd, but it's worth the risk! Thanks!