AMD Phenom II x4, RAM select for future OC potential

[EaYaJB]

Hi Guys, slightly off topic topic here, but i'm trying to put together a new system and HomeBuilds Forum doesn't have any advice for me.

I'm looking for an AMD Phenom II x4 on an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX, and trying to decide on RAM that will give me a balanced system with the potential for OC and xFire as it starts to feel the strain in a couple of years.

It's mostly going to be used for phone application emulation i.e. Lots of multi-threading, and 2D + 3D Graphics programming. To add a little future proofing I was going to start with 16Gb DDR3 dual channel:

2 x 8GB Mushkin Blackline LV #996988 (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 £78.84
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR3/Dual+Channel+1600MHz/8GB+Mushkin+Blackline+LV+%23996988+%282x4GB%29+DDR3+1600MHz+9-9-9-24+?operation=shoppingBasketAdd&productId=43961&context=

2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance White LP (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz 1.35v Dual Channel Kit - 9-9-9-24 £84.94
http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/8GB+Corsair+Vengeance+White+LP+%282x4GB%29+DDR3+PC3-12800C9+1600MHz+1.35v+Dual+Channel+Kit+-+CML8GX3M2A1600C9W+?productId=45857

I went with these for the 1.35V stability, although I'm not entirely sure this is completely necessary?! Is there anything you could suggest that might be a better fit?

Thanks everyone!!

 

[mxno]

i would recommand to go maybe with some CL8 , or maybe down the clock speed from 1600mhz to 1333mhz and go for cl7, from what i know Amd machine prefer tight timing to high clock speed (even more if u wanna overclock it) but yet thats just my 2 cent

can i ask with phenom 2 X 4 your going for ? a black edition or standard ? will you oc the ram too ?

 

[EaYaJB]

Sweet, that's some nice advice. I'm looking at the 960T as there's a good chance I can unlock the 2 extra cores and still be pushing 3.6GHz easy. And it has to be BE all the way. I was going to be putting all of this on to a GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-D3.

Initially I'm only looking to up the multiplier for what is essentially "free" MHz and I wasn't going to touch the RAM other than the expected voltage increase with the extra power through the CPU.

This was why I was looking at 1.35V, as it's likely more stable if i'm messing with CPU voltage.

I've been told in no short term that I should only be looking at Crucial and Kingston? Apparently they're 3x more stable than competitors... The only other alternative was Mushkin or GSkill, as it had the tight timing and lower voltage but didn't break the bank.

Thinking it through I was also going to drop to 8Gb as it's unlikely i'll need 16Gb straight off the bat and it saves me a few £$'s along the way, but it' easy enough to add more later on.

Any thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.