Best RAM for Phenom II 965 + Asus M4A89GTD PRO

[Tangerine123]

Hey guys! ...and girls if there are any

I am trying to upgrade my PC and biggest problem so far is to find memory which would give the best performance/price ratio for my system.

These are the parts I am planning to buy:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125w version)
Motherboard: Asus M4A89GTD PRO
GPU: Sapphire ATI Radeon 5770 HD 1GB (Vapor-X)

I have a decent PSU from my previous build - Zalman - 460-APS (460w) which I think still would be good.

I would like to spend about 100 pounds on a memory kit, but I am not that good with determining which would be the cheapest and best investment with the greatest relative performance and also would be good from longevity point of view.

The 2 RAM's I kind of a liked were

G-Skill 4GB 1600MHz PC12800 DDR3 NQ Series CAS 9 Kit (about 100-110 pounds)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (110 pounds)

But I still don't know if that wouldn't be an overkill. Maybe I need to go for a budget modules?
As I am a gamer as well, I would still need something that's good for gaming performance, but if the improvement is minimal for a bigger increase in price, I would rather prefer the cheapest one.

I also would like to know if it would be better to get 4 or 6GB of RAM. Does the increase from 4GB plays a big role in gaming and power applications like Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign?

I will value and appreciate everyone's opinions and suggestions about RAM and this rig.

Thank you!

 

[jbakerlent]

What site are you buying from? See if there are any G.Skill Ripjaws with CL7 instead, either 1333 or 1600MHz will do. You won't want to get 6GB because it is triple channel, which is intended for socket 1366 builds. Regarding the other parts if you are paying more than a few dollars extra for the 965 consider dropping down to the 955. Also, I'd recommend getting a new PSU considering that that one only provides 360W on it's +12V rails.

 

[Tangerine123]

What site are you buying from? See if there are any G.Skill Ripjaws with CL7 instead, either 1333 or 1600MHz will do. You won't want to get 6GB because it is triple channel, which is intended for socket 1366 builds. Regarding the other parts if you are paying more than a few dollars extra for the 965 consider dropping down to the 955. Also, I'd recommend getting a new PSU considering that that one only provides 360W on it's +12V rails.

I don't usually buy from one particular store. I usually check the prices on amazon.co.uk, as well as Google shopping results. Then I compare prices and order from site which has the cheapest price but has enough (usually at least few hundred) good seller ratings, to be sure that it is not a con.

Could you please specify about socket 1366 and triple channel? Not sure what you mean. So what should I do later if I need to upgrade to 6GB or more?

About 965 - I read that it is really good for overclocking, while 955 (for some strange reason) is possible to overclock only slightly, before it gets unstable. Difference is something like 25 pounds. I know that I will feel better with 965 in my PC

Yes and could you please tell me a bit more about PSU. Mine is working fine with Core 2 Duo E6400, Asus P5B-E motherboard, and Radeon x1950xtx.

My Radeon consumes 293 watts under full load, according to benchmarks

http://www.sudhian.com/index.php?/articles/show/ati_radeon_x1950xtx_review/power_consumption

And E6400 consumes 163w at max (on startup)

Sapphire ATI Radeon 5770 HD 1GB consumes about 285 at load and Phenom's maximal is 125w.

So wouldn't it be safe to assume that there should not be any problems if i am going to use current PSU?
Or are there any other factors I know nothing about? And why it says 460w on the Zalman, if it is actually 360?

Thanks.

 

[jbakerlent]

Your board's socket (and all other sockets except 1366) use dual channel RAM meaning they work best with 1, 2 or 4 sticks. 6GB would require 3 sticks, which would disable dual channel. You would need to add 4GB more if you wanted to upgrade. You can give the PSU a try, it just doesn't sound like the best idea to me. Maybe see the PSU section (Post 2) of my guide listed in my signature for a quick explanation of why I said 360W.