Advice for 1155 memory

[Debeucci]

Building a new comp for sandy bridge. I have all my parts figured out except I am a retard when it comes to memory.

here's what I've bought so far or plan to buy

silverstone ft02
2600k
asus p8p67 pro or the gigabyte ud4 1155 mobo...*haven't decided yet*
Noctua nh-d14 cpu cooler (It's big, will affect memory with the big heatsinks)
amd 6950 vid card
corsair c300 128 gb ssd
caviar black 1tb
thermaltake 850 psu
Win64

I'm playing on a 2560x1600 30' lcd.

Can I get a good recommendation for memory and how much memory I should get? It's mostly for gaming and i'm considering getting a 2nd 6950 as well. I do plan to overclock as well.

Money's not too big an issue but I'd like value and not to be on the bleeding edge to the point of stupidity.

Will 6 gigs be enough? 8? 12? What's a good brand? I hear conflicting thigns about heatsinks for memory and I don't think my cpu cooler will allow for big heatsinks anyway, so that has to be taken into consideration.

Thanks in advance everyone!

 

[Crashman]

Building a new comp for sandy bridge. I have all my parts figured out except I am a retard when it comes to memory.

here's what I've bought so far or plan to buy

silverstone ft02
2600k
asus p8p67 pro or the gigabyte ud4 1155 mobo...*haven't decided yet*
amd 6950 vid card
corsair c300 128 gb ssd
caviar black 1tb
thermaltake 850 psu
Win64

I'm playing on a 2560x1600 30' lcd.

Can I get a good recommendation for memory and how much memory I should get? It's mostly for gaming and i'm considering getting a 2nd 6950 as well. I do plan to overclock as well.

Money's not too big an issue but I'd like value and not to be on the bleeding edge to the point of stupidity.

Will 6 gigs be enough? 8? 12? What's a good brand?

Thanks in advance everyone!

You're going to see a bunch of memory marketed towards LGA-1155. Memory manufacturers want you to think that this is new, specially designed stuff.

It's not.

Some of it is fairly new, but it's the same specs as LGA-1156 memory. The only differences I've noticed so far is that certain XMP values, such as DDR3-2000, will be crossed-off the list because of the limited range of BCLK for the new clock generator design.

The new clock generator will be limited to multiples of 266.67 MHz: 1066, 1333, 1600, 1866 and 2133. Memory overclocking is still possible, but only at data rates similar to those.

If you're looking for a small performance boost without spending a pile of money, I suggest looking for a good price on DDR3-1600 CAS 7. And for that spec, LGA-1156 or LGA-1155 related parts will be the same stuff.

8GB, since the boards are dual channel. For everyone who can't afford 8GB, 4GB will usually suffice.

 

[Debeucci]

I hear there's no real benefit for memory past 1600. Is that true? So would my sweet spot then be (2x4gb) 1600 mhz at Cas7? There's no triple channels on 1155?

Would there be any brands you'd recommend?

Thanks Crashman!

 

[stingstang]

It's big, alright. (insert joke here)
Ahh...ever hear of overkill? I wouldn't buy the cooler strictly because I wouldn't want to run the risk of it interfering with my other components. Why not just go water, if you're so set on making this awesome rig? It's much prettier, and takes up less space. You won't want the heat from the cpu blowing hot air into the case with 2 graphics cards, anyway.
6 Gigs will be enough. Heat spreaders are suggested for speeds of 1800 and over.

 

[Crashman]

I hear there's no real benefit for memory past 1600. Is that true? So would my sweet spot then be (2x4gb) 1600 mhz at Cas7? There's no triple channels on 1155?

Would there be any brands you'd recommend?

Thanks Crashman!

Triple-channel memory controllers are only found on LGA-1366. For value, I usually recommend G.Skill but you really just have to shop around. The last time I went memory shopping I found a better value on Kingston.

Tall heat spreaders don't mean much when RAM is limited to 1.65V. I've even found that "value overclocking" memory based on Micron D9KPT works better without heat spreaders, and I wouldn't be surprised if the same were true of some other chips. If you look at Kingston for example, it's DDR3-1600 CAS7 is short while it's DDR3-1600 CAS9 is tall, and you know that CAS7 is better than CAS9.

 

[Debeucci]

Ok....correct me here. Like I said, I know nothing about memory. So the new 1155 mobos are dual channel. Does taht mean that if i wanted say...8 gigs, then I can either get 2 sticks of 4gb, or get 4 sticks of 2gb since there are 4 slots on the mobo?

What I can't get is 3 sticks of 2gb?

So for example, if I wanted 8 gigs on the asus p67 pro, I could get this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231329

Also, if that is true, could I get say 2x2 of corsair, and then 2x2 of kingston...etc

 

[Explo]

I'd do 4gb or 8gb, since lga 1155 will be dual channel. I personally bought 8GB Gskill Ripjaw 2000mhz... but the mem controller will downclock it to 1866 automatically like crashman said. Chances are I'll take it as low as 1600 so I can tighten the timings and have some nice, stable memory. We'll see.

 

[Crashman]

I'd do 4gb or 8gb, since lga 1155 will be dual channel. I personally bought 8GB Gskill Ripjaw 2000mhz... but the mem controller will downclock it to 1866 automatically like crashman said. Chances are I'll take it as low as 1600 so I can tighten the timings and have some nice, stable memory. We'll see.

it gets more complicated than that. The default for DDR3-2000 is usually DDR3-1333, because it needs overvoltage to go much higher. The default for some DDR3-2000 might be DDR3-1600, same reason. So you need to enable an XMP profile to get "automatic" memory overvoltage, and that XMP register might not exist on some DDR3-2000 modules...

Manual settings are always a good option of course!

 

[Explo]

I see what you're saying. So, since I'm still learning, a question: if it's default is 1333 and I set it to 1600 I will technically be overclocking, but there should be no worry of stability since the memory is rated for 2000mhz? Is that how it works?

And I will be using manual settings.

This SB build is my first time building a computer.

 

[Crashman]

I see what you're saying. So, since I'm still learning, a question: if it's default is 1333 and I set it to 1600 I will technically be overclocking, but there should be no worry of stability since the memory is rated for 2000mhz? Is that how it works?

And I will be using manual settings.

This SB build is my first time building a computer.

Basically, yes. Default settings are for 1.50V, but most "performance" modules are made of parts that the company has verified will overclock easily and the higher rated speed reflects the "guaranteed overclock" that the company supports for that product.

X.M.P. is a technology that adds extended configuration values to the module's programmable IC. Unlike "S.P.D.", X.M.P. includes voltage for the factory-certified overclock.