1600Mhz VS 2133Mhz - Help for i5 2500k Build !

I have 16 gigs 1600mhz, it is useless right but nice too have. if you go with that much ram be ready to bump voltage up to around 1.7 or so. My gygabyt board has fits feeding that much memory on 1.5v. Go with 8 gigs 1600 and use the exra cash for a 2600k chip. Mine runs nicely with H70 cooler at 5.0ghz, stable.

Go with the 1600MHz RAM, and 8GB like templar said. The 2133MHz RAM won't give you much if any additional performance and isn't worth the extra cost.

Even going faster than 1333MHz isn't truly needed. I'd go 1600MHz and run it at 1333MHz, only upping the speed to see that the difference is extremely minute.

Go for an 8GB kit, with 1.5V specs, like Corsair Vengeance or Mushkin Silverline. Get 4 x 2GB chips, to populate all the slots on the motherboard. 2133MHz~2200MHz is just cool to have as a number to show off ("Look, I can OC my RAM to 2200MHz! I WIN!!!"), but is useless when it comes to value, as it costs almost twice as much as the 1333MHz RAM kits and performs maybe 5% better.

Yeah, whichever kind you get, make sure it's 1.5v memory. That way, if you need to boost the voltage a bit you have some leeway. If you get 1.65v RAM, you can't increase the voltage any higher without risking damage to the CPU.

I have extremely bad luck with computer components, that as always been the case in all my builds, this time im making a conscious effort trying to get quality/reliable components. ( as opposed to before where all i was looking at was the best bang for buck / performance )

I would rather go with kingston for the lifetime warranty. They seem to have the best quality, here are failure rates for some popular memory brands :

- Kingston 0,30%
- Crucial 0,93%
- Corsair 1,41%
- G.Skill 2,73%
- OCZ 6,76%

Those numbers are for all models combined, if you look at Corsair and ocz they specifically have some awful models :

- 15,08% : Corsair Dominator 2x2 Go DDR2 PC8500 CL5 - TWIN2X4096-8500C5D
- 11,28% : OCZ Value2x1 Go DDR2 PC2-6400 - OCZ2V8002GK
- 10,11% : G.Skill NQ Series 2x2 Go DDR3 PC3-10600 - F3-10666CL9D-4GBNQ
- 8,01% : G.Skill NT Series 2x2 Go DDR3 PC3-10600 - F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT
- 7,19% : OCZ Gold Edition 2x2 Go DDR2 PC2-6400 - OCZ2G8004GK
- 7,14% : G.Skill RM Series RipJaws 2x2 Go DDR3 PC3-10666 - F3-10666CL8D-4GBRM
- 6,65% : Corsair XMS3 2x2 Go DDR3 PC10600 CL9 - TW3X4G1333C9
- 6,05% : OCZ Value2x1 Go DDR2 PC2-5300 - OCZ26672048VDC-K
- 5,88% : G.Skill HK Series 2x2 Go DDR3 PC3-10600 - F3-10600CL8D-4GBHK
- 5,65% : G.Skill RH Series RipJaws 2x2 Go DDR3 PC3-12800 - F3-12800CL7D-4GBRH
- 5,52% : Corsair XMS2 2x2 Go DDR2 PC8500 CL5 - TWIN2X4096-8500C5C
- 5,16% : G.Skill Standard Series 2x2 Go DDR2 PC2-6400 - F2-6400CL5D-4GBNT
- 5,15% : Corsair XMS2 2x2 Go DDR2 PC6400 CL5 - TWIN2X4096-6400C5C
- 5,07% : Corsair Dominator2x1 Go DDR2 PC8500 CL5 - TWIN2X2048-8500C5D

so definitively, corsair and g.skill is out.

I could go with some crucial at worst, but like i said i prefer lifetime warranty...

That being said, I cant find any kingston 1600mhz with lower than 1.65v ... If i want lower than 1.65v with kingston i need to get 1333mhz speed... but I want 1600mhz minimum.

As for Crucial, they dont have 2 x 4gb modules ... what the heck...

what shall i do ! ... i have no choice but to get the 1333mhz kingston ?

Personally I prefer 1600 CL7. Lower timings in general do not provide a bigger boost, however this dependent on application and can be a good boost for certain application - cannot remember the article.

Even based on your above stats I prefer Ripjaws. (For whatever reason seems more popular than Kingston @ newegg.)
My progression (All 1600 CL7): 2 x 2 (4Gigs) -> 4 x 2 (8 Gigs) -> 2 x 4 + 2 X 2 (12 Gigs). In no case did I have to raise Voltage, using 1.60V
Plan on trying 4 x 4 (16 Gigs).

Do recommend going with the 4 gig modules, which allows for >8 gigs downstream WITHOUT having to ditch some of your ram.
As to 8 vs more than 8. Currently no real benefit. However with 12 or more gigs you can run a SUPER fast Ramdrive 4+ gigs - makes an SSD look like a old 4 cyl VW compared to a V-8 sports car.

I don't know where you're getting your info, but all the brands I looked at had lifetime warranties on their RAM. G.Skill, Patriot, Corsair, Mushkin, A-Data, GeIL, etc. In fact, I couldn't find one that didn't have a lifetime warranty.

Oh, and one HUGE reason some brands have large failure rates is overclocking. People tend to buy OCZ, Corsair, and G.Skill for overclocking, and when they fry the RAM because they overclocked/over-volted too high, they RMA it due to "manufacturer defect" or something. Those failure numbers are unnaturally inflated because of that. Kingston isn't generally known as a good overclocking brand, so nobody buys them for overclocking, and they don't have inflated failure numbers.

You didn't mention Muskin, so I'm recommending the Mushkin Silverline 2 x 2GB RAM. 1600MHz, 1.5V and lifetime warranty.

Also, 1333MHz isn't nearly as bad as you make it out to be. TBH, the difference between 1333MHz and 1600MHz on RAM is so minute you wouldn't even see it in hardcore gaming. Only in benchmarking may it bring a little difference.