Motherboard and RAM recommendation

[stormich50]

I'll be getting i5 2500k and GTX 460 SLI soon.
Could you recommend me a motherboard and RAM that would go well with this?

Thanks.

 

[jaquith]

What's the budget? Best bang for the buck are the ASUS P8P67 PRO or P8Z68-V PRO with DDR3-1600 CAS 8 or 9 in 2x4GB, my favorite set is the F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM.

 

[stormich50]

Why not this one?:

http://www.links.hr/index.php?option=artikl&id_artikl=051.210.163

 

[jaquith]

For Gaming faster than DDR3-1600 does nothing to improve performance. Aslo, faster RAM can lead to increased instability so there's no 'up side'. The Faster Frequency RAM is fine for some Multitasking and Synthetic benchmarks. The fundamental problem is the 'BCLK' is essentially locked and other platforms and prior Intel allowed the 'BCLK' to be OC'ed which helped frame rates.

See - http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2011/01/11/the-best-memory-for-sandy-bridge/1

Gaming - http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2011/01/11/the-best-memory-for-sandy-bridge/6

The Kit I linked is DDR3-1600 CAS 8 2x4GB.

 

[d1rty]

jaquith can you please check my thread and maybe suggest some 8 gb ram for me?
The cl8 g.sill you suggested r not available in my country.But some cl9 are...

 

[jaquith]

done.
--- for others ---

It depends IF you plan to 'someday' add more RAM.

The F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL are fine, but when using 2 Kits for 4x4GB often they'll only run together at DDR3-1333 Frequency.

Both the Corsair sets listed CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B and CML8GX3M2A1600C9 are fine, I would choose the CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B only because I know they'll run together in a 4x4GB and at Rated Frequency/CAS and there's 'some' room for OC'ing above Rated.

I do also like the Kingston HyperX T1 KHX1600C9D3T1K2/8GX but at least in the USA are out of production/discontinued. Also the G.SKILL F3-12800CL7D-8GBXH - you need to manually set the DRAM Voltage to 1.60v but they're really fast but expensive.

However, yeah IF you can get the F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM that's best.

Though I 'sort of' agree with Thomas's article, here's some additional and 'rated' sets - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/corsair-vengeance-crucial-ballistix-kingston-hyperX,2907-11.html

 

[stormich50]

Anyone got different thoughts or does everyone agree with Jaquith?