Will my 1333MHz ValueRAM be "good enough" for X79?

[Uoppi]

First of all, I'm aware there should be very little real world difference between 1333MHz and 1600MHz RAM.

I'm thinking of going for the i7-3820 and happen to have in my current AMD rig 4x2GB of Kingston ValueRAM 1333MHz. So I don't necessarily need to buy new RAM. Besides from what I've read, OC'ing RAM with the i7-3820 can sometimes be problematic (?). I'd like to keep it at 1.5V max.

My reason (and wallet) tell me I should just stick to my existing RAM. Will I be OK with it? In my use 8GB is enough.

 

[Rockdpm]

Yea you should be ok, although it may be a Eye sore, but if its not you can always get more ram later down the road. So yes your good Value Ram is the way to go!

 

[jaquith]

Yeah it should be fine, but I don't recommend you use the XMP setting and rather allow the default 'SPD' settings.

 

[Uoppi]

I would definitely buy 1600MHz (or 1866MHz low voltage RAM) if I didn't already have the four ValueRAM sticks. Kind of hard to justify the purchase right now.

I think I'll save up and buy more/better later if it looks like I need 16GB. So far ~7GB has been the max I've seen in use.

 

[jaquith]

Duh, if you have no 'Free' RAM listed in the Resource Monitor then you do need more RAM. Once the Free is gone then your 'Shared GPU' memory is reduced which is taken from 'Standby', and this remains true for 'other' Applications performance. For optimal performance there always needs to be 'some' Free memory.

 

[Uoppi]

Typically my workstation usage is around 4-6GB. 7GB is rare. But I admit, I don't like seeing it with only 8GB onboard! But the thing is, all my spare cash will likely be going towards the new CPU and motherboard at first.

BUT: as I can sell some of the old stuff, I could perhaps find the money for a 4x4GB set of 1.5V Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz (should cost me ~100 euros).

 

[jaquith]

More cheap RAM is better than too little including expensive RAM. I 'get' money constraints and once you have some money together then keep an eye on sales and special promotions.

Good Luck!

 

[Uoppi]

Duh, if you have no 'Free' RAM listed in the Resource Monitor then you do need more RAM.

Don't know if it's because of crippled Win 7 Home Premium functionality but I can't seem to find that kind of detailed info in my Resource Monitor. Edit: Didn't know where to look apparently - it's there all right!

I'm not sure if there is a difference performance-wise between available and free memory? A lot more seems to be "available" than "free", according to the Task Manager.

Edit2: Wow, I just started copying some large files to another disk and "free" memory instantly went to zero - even though "available" is showing almost 6GB! Is that bad / are there some settings I should tweak? :O

 

[jaquith]

There's nothing to 'tweak' it is what it is and the amount of RAM used, placed in 'Standby', and 'Free' entirely depends on your applications open and how primarily how the applications use memory. There might be an application with a 'memory leak' and generally the only fixes to those applications are to ... well first use on 'good' quality commercial applications i.e. ones you paid for, update your applications, or restart your PC periodically to recapture the 'leaked' memory.

However, if you're using e.g. Rendering, Video, Photo, Data programs then yeah sure those apps will use a boat load of RAM in addition to what you see listed in 'Commit (KB)' to the application(s).

 

[Uoppi]

I did some reading and, from what I understand, basically as long as you don't run out of "available" memory in Task Manager, it means there's enough ram to run the application(s), right? In other words, doesn't matter how much there's "free" memory because the "available" memory is used when needed.

Then again, I may be wrong. BTW, with tweaking I meant pagefile/cache etc. But I understand it's just the way Windows works.

 

[jaquith]

As I said, "For optimal performance there always needs to be 'some' Free memory."

Regarding the 'Available' sure the PC will run, but as the 'Shared' is reduced with no 'Free' so does performance because the application's cached data is no longer available to the much faster RAM.

It's a question of Speed. The Page File only becomes relevant to sucking up precious SSD space, and if the Page File comes into play then by that point you're really feeling the slow down. As far as Application Caches, no there's no way to 'tweak' it short of adding more physical RAM if needed; only a few applications offer any User adjustments.

 

[Uoppi]

OK, I went with 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz... Not much fun without a new board, processor and SSD, of course, so I also threw an i7-3820, Asus P9X79 mobo and Samsung 830 128GB in the shopping basket!

Many thanks for all your help, jaquith! So far a succesful BIOS flash, next up Windows 7 installation via bootable USB (incl. F6 x64 RSTe drivers) as per the detailed instructions you've given in other threads.

 

[jaquith]

...next up Windows 7 installation via bootable USB (incl. F6 x64 RSTe drivers) as per the detailed instructions you've given in other threads.

Glad you found it, that's the best way!

Good Luck and Enjoy!

 

[navdhanjal]

As I said, "For optimal performance there always needs to be 'some' Free memory."

Regarding the 'Available' sure the PC will run, but as the 'Shared' is reduced with no 'Free' so does performance because the application's cached data is no longer available to the much faster RAM.

It's a question of Speed. The Page File only becomes relevant to sucking up precious SSD space, and if the Page File comes into play then by that point you're really feeling the slow down. As far as Application Caches, no there's no way to 'tweak' it short of adding more physical RAM if needed; only a few applications offer any User adjustments.