Building a gaming system, need advice on good gaming ram...

[more_bourbon]

I searched and didn't find answers to several questions I have.

Here's the build I'm planning:
Chassis - @ 4 year old Dell XPS - free
Mother board - LGA 1366 - free
Processor - Intel iCore 7 960 - $299
HDDs - 250GB SSD and a 3TB HDD - free
Video Card - Radeon HD 7850 - $249.99
Sound Card - Sound Blaster X-Fi titanium fatality edition
Speakers - klipsch 2.1 speakers
OS - Windows 7 - $99

On the MB I have 6 slots for RAM. I was told it's 3 channel RAM and that I need to buy it in increments of 3GB and always have 3 or 6 sticks. In other words 3 X 2GB sticks = 6GB of RAM.

My questions are:

What is the best RAM for this build?

How much do I need? (Just assume I will be playing the most advanced games on the market both online and local)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[o1die]

6 gb is enough for most tasks. I've seen some used for $50 on craigslist, but offer $40 instead or check newegg for rebate specials. 1333 ram is more than adequate; some boards default to 1066 speed anyway, but you can usually set it manually in the bios for 1333. And do go with 3 or 6 stick kits. If your board is non oem (not dell, hp, etc), then check for a ram qvl listing on the board webpage. It will give you some brands that are tested; you don't necessarily have to match the model number exactly. I recommend standard CL9 ram which runs at 9-9-9-24. Kingston, crucial, corsair, gskill, and patriot are all pretty good and offer lifetime warranties. Also stick with 1.5v rated ram, which is recommended by Intel.

 

[more_bourbon]

thanks foe reply!

Where can I find a ram qvl listing?

What's CL9 RAM?

 

[ky_ecsusa]

RAM QVL List should be provided by the motherboard manufacture. You can easily check with the memory manufacturer for the compatiable memory for your motherboard.

For example::http://www.corsair.com/gsm1/?utm_source=Corsair&utm_medium=Website&utm_content=MemoryGuide&utm_campaign=FrontPage