©ASUSTEK COMPUTER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Dandynamite · ‎02-18-2014

(Which is a bad thing considering I repair computers and upgrade RAM for a living 😛 )

So I've thought I knew enough about RAM to get by, and its worked fine with pre built machines just upgrading 4 to 8 etc easy easy easy.

However my machine is currently currently 8GB (2x4GB Sticks) of DDR3 12800 RAM, and its my plan to finish the computer by upgrading this and the fans on it.

Currently the build is:

AMD FX-8350 Black Edition 4.2gz (Stock Cooler)
Asus ROG Crosshair V-Z Mobo
MSI Lightning 780
8GB Corsair 12800, 1600Mhz RAM
Corsair 240GB SSD (OS)
Western Digital Black 2TB (Data & Games)
Bitfenix Collosus White Edition Case
Corsair 750W Builder PSU
Windows 8.1 Pro

I am thinking of fitting these in http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-378-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=817, but would they work and is the BIOS on my board going to automatically detect it or would I need to go and mess around with it (something I am fine doing if needs be), and would this give me a noticeable performance boost?

Essentially I am going to Uni in September and what this build to be completely future-proofed so I don't need to touch it for the duration of my 4year course (probably will require another 780 in SLI to achieve this I am aware)

Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance

Zka17 · ‎02-18-2014

1866MHz over 1600MHz won't give you any noticeable increase in speed unless you're benchmarking... increasing the amount, however may help... a 4x8GB kit (be sure that is a single kit and you won't mix different kits!) at 1600MHz, CL9 and if possible 1.5V would be a nice upgrade - but again, you won't feel a big speed change, just in case you're working with large amount of data.

With 32GB onboard you can setup a RAM cache though...

Antronman · ‎02-18-2014

I'll be frank. If you want to build a machine by Q3 of 2014, and want it futureproofed for 4 years you could not picked a worse time. Broadwell/Haswell-E will introduce DDR4 sometime in Q3 or Q4, and the generation after that (Skylake/Broadwell-E) will introduce PCIe 4.0. That is two new major technologies released within your first two years of University. Maxwell Nvidia GPUs are being released in Q4ish of 2014 as well.

As far as RAM goes, I would not recommend that kit. I would recommend AMD R9 Gamer series 16GB 2133MHz or G.Skill Trident X 16GB 2400MHz.

Good luck.

Say hi to the next generation.

Peace is a lie, there is only Passion
Through passion, I gain strength
Through strength, I gain victory
Through victory, my chains are broken
The Republic of Gamers shall free me

Heini · ‎02-18-2014

Antronman wrote:
As far as RAM goes, I would not recommend that kit. I would recommend AMD R9 Gamer series 16GB 2133MHz or G.Skill Trident X 16GB 2400MHz.Good luck.

I have 32GB of the AMD Gamer @2133 and I like it.

X-ROG · ‎02-18-2014

Antronman wrote:
I'll be frank. If you want to build a machine by Q3 of 2014, and want it futureproofed for 4 years you could not picked a worse time. Broadwell/Haswell-E will introduce DDR4 sometime in Q3 or Q4, and the generation after that (Skylake/Broadwell-E) will introduce PCIe 4.0. That is two new major technologies released within your first two years of University. Maxwell Nvidia GPUs are being released in Q4ish of 2014 as well.

As far as RAM goes, I would not recommend that kit. I would recommend AMD R9 Gamer series 16GB 2133MHz or G.Skill Trident X 16GB 2400MHz.

Good luck.

To be honest you'll never get 4 years of future proofing whatever you buy. Some people are still rocking LGA1366 builds from 08, but even I got the itch to upgrade mine after 2 years and I've been through 3 systems since. PCI-E 4.0 is a long way off and for his budget his build is not bad for now. I would not bother with 32GB of memory - what you have is enough.

In Uni I went through constant upgrades and playing with the layout, cooling, modding (that was 10 years ago though but the principle is the same as now). If you enjoy PC DIY you're never sit still, so don't both splashing out big-big-big, do enough to enjoy your gaming for the next 18-24 months, then be open to upgrading. We've still got SATA Express, and like said, DDR4 to come, plus whatever cases, cooling, graphics might arrive in the mean time - it's all fun!

Dandynamite · ‎02-18-2014

I should've cleared myself up a bit, that's the build I am currently running on at the moment, just with CoD (DON'T FLAME ME FOR THAT IT WAS ON SALE!!) requiring 6GB I thought the time of running 8GB RAM was drawing to an end and an upgrade was needed, the fan thing is just because it sounds like an old vacuum cleaner at the moment so I am going to rip the heatsink and case fans out and fit it all with Noctuas, I built it nearly a year ago now thinking about it.

What would be the fastest best RAM I could go then? Budget can be ignored really (I will not spend more than £500 on Memory though) as all my wages I can just burn through for the moment and I have spent enough on this PC I may as well finish it properly, I'm open to advice 🙂 If there's anything else I could change (small things, I am aware that a new mobo, processor and 780ti would make it better too) that would make the computer run better that'd be useful if you could let me know too.

I don't really do any databases (Excel spreadsheets but my phone can handle that so shouldn't be a problem) only gaming and some very occasional photoshop/lightroom editing, all gameplay stuff done through Shadowplay so don't need to worry about that either. So if anybody with some experience would suggest an RAM/improvements for gaming I'd appriciate it! 😄

Thanks in advance (I may have repeated myself, I apologise, its 3AM)

Antronman · ‎02-18-2014

8GBs will be fine, 16GBs could do you well. As Marshall said, no PC will ever last for 4 years and still be great. There are people with their i7-900s and i5-700s, but their systems lack a lot of the awesome new features. 2 years is what I find to be the golden period for time to build/upgrade. Every two years, you need to upgrade to what at that time would be the current processor generation, GPU, etc. In the first year of new hardware such as SATA-E and DDR4, the majority software being released will not see large improvements with the new hardware vs. the old.

As far as everything else goes, I would just recommend an H105 for cooling and an FX-9370. That and an 80+ Gold certified 850w PSU.

Say hi to the next generation.

Peace is a lie, there is only Passion
Through passion, I gain strength
Through strength, I gain victory
Through victory, my chains are broken
The Republic of Gamers shall free me

Zka17 · ‎02-19-2014

The fastest RAM on this platform would be 2400Mz - if you're lucky and your CPU can handle it... I wouldn't spend more than for a 2133MHz kit... As I said before, you won't feel any noticeable speed increase over 1600MHz...

16GB over 8GB would save some SSD life as the virtual memory won't be so big in case you're operating with bigger amount of data...

If your system is noisy, then I would spend some money on better fans - at this moment I wouldn't change anything else...

Antronman · ‎02-19-2014

Zka17 wrote:
at this moment I wouldn't change anything else...

Really? Not even his 80+ Bronze Rated PSU?

Say hi to the next generation.

Peace is a lie, there is only Passion
Through passion, I gain strength
Through strength, I gain victory
Through victory, my chains are broken
The Republic of Gamers shall free me

Dandynamite · ‎02-19-2014

I was thinking of getting all the Noctua fans, the £60 dual radiator CPU fan (monster sized thing) and then the normall PWN Controller ones for the case?

Will changing the PSU give me a performance increase? Mind you the current on and my case is like a forest of wires in there.

I'll have a look for some 2133 RAM then, cheers

So Memory is really starting to confuse me...