Trying to find a great triple channel memory kit.

I just traded my sabertooth 990fx w/ 960t x6 for a asus rampage iii extreme w/ full board Ek block and i7 920. The thing is the previous owner was running to pieces of memory so I decided not to trade ram with him.

So now I need ram.

I am wondering what the best bang for the buck ram there is out there. I want blazing fast but I think I also want low voltage. I also only want 6gb. Unless there is a 3x3gb kit (doubtful)

anyways I was pondering adata and gskill also was wondering what is the fastest useful frequency for these processors. I have seen ram rated at 2000mhz but the 920 is rated at 1066. Also I plan to upgrade to an extreme once they drop in price to sub $200 maybe in a year or so.

One other question. Given this motherboard and proc and triple channel memory what would be faster a 920 at 4.2ghz or a 2nd gen 2500k at 4.4GHz both water cooled.

Deciding which one willbe my wife's. I think I'm keeping the 2500k for me since the motherboard supports intel rapid response.

One last thing which creates more heat the 920 at 4.2 or the 2500k at 4.4. If the i7 is faster and creates more heat I'm going to make it my rig and give the 2500k to my wife. I'll just have to buy a 256gb ssd to replace the 64gb cache drive I'm using with my p8z68-v rev3

2500K is faster than the 920 at equal clocks, plus you have the 200MHz advantage.

If you're aiming for 4.2GHz on the 920, I would go with DDR3-1866 RAM.

For Bloomfields optimal is anything on tight timings up to 2000 memory clock. Best from older series were Elpida Hyper or BBSE ( in some cases also PSC ) but all are unavailable now.
Best from new series seem new Micron chips so generally everything in Crucial Ballistix Elite and Tracer Tactical series 1600-1866.
I'm running now i7 950@4GHz ( 210bclk ) with 4x4GB Crucial Ballistix 1600 8-8-8 1.5V @ 1684 7-7-7-20 1.64V in triple channel ( yes 4 sticks but I'm planning to get 2 more ) on R3E.
These sticks are making 1600-1700 7-7-7-20 on 1.55-1.65V ( depends from luck ) or 1866 8-8-8-24 1.55-1.65V.
They have thermal sensors and are not heating up so much even on 1.75V+ so can keep 6 sticks without fan ( just as an info as you want 3 sticks only ).
I think they are still available in 2GB sticks but price isn't much lower than 4GB sticks so I don't know if it's worth it.

Everything else like Hypers, BBSE and PSC is available on auctions.
Kits worth to look for can be for example:
Corsair Dominator GT 2000 7-7-7 - Hypers
Corsair Dominator GT 2000 8-9-8 - PSC
Supertalent 2000 7-7-7 / 8-8-8- Hypers
ADATA Xtreme 2000 9-9-9 - BBSE
ADATA Gaming 2000 9-9-9 rev 2.0 - PSC
G.Skill Trident 2000 9-9-9 - BBSE
G.Skill Ripjaws 2000 9-9-9 BBSE
G.Skill TridentX 2133 9-10-9 1.50V, 2133 7-10-7 1.65V, 2133/2200 7-10-10 1.65V - all higher binned PSC

and some more , list of other kits also here

pm moocow , probably he has something for sale ( at least had some kits like that )

Woomack said:

For Bloomfields optimal is anything on tight timings up to 2000 memory clock. Best from older series were Elpida Hyper or BBSE ( in some cases also PSC ) but all are unavailable now.
Best from new series seem new Micron chips so generally everything in Crucial Ballistix Elite and Tracer Tactical series 1600-1866.
I'm running now i7 950@4GHz ( 210bclk ) with 4x4GB Crucial Ballistix 1600 8-8-8 1.5V @ 1684 7-7-7-20 1.64V in triple channel ( yes 4 sticks but I'm planning to get 2 more ) on R3E.
These sticks are making 1600-1700 7-7-7-20 on 1.55-1.65V ( depends from luck ) or 1866 8-8-8-24 1.55-1.65V.
They have thermal sensors and are not heating up so much even on 1.75V+ so can keep 6 sticks without fan ( just as an info as you want 3 sticks only ).
I think they are still available in 2GB sticks but price isn't much lower than 4GB sticks so I don't know if it's worth it.

Everything else like Hypers, BBSE and PSC is available on auctions.
Kits worth to look for can be for example:
Corsair Dominator GT 2000 7-7-7 - Hypers
Corsair Dominator GT 2000 8-9-8 - PSC
Supertalent 2000 7-7-7 / 8-8-8- Hypers
ADATA Xtreme 2000 9-9-9 - BBSE
ADATA Gaming 2000 9-9-9 rev 2.0 - PSC
G.Skill Trident 2000 9-9-9 - BBSE
G.Skill Ripjaws 2000 9-9-9 BBSE
G.Skill TridentX 2133 9-10-9 1.50V, 2133 7-10-7 1.65V, 2133/2200 7-10-10 1.65V - all higher binned PSC

and some more , list of other kits also here

pm moocow , probably he has something for sale ( at least had some kits like that )

Click to expand...

This seemed like a good deal so I bought it. Will this ram work well? I got the OC up to 3.8GHz @ 1.27v I was told it will do 4.2GHz and in fact the mobo and cpu where shipped at 4.2 but I couldn't get the video to post so I wiped the bios and then found out the motherboard has switches to turn PCIe lanes off and I had accidentily turned them all off.

I think I am going to stay at the 3.8GHz since this is my secondary PC and it's keeping at 60c under prime95 with an old water block a full board block and a ek 240 rad with the fans running low.

If I go faster it starts crashing but I don't think it is the CPU because even if I lower the CPU multiplier and increase the bclock it crashes.

I was thinking it is this cheap dual channel kit that I have in the computer but I am not sure.

Let me know if you think that is good ram if not I will just sell it back on ebay and find something else.

The odds of that set being good are quite slim.
If you're looking at OCZ sets, the only decent ones are blades and a couple of reaper sets. Aside from that they're generally not good clockers.

moocow said:

The odds of that set being good are quite slim.
If you're looking at OCZ sets, the only decent ones are blades and a couple of reaper sets. Aside from that they're generally not good clockers.

Click to expand...

Does the overclockability of these ram kits greatly affect the performance of the CPU? If so does it affect the 1336 more so than other sockets? I guess I have never bought good ram. Just bought what they have tricked me into thinking was good ram. It's awefully confusing what to get when ram doesn't even explain much of it's abilities on the package. Then you have all these stupid names all over the place. I believe the best ram I have owned recently was some low voltage adata and I gave it away thinking that my 1866 kit better than that 1333 kit then I found that my 1866 kit is a 1333 kit just guarunteed (if that is even true) to run at 1866 w/ 9-10-9 timings.

Anyways what will be better with overclocked ram? Will the processor be faster will certain apps be faster? I won't really be gaming on this computer as I leave that to my i5. But I want to be able to do everything else I do on this computer and quickly at that.

These OCZ series were not that bad but some were not overclocking too high. 1600 CL7-7-7 is already good for this platform.
Platinum series were on almost everything available that time so Micron D9, Qimonda, Elpida ( some Hypers ). For example I still have 3x1GB 1600 7-7-7 on Qimonda chips that are making 1600 7-6-5-20 but max clock about 1750-1800.

4GHz cpu clock / 200MHz bclk is probably best balance between still acceptable voltages/temps and quite high cpu frequency. You can also make it on standard memory settings.
Performance @1600 7-7-7 will be about the same as 2000 9-9-9 or 1800 8-8-8. Simply there are not many better kits available so don't worry about it. You probably won't see any performance difference if you get x3 more expensive kit.

Well I looked at the actuion and after winning this guy sent me a request to end the auction with the reason being out of stock. I declined the offer so auction is still an agreement. Not sure what going to happen with them now. The guy either has them or sold them to a friend before the auction ended. Or maybe thinks they are worth more the $30 shipped. Who knows.

I'm going keep looking but dont be suprised if I pop back up in the thread if he doesn't send me those chips.

When OCing these should they have cooling on them? I pretty good at fashioning brackets and cooling anything I want. Also what do I do to test them use memtest?

This is an example of the brackets I use to float fans over the motherboard. This is on my i5 2500k to cool off the VRM. I could float one down over the ram if I have to start increasing voltages.

You can use fans if you set higher voltage. On standard voltage memory should be ok without fan.

Is there site guide that really hammers down on the ram timing and what it all means. Because I was obviously cougth up in the numbers game before and I trying to get away from that.

Last night I was failing all my OC's over 3.6GHz and then I put in a pair of crosair vengeance 1866 red lp and set it too have the 1866 xmp timing (9-10-9-27) and set it to 2n and I have not been crashing since. I think I am solid at 4GHz but not sure just yet.

If I get to 4GHz (my goal) should I then start reducing my timings? Also in the bios it says that only unlocked processors can use overclocked ram settings? That doesn't make much sence to me since it lets me select them anyways.

for 4GHz you usually set:
- cpu voltage -1.25-1.35V ( depends from cpu )
- bclk 210MHz / x19 cpu ratio
- QPI/VTT voltage ~1.35-1.45V for 210bclk ( can try lower but all depends from cpu )
- memory @210 = 1680 as I doubt that you make it run above 2000 stable
- for 1680 memory clock, drop timings as low as you can but can stick to main timings only and set others to auto
- sometimes you may need to set IOH voltage to 1.18-1.20V to keep it stable @210 bclk

Timings depend from memory. Your vengeance kit can run @ 1866 9-10-9 but 1600 at about 8-9-8 or 9-9-9 ... maybe 8-8-8 but not 7-7-7.
There is no special rule about setting timings as all IC need some different settings.
Usually its like CL+tRCD+tRP=tRAS or tRAS-1 example:
1600 8-8-8-24 is = tRAS
1866 9-10-9-27 = tRAS -1
For higher clocked Samsung/Hynix it's often tRAS -2.

Command Rate recommended 2T/N but for 3 stick config you can try 1T/N.

tRFC for older kits based on 2GB sticks can be lower like ~70-80 for 1600 and up to 110 for 1866-2000. For newer 4GB sticks it's usually higher like 160+ but you can keep it on auto.

So 1st set stable your desired cpu clock. When you make it stable try to lower voltages. Then play with memory and since it will be almost for sure something near 1680 then just drop main timings keeping reasonable voltage lets say up to 1.65V ( or you get older kit that needs more ).
For tests you can use memtest86+ ( but it mainly test memory, not memory controller under load ). For full memory+imc load use windows memtest HCI ( run in 4 instances and divide free memory /4 ) or use prime95/blend or intel burn test/high or max load.