Help with buying new RAM

[EmptySoul]

Hi

I currently have 8GB Corsair. I can not remember exactly which and not at home so can't check right now.

The problem is I want 16GB.. well I want 32GB but as my budget is £150 thats not going to happen.

I have Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z and I have been told before that this board is particularly picky when it comes to RAM.

I have AMD FX 4170 If that matters at all

I have checked the QVL but most of the items there are discontinued.

Is there anyone who knows what 16GB works with this board??

My budget is £150 but the cheaper the better.. within reason I do want decent ram lol

The comp is used for gaming, movies, photoshop and file transfers

Thanks

 

[mokrunka]

Browsed newegg and your QVL for a bit and found this.

It's only 16GB, but that should be plenty for most things.

Do be careful though. I would not mix two 8GB sets (even if both sets are identical and on the QVL). The memory kits are programmed to a specific XMP setting and they might not work very well together. Best to just buy one kit from the QVL and call it a day.

 

[Mandrake4565]

I have a CHV non Z and have used Gskills and Geil without a problem.

A question for you is why 16g? Are you actually using that much Ram or just want it. If you're only using say 4 gig and you have 8 gig you will not see a performance increase if you get 16 or 32 gig of ram.

These are the specific sets I have and have used
Gskill DDR3 1600
GSkill DDR3 1866
GEIL Veloce DDR3 1600

 

[EmptySoul]

I dont need it yet but getting close.. I use about 82% often so want to upgrade now.. 32gb is really unnecessary. . If only I had the money to waste

 

[Mandrake4565]

I dont need it yet but getting close.. I use about 82% often so want to upgrade now..

Then it makes sense to get 16g. I only said it because I've seen people come on the forum and think that they will see a performance increase by getting more ram when they already have more then enough.

Anyhow, back to point, I know a bunch of us have used GSkills and Geils in the CHV non Z boards without a hitch, you probably wouldn't have an issue with any ram you choose, but if you want to play it safe, those are a good choice.

 

[EmptySoul]

hi back home now so can update lol

Currently using Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8 Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 Mhz

This is the second kit I have bought. The first one I got whilst building my system was

GeIL EVO Leggera 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL316GB1866C9DC)

but that didn't work. The machine wouldn't boot and the Mobo was showing RAM Error unsupported RAM.

This is why I'm really worried about which one to get...

Also I should mention that I am looking for 2x8GB kit and not 4x4GB... I OC and apparently you shouldnt OC with 4 sticks... Better with 2 ram sticks... apparently.

Thanks

 

[mokrunka]

I've never heard that before.

Like I said before, if it were me, I'd just buy the kit that I posted above--it is on the QVL, and newegg has it in stock, and it's 16GB. That or one of the ones drake suggested since he says he has used these successfully with that board.

 

[Mandrake4565]

GeIL EVO Leggera 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL316GB1866C9DC)

but that didn't work. The machine wouldn't boot and the Mobo was showing RAM Error unsupported RAM.

This is why I'm really worried about which one to get...

Sometimes the motherboard just doesn't set the timings correctly and/or you may have just received a bad set of RAM.

Also I should mention that I am looking for 2x8GB kit and not 4x4GB... I OC and apparently you shouldnt OC with 4 sticks... Better with 2 ram sticks... apparently.

This is true to an extent, 4x4g will put a strain on the IMC, though so will just adding more Ram. Will adding a 2x8g kit add less strain on the IMC then the 4x4g kit? I'm not sure but it will add more strain then 2x4g.

Furthermore, just a heads up for you. A while back, I bought a GSkill Sniper 1866 kit and was having fits trying to run it at 1866. I finally RMA'd the set and the new set was causing the same issues. My conclusion was that I just had a weak IMC on my Fx 8350. With the help of a few of the members here I did some more testing and realized it wasn't the IMC on my 8350, something was up with my CHV board. It turned out that I had a bad BIOS flash. I re-flashed my BIOS and my problems were solved.

 

[Woomack]

I had no issues with 2x8GB 1600 Crucial RAM on CHV board ( not Z but it's almost the same ). The same board was working fine with 4x4GB Crucial Elite 1600@1866.
I don't remember if I was testing any other 16GB kits on FX/CHV.

I had no issues with any G.Skill memory on CHV. They always make 2 similar XMP profiles, if one isn't working then 2nd one always does.
Geil is generally weird. Some of their kits are not working at declared settings.
The same older Corsair Vengeance wasn't really stable at declared settings and I had to set all manually.

Every memory supposed to run at least at 1333 SPD/auto setting. If you can't enable XMP profile then can be profile issue or board can't read it correctly.
FX series have memory controllers that should work at 1866. Anything above that is overclocking but 1866 is still their "stock" speed.