Memory purchase suggestion

[HappyBuddhaman]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to these forums and had a question. I'm building a PC with the following -

ASUS Maximus VI Extreme MB
Intel i7 4770k CPU
Thermaltake Water 3.0 CPU cooler.

I'm debating on which RAM to purchase, I've narrowed it down to either the G.SKILL Trident X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 2666 (PC3 21300) F3-2666C12Q-32GTXD

http://www.gskill.com/en/product/f3-2666c12q-32gtxd

Or the G.SKILL Trident X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 2400 (PC3 19200) F3-2400C10Q-32GTX


http://www.gskill.com/en/product/f3-2400c10q-32gtx

I have enough cooling to push the CPU to the 4.7 range. Is it worth it to go with the higher RAM, or go lower for the better CL rating, the 2400 has CL 10 as to the 2666 CL 12 (knowing that I probably won't reach max RAM speeds)?

This is my first OC attempt, so I'm doing as mush research I can. Thanks for your responses.

 

[EarthDog]

If you have not purchased the motherboard, you can get away with something that costs a lot less. That board is really made for extreme overclocking and has a lot of advanced features for that you likely will not use unless you do that kind of stuff. Long gone are the days that you needed a high end motherboard to reach high clocks. A quality $150 board will easily max out that CPU on your current (any ambient) cooling.

As far as ram goes.. 32GB is a ton. Unless you know you use close to 16GB, I would get 2x8GB DDR 2133 CL9 and call it a day. Anything over that speed there are almost no performance returns (unless you benchmark) and is a waste of money as the cost gets up there with those kits.

 

[bubbleawsome]

1st off, what are you doing with this build? If it's only gaming or light video work you only need 16GB. 16GB tends to come in faster speed for cheaper. I would choose something in the low 2000s with a low cas rating (9-10). Also, cooling isn't the only thing that decides overclock. Some chips just will not hit higher overclocks, while others might do amazing with no extra voltage.

 

[HappyBuddhaman]

I'm building it as primarily a gaming rig, secondary home office but this is also a hobby of mine, I like to see how far I can go with it, and want to eventually put in dual or tri-SLI / Crossfire with 3 4k monitors. Looking to "future proof" it as much as possible. Also, I might in the future be doing some light video editing.

You think some Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 2133 MHz (PC3 17000), 1.65V Desktop Memory (CMD16GX3M2A2133C9) would do?

 

[EarthDog]

Wow... That is going to cost you some JACK to run 3x 4K monitors my man... Think 3 290x or 3 Titan Black... Seriously. I was at CES this year and saw it happen. It needed 4 Titans (that is 4K+ right there).

If you want to see how far you can go with it, a water cooling kit won't get you there... Go custom and that can help... a bit. You can still easily run a MUCH cheaper motherboard and get quite a bit less ram. 16GB will be plenty unless you plan on keeping this thing over 4 years... then who knows, but at that point, you will need an upgrade anyway... so why spend the jack if you will never use it... if you end up needed it, upgrade then, but something tells me you wont.

 

[funsoul]

I'm building it as primarily a gaming rig, secondary home office but this is also a hobby of mine, I like to see how far I can go with it, and want to eventually put in dual or tri-SLI / Crossfire with 3 4k monitors. Looking to "future proof" it as much as possible. Also, I might in the future be doing some light video editing.

You think some Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 2133 MHz (PC3 17000), 1.65V Desktop Memory (CMD16GX3M2A2133C9) would do?

With a build like that you should really give benching a try...I think you'd really enjoy the hobby. Check out the Competitive Benching sub-forum and hwbot.org. If you do give it a go....you know we've got an awesome benching team, right? Everyone's always welcome (and am sure you'll learn some cool stuff in the process).

/endshamelessbenchingteamplug

I like the tridentx2400 but will leave that part of the conversation to those that know a lot more than I do about ram (which is a lot of folks).

 

[HappyBuddhaman]

Thanks funsoul, and good idea. Computers to me are like cars, you can tweak them with all kinds of stuff you probably won't need, but sure are fun to have. 32GB of RAM and 3 way SLI, I know, when am I REALLY going to use that? Probably not for a long time (with the exception of benching bragging rights), but that's the point of future proofing. Plus it's just fun as hell to do, if only because you can.

 

[EarthDog]

Let me elaborate on my point a little bit... To me, that really is not futureproofing. Here is why I say that.

Four years ago, the GTX 480 GPU came out. Running 3 of those now wouldn't be prudent for a few reasons. First and foremost. VRAM... or lack there of on that card. While there may be enough horsepower from 3 of them to run modern titles, the lack of vram (you do not 'add' it up as the data is mirrored) will kill you in the form of some hitching and a less than stellar gaming experience or you will need to turn settings down to mitigate the issue. For example, on ONE 4K monitor playing BF4 on Ultra, it used 5.2GB of vram... Can you imagine what 3 4K panels will need NOW? How about in 4 years? Another reason is efficiency, heat and noise. The 780ti and 290x are about 2x as fast as the 480 and use the same amount of power.

Regarding the motherboard, you can still tweak lesser costing ones with zero performance penalty. For instance, the Gigabyte Z87-OC (not the force). $200 board, will take your CPU as far as any ambient cooling can take it with enough bells and whistles to make your head pop off. . How is buying something more expensive futureproofing.. in this case there are no benefits unless you plan on sub-ambient overclocking.

RAM... 8GB is what we say will last another year or two, 16GB will likely last 2-3. 32GB, you likely won't use that capacity likely ever, so why spend the money? Ram speed, again, unless you are benchmarking (JOIN US!) you are blowing money for almost no performance gains. Not to mention, in a couple of months, DDR4 is coming out. While it will not really give many performance gains, it is right around the corner.

That said, it is of course your money. And if you want those items because you can, we will certainly help. Just make sure you are doing it for the right reasons (futureproofing not being right for the reasons listed above and more). You may want to hold off juuuust a couple of months until the new stuff comes out... But if you are ready, you are ready!

 

[Xstatic]

There is really no such thing as future proof. Unless you equate 3-6 months as future. cause anything you build no and I mean anything is not going to be anywhere close to top performance in 18 months. Grab 4 512gig of the fastest SSD's and raid them, grab 4 Titans, and 32gig of the fastest ram and a 4960X cpu and you will have a fast pc today, but not in 18 months. Future proof in the PC world is just not a reality. Especially for gaming. What use to run games on ultra 2 years ago won't run some games on high now. And running 3 4k monitors will be a huge challenge for any amount of cards. Its an extreme challenge now to run 3 Dell 30in 2560x1600 resolution monitors in any game. It just takes a ton of power.

 

[Woomack]

With games it's slightly different. If you bought top gfx card 2-3 years ago then you still can play in max details in 1080p. No one is making you to buy 3-4 monitors in 2560x1600 res. Actually HD7970 which was top of the line 2 years ago is now in stores as R9 280X and not many players are complaining on their performance.
I agree that barely anyone needs 32GB RAM , or even 16GB in home PC. The same as 6 core CPUs.
Still most popular screen resolution is 1080p and probably will be for next 2 years. Even though there is more players who use 2+ monitors or 2560+ res., still most of the players are using average or low end hardware. More are actually looking for a gaming laptop than high end PC so market will follow these mobile players , not 1-3% high end desktop players.

Future proof is possible if you know what will you use in next 2-3 years. Looking at current games it won't change so much just because more games are designed for consoles and PC at the same time while consoles are pretty slow. There is not many more demanding games ... I could say 1-2 titles per year from these popular games.

For me it looks more like market is telling all that they need hardware upgrades while in real, barely anyone needs unless is working on these computers and it's bringing visible profit.
Simply no one needs more than 16GB RAM, no one needs DDR4, no one needs more than 4 CPU cores, no one really needs more than 1 gfx card unless wants to play on more than 2 displays ... but still there are things that you need and those that you want.
If not all these "useless" things that are only for fun then we wouldn't have OCForums. Who really needs overclocking nowadays ? ...

 

[wingman99]

+1 I wait till I need it so long as the games I play wont look or run any better I don't upgrade, that is future proofing for me.