New build, memory help please?

[SimonP]

I'm planning a major upgrade to my system - ASRock Z87 Extreme 4 motherboard with Intel i5 4670K (Haswell) processor - and once I add a Corsair H90 AIO water cooler, I hope to overclock it to around 4.4GHz.

However, I'm not sure about memory. Should I just get standard 1600MHz memory or is it worth getting 2133? Would I see much difference, will it work at 2133 by default (presumably not) and would overclocking it affect the CPU overclock? Also, is it work paying more for CL9 over CL11? I'm thinking G.Skill RipjawsX 2x4GB but don't know which ones to go for.

Any and all thoughts about this would be very helpful, thanks.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Simon welcome to the forum, it all depends on what you're using it for. In general though you really will not notice the difference between 1600 and 2133 for say gaming. If you're doing any work that requires the computer to process calculations or editing over an extended period of time you may see some improvement with higher speed ram. Again for normal 24/7 usage browsing/gaming which is what most people come here asking about. Go with DDR3 1600 Cl 9 if it's more in your budget get the Cl 11's. If it were me I'd go with these and call it a day.

 

[SimonP]

Great, thanks very much for the swift reply. The main "power" use will be video editing, I'm not a gamer.

Here in the UK it doesn't look as if there's much difference in price between G.Skill's CL9 and 11 and 1600 and 2300 kits, which just makes the decision harder! Given that, I'm probably best choosing the lowest CL rating first, then getting a higher clock speed if it's not much more expensive?

(I was thinking that faster RAM would be more future-proof but I guess with DDR4 on the horizon it doesn't really matter as DDR3 will be out of date by the time I think of upgrading again.)

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I would get some G.SKILL that's either 1600 or 1866MHz that runs at CL9 and 1.5V.

 

[Mandrake4565]

If you're doing editing you may benifits by going with higher speed ram. I don't do it may self so I can't say for sure. Generally you're best bet is fastest speed with lowest timings within budget. That said ddr3 1866's are a pretty good bang for the buck. With the haswell CPU there is a trade off between stable overclock and how high you can run the ram at. So if you benifit from higher CPU speed with editing then you're probably better off going with something like the 1866's.

 

[SimonP]

Many thanks guys, I really appreciate the help. I was thinking about this CL9 2133 kit:

http://www.gskill.com/en/product/f3-17000cl9d-8gbxm

Given the small difference in price between these and CL9 @ 1600, I assume it can't hurt to have the higher speed modules, even if I'm only running them at 1600 initially?

Is there any reason to look for 1.5v modules rather than these that run at 1.65v?

(Sorry for so many questions but there is so much to choose from and my last upgrade was about 5 years ago so it's all different.)

 

[Mandrake4565]

Is there any reason to look for 1.5v modules rather than these that run at 1.65v?

couldn't tell you, I have both 1.5 and 1.65.
I saw these, they seems like a good price, but lord they're ugly.
I keep linking Geil's because of price only, I don't think it makes much of a difference what you're buying unless you plan on overclocking them. I have both Geil's and G.Skill ram and they all work great in both my Intel and AMD setups.

 

[Woomack]

This RipjawsX 2133 c9 is pretty good memory. RipjawsX 2133 9-11-10 and Ares 2133 9-11-10 ( blue ) are on the same chips. Both are 1.65V and are not manufactured anymore ( new kits are worse ).
No difference if you pick 1.5 or 1.65V kit. Also optimal clock for haswell is something about 1866-2133 if you are not overclocking CPU higher than ~4.5GHz.
You won't see big performance difference between 1600 and 1866-2133 but price of these all kits is almost the same. Just matter to find store with lower prices.

 

[SimonP]

Great, thanks again guys, I'll go with those G.Skills then.

 

[Mag10]

Another has joined the ranks. Honestly though I have used many types of memory over the years but thus far anything g.skill has to put it bluntly simply worked. Even while doing moderate OC or more they never miss a beat it seems. Might just be me however. +1 to G.skill!

 

[SimonP]

I thought I'd report back on the results.

I went for the 2133 CL9 G.Skill memory and it's working nicely. I initially set the system up with defaults and, as expected, it defaulted to 1600 CL11 and gave a Windows (7) Experience Index of 7.8 but when I upped it to 2133 it improved to 7.9 and felt noticeably faster, which was nice.

The only disappointing part of the upgrade is that the Graphics index for the HD4600 GPU in the i5-4670K is only 6.7 but I don't play games so it's fine for everything I do and the rest of the scores are 7.6-7.9. I know the Index doesn't really mean anything so I'll do some proper benchmarking later but I'm pleased overall and appreciate your help with putting me on the right path.

 

[Mandrake4565]

I thought I'd report back on the results.

I went for the 2133 CL9 G.Skill memory and it's working nicely. I initially set the system up with defaults and, as expected, it defaulted to 1600 CL11 and gave a Windows (7) Experience Index of 7.8 but when I upped it to 2133 it improved to 7.9 and felt noticeably faster, which was nice.

The only disappointing part of the upgrade is that the Graphics index for the HD4600 GPU in the i5-4670K is only 6.7 but I don't play games so it's fine for everything I do and the rest of the scores are 7.6-7.9. I know the Index doesn't really mean anything so I'll do some proper benchmarking later but I'm pleased overall and appreciate your help with putting me on the right path.

Glad it turned out how you like, if down the road you find the I Gpu isn't cutting it you can always get a discrete Gpu.