I was needing the memory to run some software from work which I have witnessed using up to 12gb on task manager, with all other programs closed. So I figured 16gb would be good as it would pretty much max out the mini itx board, and I won't have to worry about upgrading any time soon for other things such as video encoding, photoshop, CAD...etc.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone, but I still have some fundamental questions.
1. Based on comments it seems going above ddr3 1600 will not seem to make much of a noticeable difference in speed for ivy/z77?
Unless you run benchmarks for a living, any speed between 1066 and 2133 doesn't really make a difference on Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge. 1333 and 1600 are the most cost effective speeds right now.
2. Will dual channel memory help speed? For example, would a dual channel kit of ddr3 1600 run faster than two separate modules of ddr3 1866?
Yes, running in dual channel mode effectively makes the memory twice as fast for large transfers. A "dual channel kit" is nothing more than a pair of identical modules sold together. If you bought two of the same model DIMM individually, they would work in dual channel mode just fine.
3. What does voltage do for memory? Is lower voltage always better?
With any integrated circuit, using more voltage allows you to push the chip harder (higher clocks, lower latency, etc.). That being said, chips are only rated for a certain voltage and going beyond that will damage them (how long it takes depends on the chip and the voltage).
The reason this is an issue for memory is that the memory controller on the CPU and the DIMM are directly connected to each other and have to run at the same voltage. Nehalem and newer Intel memory controllers aren't rated beyond 1.5V.
Lower voltage means lower power draw, which I suppose is always better, but it really doesn't matter too terribly much when you're only talking about 2 DIMMs.
I recall some corsair dominators running at 1.6+volts, aren't they renowned to be some of the best stuff on the market?
Like most Corsair gear, they are good-quality (but not spectacular) parts backed up by a high-powered marketing engine. They're perfectly a-OK at the right price, but that usually only happens when you catch them on sale. The actual best stuff on the market is the Samsung kit linked earlier.
What he said.
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