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Stumped over which RAM to go with for my i7 2600K build

schmutz06

schmutz06

Member
Video editing and extreme multi-tasking are top priorities for me, this being said I am having difficulty selecting the right RAM for my upgrade. I am getting 16GB but I do not know which of the following is the greater deal:

2X Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz HyperX Blu (X2 = 16GB) £125.98

2X G.Skill Ripjaws X-series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz = £172.98

I've done my research and many discussions imply there wouldn't be much difference between them in real world applications.

Yet I see the G.Skill Ripjaws X-series memory highly recommended for new builds all the time. I am looking for the best price/performance in the high-end range. If the extra performance warrants ++£52 I am happy to pay extra. Likewise, I do not wish to go with the 1333MHz memory only to find myself wanting to upgrade again in a few weeks because it is significantly slower than 1600MHz. I will definately make the most out of any extra speed because I usually work with many RAM intensive applications at the same time.

So, please discuss! Help me decide which DDR3 memory to invest in and feel free to suggest other kits I am not limited to the two I mentioned :hmm:

for reference I am upgrading from:
  • Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz*
  • 4GB DDR2 RAM @800mhz*
  • Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R*
  • Windows 7 64-bit OS
  • SATA drives x4 - 1TB,1TB,2TB,500GB
  • Coolermaster Silent pro Gold 1000W PSU
  • Asus Xonar DX soundcard
  • Dell U2711 + Samsung SyncMaster 245B
  • Gigabyte GTX 560ti
  • Keyboard/Mouse/Speakers/Hard drives
  • Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced Case
*replacing

To...

i7 2600K, Thermalright Silver Arrow cooler, 16GB RAM, Asrock Z68 EXTREME4, Crucial M4 128GB SSD
 
Thankfully, I've just found 16GB of the G.Skll RipJaws X series which get recommended everywhere for £127. 1600MHz and 1.5V. My mind is now at ease.

I really did not intend on overlooking quality RAM for my upgrade WaTaGuMp, Blain. Memory performance will be a huge priority for the multimedia work and multitasking that I do. After reviewing many articles it does appear that 1600MHz is the "sweet spot" for price/performance.
 
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to sum up that article:

"In general terms, you should keep in mind two things. Firstly, the memory frequency is of greater importance for the overall system performance than the memory timings (i.e. 1600mhz vs 1333). Secondly, the additional financial investments into faster memory may not pay back in the long run. In particular, high-speed DDR3-2133 and DDR3-1866 modules may cost 1.5-2 times more than the ordinary DDR3-1333 SDRAM.

Therefore, we believe that inexpensive DDR3-1600 SDRAM with not very aggressive timings would be the most reasonable choice for contemporary LGA1155 systems: in our opinion, memory like that offers the best price-to-performance ratio today."

brackets were my addition. Damn u can't choose italics or bold in these forums? The options when posting are so basic!🙁
 
Overclockers are having a sale on the kingston 1333mhz kits tomorrow and 16gb can be picked up for £95. This has complicated things again although the following article gives me the statistics:

Best Memory for Sandy Bridge

From my interpretation, I am looking at a ~36% price difference for a subtle (1-5%) performance gain... Is this correct? Will it be different in another circumstance i.e. multi-tasking with all 16GB's of memory?

As it stands, it doesn't seem worth going for the faster memory, any thoughts?
 
Termie said:
A lot of people have been recommending 1333 ram for Sandy Bridge, because you don't need high speed memory to overclock. But that's only half the story. The other half of the story is that Sandy Bridge can take full advantage of faster memory. You only need to see the graphs in this review to be convinced that 1333 is not what you should be using for a premium build: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/sandy-bridge-ddr3_7.html#sect0
Click to expand...

Just so you know I went with 16GB Kingston 1333MHz/1.5v/CL9 in the end. I studied the performance comparison and digged all over for more information. For the multimedia work I do, every second of extra speed will be appreciated to the full, yet it was a close decision. There has to be a line between price/performance otherwise I would be spending twice as much for 10-20% more performance. The 1333MHz kingston RAM was on sale for only £95 compared to the RipJaws which would have cost around £140 after postage.

The most significant 1333mhz vs 1600mhz results imo were the Winrar compression, which was about 5% faster using 1600Mhz. This really didn't justify an extra £45. I wonder if the price difference between 1600MHz/1333MHz memory was as large when that review was posted...
 
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schmutz06 said:
Just so you know I went with 16GB Kingston 1333MHz/1.5v/CL9 in the end. I studied the performance comparison and digged all over for more information. For the multimedia work I do, every second of extra speed will be appreciated to the full, yet it was a close decision. There has to be a line between price/performance otherwise I would be spending twice as much for 10-20% more performance. The 1333MHz kingston RAM was on sale for only £95 compared to the RipJaws which would have cost around £140 after postage.

The most significant 1333mhz vs 1600mhz results imo were the Winrar compression, which was about 5% faster using 1600Mhz. This really didn't justify an extra £45. I wonder if the price difference between 1600MHz/1333MHz memory was as large when that review was posted...
Click to expand...

Sounds like you made the right choice. Over here in the States, it seems that the price difference between 1333 and 1600 isn't as big. 8GB of 1333 is usually available around $70, and 8GB of 1600 can be had for $75-80.
 
aha. That would be much more reasonable indeed. Well I am glad I was able to go for the best price/performance available to me.
 
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