Yet another "looking for system advice" post :D

[azeem40]

Oh, and on the RAM... interesting stuff. Didn't know they were making "low profile" sticks these days. Sadly, I don't see much out there in terms of memory reviews... based on all the praise on Newegg, they have some appeal. Lack of heat sinks is a bit of a minus due to my still lingering desire for nerd-bling (even though no one but me will see the motherboard). So, looks like I'm currently looking at G.skill, Crucial, and now Samsung for my memory needs. I'll have to research DDR3 RAM more in general, it would seem.

Those heatsinks on the RAM are useless. They obstruct installation of aftermarket heatsinks.

 

[TheInternal]

is it the smaller fab that makes the Samsung RAM so readily overclockable / what's gotten a number of folk's praise?

 

[lehtv]

Yes.

 

[titan131]

Yes.

Sry for the newb question but I thought that ram speed didn't really matter for Sandybridge? as long as it was at least 1333MHz. Has this changed with Ivy? cuz I thought Ivy and Sandybridge were almost the same really. *confused*

 

[lehtv]

Sry for the newb question but I thought that ram speed didn't really matter for Sandybridge? as long as it was at least 1333MHz. Has this changed with Ivy? cuz I thought Ivy and Sandybridge were almost the same really. *confused*

True, you probably won't notice a difference but it's still there. Normally if you buy 2133MHz or 1866MHz RAM, you have to pay a premium of $15 more than for 2x4GB 1600MHz. That's not much, but the difference in performance is even less. However for Samsung 32nm RAM you pay $48 / 8GB which is in the same ballpark as other 1600MHz RAM but unlike those others, it overclocks very easily. Essentially you can get 1866MHz or 2133MHz for the price of 1600MHz.

 

[titan131]

True, you probably won't notice a difference but it's still there. Normally if you buy 2133MHz or 1866MHz RAM, you have to pay a premium of $15 more than for 2x4GB 1600MHz. That's not much, but the difference in performance is even less. However for Samsung 32nm RAM you pay $48 / 8GB which is in the same ballpark as other 1600MHz RAM but unlike those others, it overclocks very easily. Essentially you can get 1866MHz or 2133MHz for the price of 1600MHz.

Ah Ok, that makes sense. In the tests Anandtech did with sandybridge and memory speed, he concluded that 1600MHz was the sweet spot, so I guess if you're going to buy 1600MHz ram anyway, then you may as well go for the highly overclockable samsung stuff.

Though, in all honesty, I would be tempted to just get 1333MHz stuff if it were me, if all I was doing was gaming.

 

[mfenn]

Oh, thanks. Looks like a pretty useless hierarchy to me, it basically contains zero information. I like to use Anandtech bench instead because it gives me raw numbers for comparing SSD speeds, and then combine that knowledge with the reliability of different controllers and firmwares, and indeed, prices.

I agree. The differences between Tiers 1-5 on that chart are academic at best, meaning that you will never notice a difference unless you're explicitly benchmarking.

 

[TheInternal]

Well, I'm pretty sold on going with the Samsung 830 256 GB... which just sold out on newegg (bleeeaaaaargh). Anyone ever hear of this site? http://eaton.camover.co.uk/samsung-...6-gb-mz7pc256b-ww-electronics_p2441.html#show It sounds a little too good to be true on the price / looks a bit sketchy.

The Samsung RAM seems reasonably priced. If it can comfortably overclock as easily as multiple folks claim, I may as well give it a chance.

The Antec P280 case is currently on sale through the 6th with an email newsletter code and $20 rebate knocking it down to $89.99 after all discounts / rebates. I think that wins on price 🙂

Still waffling on the motherboard and PSU, but ya'lls responses have given me a lot more stuff to look at and think about. Thanks for all the replies thus far.

 

[TheInternal]

dumb post... will edit shortly with something less dumb.

 

[mfenn]

Well, I'm pretty sold on going with the Samsung 830 256 GB... which just sold out on newegg (bleeeaaaaargh). Anyone ever hear of this site? http://eaton.camover.co.uk/samsung-...6-gb-mz7pc256b-ww-electronics_p2441.html#show It sounds a little too good to be true on the price / looks a bit sketchy.

Given that it's a .co.uk site that's selling stuff for suspiciously cheap in US Dollars and has blatantly stolen Amazon.com's theme from 4 years ago, I'd watch out.