Best DDR3 RAM to date

Joelks · 15 Oct 2018 at 19:11

Hi,

I'm looking to buy some new RAM tonight but not sure what's best. I've got a Sabertooth Z77 so as far as I know that m/board doesn't support DDR4, my Q is pretty much the title. What is the best DDR3 16GB RAM today? (I'm looking to spend up to £150, so really the best RAM within that price limit)

lee32uk · 15 Oct 2018 at 23:25

Just go with the cheapest. No point spending lots of cash on outdated/older Ram.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Team Group Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD316G1600HC11DC01= £89.99

Total: £98.69 (includes shipping: £8.70)

MartinPrince · 16 Oct 2018 at 01:56

lee32uk said:
Just go with the cheapest. No point spending lots of cash on outdated/older Ram.

This. Just make sure you get at least 1600Mhz, anything faster and you will not notice any discernible difference in anything but memory benchmarks.

LuckyBenski · 16 Oct 2018 at 07:48

Also, Sandy Bridge didn't play very nice with high clocked RAM IIRC. Even Ivy Bridge didn't benefit much over about 1866.

You're right that Z77 doesn't support DDR4. Haswell (Z87/97) was the last consumer DDR3 generation.

pastymuncher · 16 Oct 2018 at 13:29

Samsung Green was probably one of the best DDR3 kit's that were available. It could do 2400mhz albeit with slacker timings and 2T but the sweet spot is 2133mhz at cas 9 1T. If your board wasn't up to the speed you could tighten the timings to cas 6 or 7 at 1600mhz instead. I got mine on one of OCUK's deals where I got 16Gb for £62. Shortly after the price of memory went through the roof. You still see it come up second hand from time to time.

Weazle · 16 Oct 2018 at 13:37

I upgraded my DDR3 from 2 x 4GB to 2 x 8GB this year ...... went with second hand off the auction site. Spent about £65 and the RAM is perfectly fine.

In general I find that RAM either works or doesn't, the instability usually comes from the motherboard (eg. filling up all RAM banks) so going second hand is of a lower risk than say a CPU or GPU that may have been overclocked or mined on.

ExoMale · 16 Oct 2018 at 18:14

mine were used, but i currently use HyperX Fury(blue) 1600mhz, its 2 single 8gb sticks rather than a kit, im used to 1600mhz, guess i notice more ram than speed over 8gb kit of 1333 xms3 i have in my other system.

anyways i got mine 2nd hand from a popular shop last week, wouldve cost £50 for the pair had i not had something unrelated to trade in, so was £25, but since thursday i spent just under £70 on 2 brand new single 4gb 2400 ddr4 sticks, so i wouldnt even spend more than that on older hardware, hell i wouldnt spend more than my HyperX wouldve cost at full price and i thought £50 was a lot lol.

X x X · 18 Oct 2018 at 10:46

From what i been told is it depends on what your cpu memory controller can handle...
So check your cpu binning