New Z390 and more ram needed

Associate
Joined
23 Mar 2011
Posts
271
Last year my founds was a bit tight so had to settle on H310 mobo to run the i7, yeah I know is budget one and pretty basic but it did the job, now I'm looking for Z390 matx to run current system and around xmas should be able to get the newer I7-9700k or maybe the 9900, also running with only 16gb 2666mhz ram, and looking to have 32gb,

For my needs what would you recommend? Can I just add another 16gb ram or should I replace all with 32GB and faster speeds?



This if I want to just add ram?
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...151-ddr4-micro-atx-motherboard-mb-57e-gi.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...hannel-kit-black-cmk16gx4m2a26-my-441-cs.html
 
Associate
Joined
27 Feb 2011
Posts
454
Location
Essex
What i7 do you have?

Do you need 32GB of RAM? I'd also add that mATX motherboards can have 2 or 4 slots, so you won't necessarily just be able to add more RAM to your build but 32GB is not necessary unless doing content creation.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
23 Mar 2011
Posts
271
At this moment I have I7 8700 non K, planning on getting i7 9700k or the 9900K, also doing a bit of video editing and already short on memory plus this also serves as flight sim rig so definitely 32GB will be improvement in both departments, question is should I stick with just adding another 16gb 2666mhz or changning to 32gb 3200 or even faster. Now the gigabyte z390 m gaming have 4 slots dual channel so both options are open.
 
Associate
Joined
22 Jan 2012
Posts
410
So you have a CPU that you want to switch for a better one, a motherboard that you want to switch for a better one and RAM that you are considering changing to get faster modules?

Save until xmas and get Ryzen 3700x, matx x570/b550 board and Crucial Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 RAM
 
Associate
OP
Joined
23 Mar 2011
Posts
271
Well sort of yeah, but ram I dont need to change for faster unless I will see lot of gains hence question if I would be better saving some money and get another only 16gb 2666 ,now amd is not a option for as simple as that, sorry to be blunt but that's my choice.
 
Associate
Joined
22 Jan 2012
Posts
410
Well for Intel i believe 3200 is the sweetspot and any faster provides very little gain, on the otherhand i dont believe going from 2666 up to 3200 will give you any real world noticeable performance increase as intel is not as sensitive to RAM speeds.

However, as i said, if you are going to change your MB and CPU soon then you can get to within about 95% gaming performance of a 9900k for far less money with a 3700x. Something to think about.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
23 Mar 2011
Posts
271
Well for Intel i believe 3200 is the sweetspot and any faster provides very little gain, on the otherhand i dont believe going from 2666 up to 3200 will give you any real world noticeable performance increase as intel is not as sensitive to RAM speeds.

However, as i said, if you are going to change your MB and CPU soon then you can get to within about 95% gaming performance of a 9900k for far less money with a 3700x. Something to think about.

Thanks for clearing the ram question, again AMD might be for some people when it comes to some games, this pc also serves as flight sim so single core performance is a must at this moment, wonder how AMD compares in that department?
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2015
Posts
18,514
intel, ram speed doesn't matter as much . If your using NON K chip then it can be used to gain ram speed, but then you'd be looking at Z board over B board for higher ram speeds.....

going z390 will least help prolong the life of your mobo if your doing video editing! also should be able to enable MCE and push clock speeds to their max .
 
Associate
Joined
29 Oct 2002
Posts
698
I opted for the MSI Gaming AC mATX board, and it's brilliant! Seems to have decent VRM's, sitting around the upper-mid tier, but for what I paid (Around £140) it's a cracking bit of kit.

Edit: noticed comment about RAM speeds, the 9700K is optimised around 2666 and various review sites found only a few % of performance increase by going to 3200Mhz RAM, the cost vs performance ratio isn't really worth it. I picked up some Corsair 2666 and it runs perfectly at 3000Mhz :)
 
Associate
OP
Joined
23 Mar 2011
Posts
271
Current mobo just doesn't cut it, only 2 dimm slots, only 1 M.2, not great for gtx card as I believe it only provide x8 and not x16, again this was only cheap purchase to tie me over until founds are available, due to shortage on ram for video editing need to add more I think the best solution would be better mobo as I want to upgrade the CPU around xmas anyway, instead of just wasting money on 32GB which is around £150 I can get better mobo and another 16gb corsair ram for like £204, that way would give me 32gb ram and socket for the gen9 intel CPU 9700k or the 9900k there is good price hike between them so not decided yet as I want to be the somewhere at the 5ghz on all cores

When it comes to boards the gigabyte is the cheaper compare the asus or msi, but for my needs which is better? best bang for buck sort of speak. Don't need wifi, all boards have plenty USB for my needs, only need 4 sata connectors, still trying to wrap my head around all them nvme ssd, I don't understand all of it, I know there are m2 ssd with around same speed as std ssd disks but then there out pciex4 which have more then double the speeds, I have one already but would like to run another.

Hope you can understand all of this.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2015
Posts
18,514
This sh**, ram speed doesn't matter on intel has to stop


average frame rate of 3000 hz to 4000hz is 10fps... min at 1% is 12 fps.

these items are on sale but its a £110 gap anyway - which is about enough to bump up a GPU tier

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £211.68 (includes shipping: £8.70)

all of the benchmarks are 1080P so your CPU bound - which naturally means Ram would play more of a role then normal .

also highlighted by comments, 2400hz running CL 17... MOST ARE 14! basic maths and 2400hz CL17 and CL14 are are differing ends

I sure wish you would have kept the CAS latency time fixed, rather than leaving it at CL17 for every clock speed. That puts the CAS latency at 8.50 ns for the 4000MHz kit and 14.2 ns for the 2400MHz. How are you supposed to draw any meaningful conclusions about different clock speeds when it's impossible to decouple the effects from different CAS latencies? Between the 4000MHz and 2400MHz kits, both the clock speed and CAS latency saw gains of 67%! Testing 2400MHz RAM at CL17 is very unrealistic, compared to kits that are on the market, and biases the results in favor of the higher speed kits. This test was poorly done and should be reworked using timings which provide the same latencies for every clock speed.

if OP was limited for cash and went non K chip with entry Z390 board for £100 then would def recommend 3200hz Crucial ram for £70 which matches cheaper 3000hz kit and OCing to 3600hz to gain from extra FPS due to lack of OC . But if they already have 16gb of DDR4 ram at 2666hz and going to get 9700k etc then i'd just stick with it
 
Associate
Joined
20 May 2019
Posts
505
Location
London
You didn't have to defend your masters degree here. But stating ram speed on intel doesn't matter much is wrong and ignorant. Subject of cost is totally different aspect.
Most people will be stuck with ram they bought while they swap out gpu's every other year. and step up from 3000 to 4000 could be equally significant than bumping up the gpu tier, depending of the application.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
23 Mar 2011
Posts
271
if I am correct having already 16gb @ 2666mhz and if I add another 16GB of whatever speed I'm sure the faster ram will be running only at speeds of the slower one? so even if i went for the 3000-4000 wouldn't help much, please correct me if I'm wrong,
 
Associate
Joined
20 May 2019
Posts
505
Location
London
if I am correct having already 16gb @ 2666mhz and if I add another 16GB of whatever speed I'm sure the faster ram will be running only at speeds of the slower one? so even if i went for the 3000-4000 wouldn't help much, please correct me if I'm wrong,

Ram kits are a tricky thing. Even if you buy the same kit of 2x8GB they "might" not work together. If you buy a faster kit there's a chance that it might not work at all, or work at the lowest speed possible. In any case the wisest thing would be to sell these sticks and buy a 32gb set, either 2x16gb or 4x8gb.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
23 Mar 2011
Posts
271
Ram kits are a tricky thing. Even if you buy the same kit of 2x8GB they "might" not work together. If you buy a faster kit there's a chance that it might not work at all, or work at the lowest speed possible. In any case the wisest thing would be to sell these sticks and buy a 32gb set, either 2x16gb or 4x8gb.

Now you adding me another dilemma :(
 
Associate
Joined
20 May 2019
Posts
505
Location
London
Now you adding me another dilemma :(

I'll add another one if I may.

Make sure that the ram you have or the one that you will buy is on the officially supported list. As you were looking for z390 mATX boards, here's a QVL list for Maximus XI Gene.
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-XI-GENE/HelpDesk_QVL/

P.S. Mind you that even if the ram you decide to use is on the list it might not work or might not work at the full potential. There's CPU IMC limitation as well.
I've had 4500 Ram kit that was on the Gene QVL list and no matter what I did it didn't want to do 4500 at C19, but it ran smoothly 4400 at C17. So go figure.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
23 Mar 2011
Posts
271
gentlemans my pocket are not that deep for 4000+ ram, :) , something around the 3200 unless I can easy overclock some type of ram like maybe the one got mention early from 3000 to 3600?
 
Back
Top Bottom