Cheap RAM

jamieboo

jamieboo

jamieboo

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29 Oct 2009
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369
XMP is like pre-set timing 'profiles' that you activate. You can get the same effect by just dialing in the speed and timings manually.

Honestly RAM speed is kind of useless outside of SuperPI benching or whatever. Just at a glance I'd probably go for these for ~£30 extra just because they're a bit nicer, but I think you'd be hard pressed to notice a difference in general use https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-214-KS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=2553
 
Thanks kaku!
If there'll be little actual difference, what makes those Kingstons a 'bit nicer'? Is it just that they're slightly faster with slightly better timings? Or is it that you reckon Kingston to be more reliable?
 
The Kingston's look nicer.

Most companies selling RAM just buy whatever is cheapest on the open market then package it up with nice heatsinks, so you never know what chips are actually under there until you buy it.

Crucial are one of the few that only use their own chips (well actually the chips are made by their parent company Micron, but the retail branding is Crucial), and they are also renowned as one of the most reliable.

Personally I'm looking at buying myself some Crucial Ballistix RAM very soon, but again it's just because it looks a bit prettier and I'm a sucker for aesthetics, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the kit you posted if you can stomach the looks.
 
One other thing, because I am generally ignorant in this area.
Is the generally lower spec of this memory likely to have any negative impact on the extent to which I'll be able to overclock my i7 5820K?
Thanks.
 
Kind of...

Often the actual chips they use in the expensive memory are the same as the ones they use in the cheap memory, but they've been speed binned as they struggle to reach the higher frequencies. If there is high demand for cheaper RAM they're forced to use the better performing chips in the lower end RAM, so sometimes you get lucky and a cheap set will overclock like stink.

For some reason people are comfortable overclocking their CPU, but as soon as they see their RAM running out of spec, or above the cpu/motherboard manufacturers recommendations they start to get worried. And for good reason, by doing so the overall performance gains to your system are negligible, but the system stability can often take a nose-dive, generally RAM binning is a lot less conservative than CPU binning, so they don't leave you much headroom.

That said, just reduce your memory multiplier a bit and carry on overclocking your CPU.
 
Eek! As I said I'm pretty ignorant in this area and generally have quite a bit of reading to do before I'm familiar with overclockers vernacular, so a lot of what you said I didn't completely grasp! But thanks Mustang! :)
But, in a nutshell, and putting aside the variables of Luck, if I choose lower speed RAM will this diminish my maximum potential CPU overclock?
I'd like to hit at least 4.4Mhz with my 5820K. Is that less likely unless I use a faster out of the box memory?

Thanks
 
Put another way, if you get a chip that will overclock to 4.4 GHz (I assume you meant GHz, not MHz) then you'll normally be able to achieve this regardless of which memory you have.
 
Someone on another thread just mentioned this and I was wondering if it's true: With the release of Skylake, is the price of DDR4 about to skyrocket?
Should I hurry up and make this purchase?
 
If anything DDR4 is falling due to skylake and making it affordable.

Bit confused to why you are going x99 and then wanting cheap RAM. Admittedly, i haven't read the thread.
 
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