Hardware Unboxed recommends cheap DDR5 now

JollyJamma · 12 Sep 2022 at 11:44

Hi all

HU bought some cheap DDR5 DIMMS as a test to see if they were good value enough to recommend to people over expensive DDR5 / DDR4.

Turns out that they are slightly behind expensive DDR5 and good value.

That RAM is £46.79 Inc. Vat* here in the UK.

Tetras · 12 Sep 2022 at 13:44

They're the ones that were £33 a little bit ago, no? You can get the Kingston equivalent under £40 for the time being, too.

JollyJamma · 12 Sep 2022 at 13:58

Tetras said:
They're the ones that were £33 a little bit ago, no? You can get the Kingston equivalent under £40 for the time being, too.

Wow. £33 is really stupidly cheap.

If only Intel ITX motherboards weren't a fortune....

chrcoluk · 12 Sep 2022 at 14:01

JollyJamma said:
Hi all

HU bought some cheap DDR5 DIMMS as a test to see if they were good value enough to recommend to people over expensive DDR5 / DDR4.

Turns out that they are slightly behind expensive DDR5 and good value.

That RAM is £46.79 Inc. Vat* here in the UK.

Did he explain why he mentioned 3600 CL16 at start of video and then proceeded to compare to 3200 CL14 instead? was it because the 3600 CL16 was faster than the cheap DDR5?

Tetras · 12 Sep 2022 at 14:03

JollyJamma said:
Wow. £33 is really stupidly cheap.

If only Intel ITX motherboards weren't a fortune....

It must be near the floor, I'd think? Since you can get 16Gbit 8GB DDR4 sticks for just over £20, but DDR5 have more stuff on them. I'd guess they can drop to £25-£30 and 16GB to £40-£45.

JollyJamma · 12 Sep 2022 at 14:56

It must be near the floor, I'd think?

Yes. Pretty sure RAM prices are on the way back up from their all time low.

I would definitely get a DDR5 rig now, even with 2 slow 8gig DIMMs.

Joxeon · 13 Sep 2022 at 00:24

Good luck finding any at that price in a few weeks time.

cfletch · 13 Sep 2022 at 09:03

Joxeon said:
Good luck finding any at that price in a few weeks time.

You're right, this week demand is low and supply is adequate. In the short term demand is going to go up and supply will take a while to catch up.

JollyJamma · 13 Sep 2022 at 10:04

Even if it's at an elevated price, it's still worthwhile investment considering it means you don't need a whole new motherboard.

cfletch · 13 Sep 2022 at 10:24

JollyJamma said:
Even if it's at an elevated price, it's still worthwhile investment considering it means you don't need a whole new motherboard.

If you're building a new AMD system now yes in 3 years you won't need a new motherboard. If you're building a new intel system you will or if you have decent DDR4 already it's still an additional expense

Joxeon · 13 Sep 2022 at 11:35

In away it's just hwunboxed pushing the narrative so that they can say that cheap 4800mhz DDR5 is fine for Zen 4 even though it's only been tested on Intel and come review time they'll be testing the chips with expensive tuned 6000mhz ram.

Considering the performance difference on earlier ryzen CPUs when going from something like 2400 > 3200mhz I certainly wouldn't be pulling the trigger on any of this cheap stuff till it's been properly tested.

JollyJamma · 13 Sep 2022 at 11:41

Joxeon said:
In away it's just hwunboxed pushing the narrative so that they can say that cheap 4800mhz DDR5 is fine for Zen 4 even though it's only been tested on Intel and come review time they'll be testing the chips with expensive tuned 6000mhz ram.

They did not say that though, they only used Intel (obviously) and their performance charts only included Intel.

Not sure why you think they have an agenda.

In no way did they suggest that AMD would benefit from DDR5. Also, if someone only wants an Intel rig, this heavily applies to them.

I'm sure that they will cover cheap vs expensive RAM for AMD when AM5 launches.

Joxeon · 13 Sep 2022 at 12:57

JollyJamma said:
They did not say that though, they only used Intel (obviously) and their performance charts only included Intel.

Not sure why you think they have an agenda.

In no way did they suggest that AMD would benefit from DDR5. Also, if someone only wants an Intel rig, this heavily applies to them.

I'm sure that they will cover cheap vs expensive RAM for AMD when AM5 launches.

Listen to what he says at around 15:26 in the video.

"If you want to invest in a DD5 platform whether that be alder lake or Zen 4 then these 4800mhz 8gb sticks are not a bad way to go"

JollyJamma · 13 Sep 2022 at 13:14

"If you want to invest in a DD5 platform whether that be alder lake or Zen 4 then these 4800mhz 8gb sticks are not a bad way to go"

Yes. Not bad. Not good either. Affordable.

Obviously, there will be better kits for AMD but he hasn't said that they will be the best kit for AMD. I'm sure that there will be a sweet spot for AMD (there usually is given their configuration of chipset layout and frequencies) but it's a cheap way of getting onto the DDR5 band wagon without breaking the bank.

I think their argument makes sense and that takes into account your opinion, below, of enjoying far better performance with faster RAM since the cost is so low that you could buy a newer faster kit down the road. That's his point. It's cheap. Imagine spending £350 on a DDR5-4800 DIMM kit when they first launched which he highlighted in his rational? Now take into consideration the performance of their charts and the price of good DDR4 and you actually have a very good argument to just go with cheap DDR5. These are all points of the video which were obviously missed.

Considering the performance difference on earlier ryzen CPUs when going from something like 2400 > 3200mhz

It's not high risk as 4800 speed DDR5 RAM is relatively slow so it's unlikely to have any compatibility issues and that is a point to be made for compatibility problems but that wasn't your initial point in saying that HU has an agenda against AMD.

Joxeon · 13 Sep 2022 at 13:58

JollyJamma said:
Yes. Not bad. Not good either. Affordable.

Obviously, there will be better kits for AMD but he hasn't said that they will be the best kit for AMD. I'm sure that there will be a sweet spot for AMD (there usually is given their configuration of chipset layout and frequencies) but it's a cheap way of getting onto the DDR5 band wagon without breaking the bank.

I think their argument makes sense and that takes into account your opinion, below, of enjoying far better performance with faster RAM since the cost is so low that you could buy a newer faster kit down the road. That's his point. It's cheap. Imagine spending £350 on a DDR5-4800 DIMM kit when they first launched which he highlighted in his rational? Now take into consideration the performance of their charts and the price of good DDR4 and you actually have a very good argument to just go with cheap DDR5. These are all points of the video which were obviously missed.

It's not high risk as 4800 speed DDR5 RAM is relatively slow so it's unlikely to have any compatibility issues and that is a point to be made for compatibility problems but that wasn't your initial point in saying that HU has an agenda against AMD.

I think the sweetspot is 6000mhz according to AMD.

JollyJamma · 13 Sep 2022 at 14:12

Joxeon said:
I think the sweetspot is 6000mhz according to AMD.

Of which the cheapest kit is this one on Overclockers which just proves HU’s point.

Yes, it’s 32gigs but it’s not exactly budget friendly. Is it?

Kingston FURY Beast 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C40 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit

Order Kingston FURY Beast 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C40 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit now online and benefit from fast delivery.

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Journey · 16 Sep 2022 at 11:27

You can get the Kingston green 8GB 4800 modules for ~£31, not tested them yet so unsure of the IC's on them. 16GB version of the same module is ~£64.