Memory choice question

Revolve · 8 Sep 2013 at 20:15

I'm gonna be putting a system together in the next month, and I'm wondering about my ram. I'm gonna be running a 4670/4770k on an asus z87 pro with an H100 and a HIS x2 7950. I'm thinking with that motherboard I will be best off either black ram or gold ram.

Atm I'm thinking of going with Kingston HyperX Beast but I'm not sure if that ram is the best value for money, speed etc in terms of timings as I don't know much about that. If I was aiming to have the 4770k at around 4.6/4.7ish, would that ram be alright, or would I be better off with something else?

I'm generally leaning towards that ram just because it looks amazing and with it being pure black it should match quite well.

Alternatively I was thinking maybe either TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD or TeamGroup Xtreem LV but I haven't heard much about them and they might not match the system so well.

I'd love some advice from any of your guys who know your stuff when it comes to memory!

Make · 8 Sep 2013 at 22:22

Do you want looks or performance?

Unless you do a hardcore OC, you will not notice a more than 1-2% performance difference between different memories. Or, if you are buying 32gb and using it as a ramdisk or something weird like that. Gamingwise it makes almost no diff.

So you could just buy any memory that you think looks best (And is compatible. OCuk does not sell any "bad" memory, so stuff like teamgroup has been deemed to be good).

My two cents.

Revolve · 8 Sep 2013 at 23:17

Bit of a mix of both really. I mean so long as it would look decent on that motherboard and is good enough to not be choking my system in a few years that would be great. That's why I was leaning for the black rather than the teamgroup which are a bit more colour orientated.

If memory has that small of a difference that does lessen the import of the decision a bit, thankfully. How come people give such a massive damn about memory then if it's not really all that important?

Make · 9 Sep 2013 at 06:54

It makes a "hugeish" difference on bechmarks, but on gaming or rendering it is hardly ever the bottleneck. It's the CPU or GPU that is.

Benchmarks look cool

I'll let someone else spec you with the specific memories for your setup. I'd pretty much choose any 1600-2600mhz.

Revolve · 9 Sep 2013 at 17:16

Ah, I'm not too fussed about benchmarking really. I'm just looking for futureproof ram that would suit a z87-pro and is good at what it does/reliable.