Memory for 5800x: 4 sticks ok?

uZi

uZi

uZi

Associate
Joined
1 Aug 2003
Posts
314
My 5800x has arrived today so I'm planning to order a MSI x570 Tomahawk and some RAM as soon as possible but I'm really struggling to make a decision on RAM for my build.

I'm aware that 3600Mhz is the sweet spot for Zen 3, and also that dual rank is desirable for performance as you benefit from rank interleaving. However, tighter timings also seems to have a reasonable performance increase too.

I was trying to find some dual rank 2x16GB kits for a reasonable price that would do 3600 CL16. The problem is that all the reasonably priced kits (e.g. the Crucial Micron rev E kits) seem to be out of stock everywhere.

So with that in mind, I've started looking at 2x8GB kits and was thinking of buying 2 to run in 4x8GB to get the dual rank benefit. However, running 4 sticks can make achieving tight timings can be quite difficult. The options I can actually get at the moment are:
I'm expecting to be able to downclock the viper to 3600 and get at least CL16 - is that reasonable or is it safer to go for the crucial?

So, hopefully someone can give me some decent advice - have I missed another kit which can be had for similar money (or is there a nicely overclocking 2x16GB kit which I can actually buy somewhere?) and is my plan to run 4x8GB sticks a good one?

Cheers for any help or new ideas!
 
Last edited:
The difference will be negligible if you game above 1080p as ram only really makes a difference if you're CPU bound.
 
Ok sounds like I'm overthinking it. Main thing I want to check is will I be ok with 4x8GB sticks, or am I likely to cause myself problems?
 
It will be more difficult yes, 4 sticks is harder on the imc but also you can run into overheating issues quicker on bdie with 4 sticks without active cooling if you are pushing higher voltages. I'd probably go with F4-3600C16D-32GTZNC which can be had for ~£200 at the moment if you don't want to spend too much and want a easier time tuning.
 
Actually scrap the above, got the wrong SKU, was thinking of F4-3600C16D-32GTZN which are another £70+. Vipers are probably your best bet at that price, 3600cl16 will be no problem but tuning 3600/3800cl14 may be more difficult.
 
I'd go with a 2X16gb kit as overclocking will be much easier and you will be far less likely to run into stability issues.
 
Yeah, I'd rather go for 2x16GB, but there's no reasonably priced 3600 CL16 kits available that I can find anywhere - they're all 250 quid+, which just seems insane to me. I guess I could just drop to 3600CL18 and hope I get something which will do CL16.
 
uZi said:
Yeah, I'd rather go for 2x16GB, but there's no reasonably priced 3600 CL16 kits available that I can find anywhere - they're all 250 quid+, which just seems insane to me. I guess I could just drop to 3600CL18 and hope I get something which will do CL16.
Click to expand...
Yeah or go for 3200/14 which should be the same bin as 3600/16 so should easily OC to that.
 
Even dropping to 3200/14, it's just all out of stock or hugely overpriced at the moment. Beginning to think I'll just get 16gb of 3600 CL16 for ~80 quid and upgrade when stock levels are less insane!
 
If you want to set it and forget it, 2x16 DR kits probably easiest.

If you are the type of person who is going to go in and mess with the timings regardless, the crucials are pretty sweet for the money. In total I've spent £140 on 4x8 (65 black friday and added another 2x8 in March for 75) and they are very overclockable. Get the right IMC in your 5600x and 4000/2000 might be doable across many different configurations.
 
I am actually having a similar problem at the moment (but with Ryzen 3600) I currently have 2x8gb running at 3600MHz and was considering buying another 2x8gb of the same manufacturer, spec, speed, latency etc. However, from what I've read, I've decided to go for 2x16gb at 3600MHz and then sell the 2x8gb kit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom