Memory to go with i5 8600k and ASUS strix z370-E

Salty22 · 23 Nov 2017 at 07:20

I’m really clueless with memory past the MHz ratings for sticks, so please bear with me.
Im thinking of buying the above upgrades with a ASUS Strix 1080ti that I’m getting at the weekend, I only need 16gb ram and it’s purely for browsing and other light desktop work but mainly gaming, no streaming or editing videos ever.

From what research I’ve done 3200mhz seems the sweet spot for price and performance, is that correct?

If possible could you guys please recommend a set of 2x8gb sticks that are compatible with the Aura Sync RGB on the mobo/gpu.
Latency etc and anything more than the MHz rating on memory really confuses me, I don’t want to buy the wrong thing.

southernorth · 23 Nov 2017 at 15:15

Salty22 said:
I’m really clueless with memory past the MHz ratings for sticks, so please bear with me.
Im thinking of buying the above upgrades with a ASUS Strix 1080ti that I’m getting at the weekend, I only need 16gb ram and it’s purely for browsing and other light desktop work but mainly gaming, no streaming or editing videos ever.

From what research I’ve done 3200mhz seems the sweet spot for price and performance, is that correct?

If possible could you guys please recommend a set of 2x8gb sticks that are compatible with the Aura Sync RGB on the mobo/gpu.
Latency etc and anything more than the MHz rating on memory really confuses me, I don’t want to buy the wrong thing.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Team Group Dark Pro "8Pack Edition" 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C14 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/= £188.88
1 x Team Group Night Hawk RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - RGB Black (TF1D4= £188.99
1 x Team Group Night Hawk RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - RGB White (TF2D4= £188.99

Total: £575.56 (includes shipping: £8.70)

The '8 pack edition' set is the better performing RAM - it's Samsung B-die which means you can overclock higher and reduce CL latency, leading to higher performance. But it has no RGB, so isn't Aura Sync compatible.

The 'Night Hawk RGB' sets perform slightly worse, but they have RGB and are ASUS Aura Sync compatible:

Salty22 · 5 Dec 2017 at 08:45

Thank you for the reply, sorry just realised i havent replied myself.
Is 3200mhz the sweet spot for price/performance? I want a really powerful pc but dont want to be paying a ton more for diminishing returns

Cooper · 5 Dec 2017 at 11:03

Diminishing returns kicks in once you go past 3000Mhz.

It's also very game dependant, Witcher 3 sees big gains with faster ram but most only show very small improvements.

3t3P · 12 Dec 2017 at 09:04

When I was looking at ram for my 8600k build I wanted 3200mhz at least in the end 8pack 3600mhz was on a deal so went with that. The difference at most can be a few frames per second not Earth shattering but depending on game can be nice to have

McstylisT · 13 Dec 2017 at 13:18

Anything at 3200mhz will be decent. Bench wise sort of 3600-4500 would show better. But higher you go its more IMC reliant.