RAM Upgrade advice

[Witto]

Hi all,

My custom built Overclockers gaming machine is coming up to 5 years old now and I’m looking for recommendations on upgrading the RAM to 32GB (or maybe even 64GB if it is worth going that high).

Below is the full spec of the machine…

• Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX Glass Mid Tower Case
• Samsung SM961 Polaris 256GB M.2-2280 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive
• Samsung 1.0TB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive
• Asus GeForce GTX 1080 DirectCU III Strix Advanced Gaming GPU
• Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Dual Channel RAM
• Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz (Kaby Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor (overclocked)
• Asus ROG Strix Z270F Gaming Intel Z270 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard
• Super Flower Leadex II 750W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply
• Asetek 240mm 570LX liquid cooling

It is only used for gaming, and most of the time I only tend to play Paradox strategy type games.

I’m very much a noob when it comes to these type of things so can anyone recommend some decent RAM, there is no real budget and performance is more important to me than RGB etc.

Looking at the motherboard manual I believe it supports…

Memory:
4 x DIMM, max. 64GB DDR4 3866(OC)* / 3733(OC)* / 3600(OC)* / 3466(OC)* / 3400(OC)* / 3333(OC)* / 3300(OC)* / 3200(OC)* / 3000(OC)* / 2800(OC)* / 2666(OC)* / 2400(OC)* / 2133 MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory
Dual channel memory architecture
Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)*
* Hyper DIMM support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs.
Please refer to Memory QVL(Qualified Vendors List) for details​

If I’m feeling more adventurous I may also start to look at upgrading some of the other components, so would be interested in any advice on what should take priority.

As always, thanks in advance for any advice received.

 

[JollyJamma]

Please refer to Memory QVL(Qualified Vendors List) for details

go to your motherboards QVL list for RAM and see which kits the motherboard prefers. Some kits work better than others, especially with 64gig kits.

That being said, DDR4 ram is super compatible with most systems these days

 

[dfour]

Complete waste of money IMHO. If your only playing games then 16 gig is all you need as long as your not running loads of stuff in the back ground while gaming.

I dont think running faster ram will make enough difference to be worth the extra expense as long as your running the ram at its advertised speed of 3000mhz

 

[Witto]

OK, much appreciated.

From what I can see I'm going to have to replace pretty much everything if/when I do upgrade next, so I'll probably hold off spending any more money on it for now.

 

[JollyJamma]

OK, much appreciated.

From what I can see I'm going to have to replace pretty much everything if/when I do upgrade next, so I'll probably hold off spending any more money on it for now.

Well no, you have enough good components to move to a new build.

you could just get a new CPU and Motherboard and keep your RAM.

I agree with the comment above saying that more RAM is pointless. I just know that it depends on what you want to do with the computer.

My pc only uses 10ish gigs of RAM with BF2142 so 16 gigs is plenty. I do need an 8 core CPU so I’ll be moving to a 5800X in the new year.

your current CPU isn’t great for gaming and I’d tell you to look at either an Intel or AMD 8 core CPU. Alder lake is a great option right now.

 

[Joxeon]

Just grab a 12700K / KF, Z690 DDR4 board and a cheap 32gb 3600mhz and you will good for another 5 years GPU aside then sell the 7700k + board and your current ram while they still command a decent price to offset some of the cost.

 

[Quartz]

A quick search indicates that Paradox games do not take good advantage of many cores so you’re not going to get much boost from a new CPU. Especially as your current CPU is overclocked.