Some minor queries

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First of all, hope you all had a good new year.

I've had 4GB since I got a new mobo+cpu+memory combo because I was on a slight budget but now I'm feeling the sting of 4GB when it comes to certain tasks (mainly Cities: Skylines and rendering high res buddhabrots, both causing loads of memory changes and using huge capacity).

I'm using an FX 6350 (AMX hex core) and M5A97 LE R2 motherboard (DDR3). So of course my memory performance is always going to be lower than an Intel setup and that's what is making me wonder if going for fast memory or low latencies is even worth it (is it "bottlenecked" by the memory controller or does that just reduce the scaling of performance from better RAM?).

I could just order a set and no doubt be happy, because capacity is by far my limiting factor right now, but I thought I'd get some opinions on what matters because I've not been focusing on (non-embedded) hardware so much in the past couple of years and could end up loosing out on something way better for pretty much the same cost.

Would it be worth me spending much more than around £40 for faster memory or marginally lower latencies? Or should I pick a reliable and trusted pair that isn't really all that much better on paper? (so it's the actual fab and chip tech that is clean rather than nice specs on paper), and in that regard which brands are more trusted these days?

I've had a look around for testing people may have done but it's always at the very high end so may not be relevant.

Some thoughts:

So, I would probably be happy with this:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/king...dual-channel-kit-hx318c9srk2-8-my-208-ks.html

But then why is this pair slightly more expensive even with worse specs on paper? (very slightly worse timings):
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/king...ual-channel-kit-hx318c10fwk2-8-my-172-ks.html

And then there are pairs that are almost double the price but still worse on paper:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/king...al-channel-kit-hx318c10frk2-16-my-169-ks.html

And ones that same higher price but with lower timings again:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/king...ual-channel-kit-hx318c9srk2-16-my-207-ks.html

But then maybe I should avoid Kingston altogether for some reason I am not aware of? I avoided crucial in the past because of their cheesy TV adverts for non-techies but is there anything wrong with them? Cheesy name brands make me weary of marketing junk getting in the way of actual performance (such as "Team Group" sounding silly, to me, but maybe they are the best to go for?), etc. etc.

See my dillema, is there some "problem" with the cheaper modules, would that only hit me if I was pushing them to the limit on an Intel system, are they just older fab?
 
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With the ram your looking at the timing dont really matter all that much.
What you should be looking for is the right ram for you.

how much do you need 8gb or 16gb?
do you want a colored ram kit?
what is the ram for?

My ram is 8gb and red....
I play games so dont need to spend the world.
i have a red and black system and case as a window so get red ram.
8gb is a ok place to be right now for games, 16gb would be future proof.

Buy whats cheap and matches your needs
 
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You didn't read my post. Thanks anyway.

16GB is unlikely to be future proof for games by the way, there's no way my CPU (or most but the very top end) would handle a game that uses that much unless it's really strangely/badly made and if I was upgrading the rest of my system I'd move to DDR4 so buying 16GB of DDR3 would be a waste. Of course, it would help for leaving loads of other applications open while gaming, presuming they are made well enough that they don't eat a lot of CPU cycles even idle.
 
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Soldato
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P4Clock's post is useful. You are over thinking this.

Unless you are a pro-something then ram is ram is ram is ram. The biggest difference is appearance and RMA process. Crucial's is really good, teamgroup goes through ocuk so that is naturally good.

You could either add 4GB if you have the slots or grab an 8GB kit. Latter is more expensive but guarantees compatibility.
 
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