Which 12GB RAM?

Danger Phoenix · 24 May 2011 at 10:23

A friend at work has asked me to find him 3 x 4GB of RAM for his desktop. He currently has PC3-10600 (1333MHz) so something similar would be good. His budget is about £150. Any recommendations?

Plec · 24 May 2011 at 12:19

I would personally get the XMS3 10666 tri-cannel kit - to pair up with his present kit - if you can't find a matching brand/kit for his existing set. (You could even get the 12800 kit and just manually set it to match his present memory's timings if you're unable to source 10666 set.)

Although, OcUK don't seem to have any XMS tri kits in stock.

EDIT they do have these - link but mentioned before he would need to manually set the timing to match his present set.

Danger Phoenix · 24 May 2011 at 12:31

He wants to get rid of his current RAM as its 3 x 1GB, so it doesn't matter what RAM he gets.

Plec · 24 May 2011 at 12:55

Ah, then i,personally, would get a 12800 kit as there's very little in the price, usually, between 10666 and 12800 sets. Kingston do 12800 sets (great memory) as do Mushkin but i can only see 10666 in XMS3 sets. (Unfortunately OcUK don't seem to have any in stock - approx £100 - £110.)

But, if his budget is £150 the the Corsair set sold at OcUK, mentioned in the link above, would be fine.

Plec · 24 May 2011 at 13:00

See above post first- meant to edit

EDIT: - But he would need to consider his HS as the memory profile of the Corsair Vengeance is very tall and can interfere with large coolers.

Stoner81 · 24 May 2011 at 13:15

If the motherboard has enough sockets then you could buy 2 sets of THIS which would give a total of 12GB and leave you with nearly £50 in change out of the budget allowed.

I know it's not what you asked for but it might be another option you had not considered

Stoner81.

cmndr_andi · 24 May 2011 at 17:22

If you are buying new then I would suggest the GeIL 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS kit. It can be had for ~£120 and is good RAM.

Personally I would not suggest installing 6 sticks to achieve 12GB as this will make overclocking more difficult with an X58 system.

Plec · 24 May 2011 at 17:37

cmndr_andi said:
If you are buying new then I would suggest the GeIL 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS kit. It can be had for ~£120 and is good RAM.

+1 this or the XMS3 equivalent (although i can't find it)

cmndr_andi said:
Personally I would not suggest installing 6 sticks to achieve 12GB as this will make overclocking more difficult with an X58 system.

I think his friend is binning the other 3GB (selling it) - from his reply i think he intends just to use the 12Gb in a 3 x 4 format.

cmndr_andi · 24 May 2011 at 18:09

Plec said:
+1 this or the XMS3 equivalent (although i can't find it)

+1 Great memory kit. However I can't seem to find a 3x4GB 1600MHz kit readily available. That said, the 1333MHz kit is a great price and the performance difference will be pretty tiny.

Plec said:
I think his friend is binning the other 3GB (selling it) - from his reply i think he intends just to use the 12Gb in a 3 x 4 format.

Aye, absolutely -that's the best way to go imho. I was just aiming that comment at Stoner81's (admittedly low-cost) option of using two 3x2GB kits to achieve 12GB.