Okay, somehow I am doing some major upgrading and after looking at the plethora of memory out there I see I need real help.

 

I will be installing my i7-2600k into an new ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe next week and hope to install 16G of memory.  My plan is to be able to OC to 5.0GHz.  FrozenPC is building me a cooler that should handle the heat. 

 

I had ordered, and received, Corsair Dominator CMP16GX3M4X 1600C7 (damned expensive $244) but have found it is not really recommended for OC on an 1155 board (really for 1156 boards and may be unstable at higher clocks, according to Tom's Hardware site) I have a new EVGA GTX-780ti sc to put into it also.

 

Can someone point me in the right direction on what memory I should consider?

 

Thanks

Rick S.

Save your money on the memory. Unless you're running a lot of concurrent apps you don't need 16Gb. The Z77 chipset will actually work better with two sticks of memory. An OC to 5Ghz is really pushing the 2600K. Whether you make it or not depends on your luck of the draw from Intel.

 

You'll need a good PSU that can handle the on-die voltages at high junction temps. Even a great cooler can't guarantee or translate to adequate heat dissipation at the junction level. Even with good thermistor placement and calibration, the feedback loop needed to protect you 2600K just isn't robust enough to prevent chip failure at 5.0Ghz under stress.

 

A good rule of thumb is to increase your OC to a stable 2-4 hour 100% stress then back it down at least 0.2Ghz. You probably won't see any RW difference in performance and backing your OC down give the microprocessor some breathing room in case of spikes or temperature transients.

 

FSX is usually limited by the CPU-GPU pipeline. Your hardware should give you excellent frame rates and graphics performance at an OC as low as 4.0Ghz which is well within the 2600K capability at modest junction voltages and temperatures.

 

Good luck with your purchase,

 

Rick

I have my 2600k at 4.8 on the same board with a H80i cooler and some pretty simple g.skill 1600 cl9 sticks (2x4gb) and I am very happy with the performance. 

 

I agree with the other poster that you don't need 16gb, unless you need it for something else. 

Thanks for the replies.  I decided to return the memory and stick with what I had.

 

Now I am off to conquer CPU Offset Voltage Mode.  Took me 2 days to get the concept down!  "Now I are Offset"!

 

Thanks

Rick S.