My gut feeling is that I'm not sure there would be much of an improvement with a RAM upgrade, but thought someone could give me their opinion, hopefully from someone with practical experience of a similar upgrade. I currently run a SB2500 @ 4.6ghz with a GTX770 4Gb on an Asus P8Z68-V motherboard. I have two 4Gb RAM sticks running at 1600mhz. My question is, could I benefit, albeit slightly, of an upgrade to some RAM running at 2400Mhz. Would it be of little consequence? Could the MB take advantage of a RAM upgrade? If anyone could offer some specific advice on this I'd be grateful. Also, perhaps point me in the direction of some good fast RAM. BTW: holding my hand in the air, I'm not a hardware guru and so I ask the question in innocence, but if I was to upgrade the RAM, would I need to change some settings in the BIOS? Cheers fellas...

Very very little.

 

Especially because 2400mhz sticks mostly have cl10 or higher timing, so you need more CPU cycles to get bits of of them.

 

I would almost say that of all components, ram has the least influence and should gp be the last to upgrade. Off course, this depends on where you are coming form though.

Sandy bridge only supports 2133mhz but you can gain aprox 7%.

Then we have the latency vs memspeed , the mordern memorycontroller is more sensitive to speed than latency.

Today the memspeed is more important than latency opposite to older plattforms , if not belive it check it with for example Corsair.

Second memoryspeed is a keyfactor when running CPU bound apps like FSX and a memory uppgrade can make up for 200-500mhz less OC.

Very very little.

 

Especially because 2400mhz sticks mostly have cl10 or higher timing, so you need more CPU cycles to get bits of of them.

 

I would almost say that of all components, ram has the least influence and should gp be the last to upgrade. Off course, this depends on where you are coming form though.

 

Thanks for the input, appreciated

 

Sandy bridge only supports 2133mhz but you can gain aprox 7%.

Then we have the latency vs memspeed , the mordern memorycontroller is more sensitive to speed than latency.

Today the memspeed is more important than latency opposite to older plattforms , if not belive it check it with for example Corsair.

Second memoryspeed is a keyfactor when running CPU bound apps like FSX and a memory uppgrade can make up for 200-500mhz less OC.

 

Hmm, very interesting. Thanks for the advice. I think I'll save my dosh for a more 'useful' upgrade, cheers...

Sandy bridge only supports 2133mhz

Howard. In this month's issue of Computer Shopper,(browse WHS) in their Build A PC feature, gave the Corsair Vengeance LP(low profile) 2133Mhz 2x4Gb a 5-star rating.

 

I had assembled a SB i5-2500K rig but the coming across a Haswell i5-4670K on sale in Australia,  decided to bypass the SB proposed build. So, am mating with an Asus Z87 A motherboard+Corsair Vengeance LP 4x4Gb+Noctua DH-14 cooler.

Howard. In this month's issue of Computer Shopper,(browse WHS) in their Build A PC feature, gave the Corsair Vengeance LP(low profile) 2133Mhz 2x4Gb a 5-star rating.

 

I had assembled a SB i5-2500K rig but the coming across a Haswell i5-4670K on sale in Australia,  decided to bypass the SB proposed build. So, am mating with an Asus Z87 A motherboard+Corsair Vengeance LP 4x4Gb+Noctua DH-14 cooler.

 

Hi Rick, thanks for the  info on the Corsair sticks. Tell me though, I don't for the life of me understand about latency and stuff (?) A line of numbers that determine the performance of the RAM? Don't I have to take this into consideration also? BTW, are there any changes I need to make in the BIOS if I swap over to faster sticks?

Hi Howard

 

Depending on your current Asus MoBo, it should have a piece of software called XMP or XML(not too sure which) in the BIOS or something like that, which should detect a faster speed Corsair RAM, There is no need to worry about latency timings, the 9-9-X-Y-Z  bit in today's MoBos. That article I was referring to in Computer Shopper has more info on the XML and latency bits. Have a browse at WHS where that mag is still in stock and you'll get all the info you require.

 

Hope this helps.

Hi Howard

 

Depending on your current Asus MoBo, it should have a piece of software called XMP or XML(not too sure which) in the BIOS or something like that, which should detect a faster speed Corsair RAM, There is no need to worry about latency timings, the 9-9-X-Y-Z  bit in today's MoBos. That article I was referring to in Computer Shopper has more info on the XML and latency bits. Have a browse at WHS where that mag is still in stock and you'll get all the info you require.

 

Hope this helps.

Thanks for all your help Rick, much appreciated, cheers.

 

 

Depending on your current Asus MoBo, it should have a piece of software called XMP or XML(not too sure which) in the BIOS or something like that, which should detect a faster speed Corsair RAM, There is no need to worry about latency timings, the 9-9-X-Y-Z  bit in today's MoBos. That article I was referring to in Computer Shopper has more info on the XML and latency bits. Have a browse at WHS where that mag is still in stock and you'll get all the info you require.

 

I would be very careful with that, because I have seen many times that the settings of xmp were incorrect. All it is, is a preset configuration, nothing else, so you can reach the same setting manually, and often better, imo.

 

 

 

Tell me though, I don't for the life of me understand about latency and stuff (?)

 

The easiest way is to think of it like computing cycles. A cl7 set needs 7 computing cycles to accurately get a bit out of the RAM. a cl10 set will need 10 computing cycles each time that piece of information is accessed. 

 

So basically, lower is better, because it will be more efficient and faster to access the same bit. 

 

Hope this makes sense a bit.