9900K, Z390 RAM compatibility

[Internet Person]

Hi all,

 

So my first post!

 

I have very tall Corsair RAM and a compact ATX case (Fractal Design Define C). The RAM rules out any tower coolers and it even conflict to some degree with a top mounted 240mm AIO. The radiator presses against RAM corners and I feel uncomfortable with that. I don't want to mount the cooler in the front. I'm thinking about replacing the RAM then with low profile sticks. My current RAM is 32GB (4x8) Corsair Vengeance 3000, CL15 which is nice but since I'm going to (probably) replace it I might as well go for an upgrade. I have my eyes on Corsair Vengeance 3600, CL14:

 

RAM on Amazon

 

But I wonder if it will work with a 9900K (OC all cores at 5GHz) on a Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi . The board officially supports 3600 and the Corsair rep on Amazon said it "should" work with Z390, but I've read that the 9900K may be picky over anything above 3200. Any thoughts on this? Thanks a lot.

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

9900k has no issues with 3600Mhz. Mine runs happily (maybe a little cranky) at 4000Mhz.

[Internet Person]

Thanks! That's good news:)

[VeganJoy]

i had 3600c14 2x16gb running with my 9900k, 3800mhz was a no go with my z390 hero. does the define c not fit a d15s or dark rock pro 4? because 184 bucks for 2x8gb is the same price i paid for my 2x16gb b die

[Internet Person]

Neither Dark Rock Pro 4 nor D15 will fit with this RAM. Imagine the tallest RAM Corsair ever made. The case though has enough space for either cooler. So I bought a Corsair liquid cooler, but yeah, even this is very tight.

 

It's expensive because it's CL14.

[HumdrumPenguin]

3 hours ago, Internet Person said:

Neither Dark Rock Pro 4 nor D15 will fit with this RAM. Imagine the tallest RAM Corsair ever made. The case though has enough space for either cooler. So I bought a Corsair liquid cooler, but yeah, even this is very tight.

 

It's expensive because it's CL14.

B-dies are low CL. So you are both in the same boat, the difference being he bought his RAM for a really good price. Now here's something interesting. In this current build I started with TridenX 16gb CL14 (B-die), and than sold it and bought 32gb CL16. My benchmarks reported faster speeds afterwards. Not sure why, but I'd wager Asus bios plays better with Corsair RAM.

Edited September 28, 2020 by HumdrumPenguin

[Internet Person]

OP here... So just a quick update. I decided against the Corsair 3600MHz, CL14. I couldn't justify nearly $400 for 4x8GB of CL14 RAM. I bought Crucial Ballistix Elite 3600MHz, CL16 instead which was $150 for 4x8GB. It runs at 3600 (XMP) as advertised and the computer is stable. I'm not going to overclock it, I've no clue how to overclock RAM.

 

I gained almost no performance but the slimmer profile allows my AIO to fit properly now without pressing against the memory sticks. My Geekbench 5 single thread score is the same but the multithread score gained almost 1000 points, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But anyway, I'm satisfied.

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

8 minutes ago, Internet Person said:

I bought Crucial Ballistix Elite 3600MHz, CL16 instead

That's a good budget kit. Micron E-die afaik. I recommended it recently, and also frequently recommend to 2x8GB kit of it.

12 minutes ago, Internet Person said:

I've no clue how to overclock RAM.

This kit should be able to OC quite well. Memory overclocking can be a huge pain, but some people (me included) are masochistic enough to enjoy it. Here is a place to start in case you are interested:

 

 

[Internet Person]

Yeah, according to some the Corsair 3600 CL14 is Samsung B-die but really, it is too expensive. I doubt I would see any significant performance gain with it either. Thanks for the link. Perhaps this weekend I'll give it a try!