Ram recommendations.

[Ailuxes]

Hello, I need some ram recommendations. I have a hard time understanding what speed I should get and compatibility. This wouldn't be for a current system, just for the future. 

I do like rgb, but if there was a clear winner without it I would definitely not overlook that. I really want 64 gb of ram, but once again if there is a clear winner for 32gb I would take that.

[kb5zue]

The question that you ask isn't necessarily that easy to answer.  There are a lot of things that go into effect when choosing memory for your PC.  Most notably are what will the machine be used for?  Business, Home, Education, College and other things.  Things such as what motherboard are you considering, what CPU? what size hard drive and what type of hard drive.  And these are just the most obvious of things to consider.  Might want to think about these things and take some time to think about some of the answers to these questions.

 

Good Luck.

 

[IPD]

RAM is pretty simple.  Biggest nuggets (besides form-factor) are:

 

-Speed rating

-Latency timings

-ECC (workstations /servers)

-Registered (workstations /servers )vs. non-registered

 

So in gist, what YOU as a consumer-level user needs to worry about is pretty much just speed and latency.  Given equal speeds, memory with lower latency timings will have less delay.  Additionally, DDR4 2400 CL15 is ~ DDR4 2666 CL17 - with respect to delay (if memory serves).  So that means that the 2666 will overall be faster, but with similar delay.  However, a CL 19 or CL21 2666 would be expected to exhibit worse delay than the CL15 2400.  (Feel free to correct me on this maths/nomenclature, I'm not exactly an expert).

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cas-latency-ram-cl-timings-glossary-definition,6011.html

 

(consumer level) RAM modules will (generally) increase in cost with 3 things:

-increase in capacity

-increase in speed

-decrease in latency

 

RGB is fine, but should be a tertiary concern.  32GB should be fine unless you are doing heavy editing or something similar.  Even 30 browser tabs/windows doesn't get above 6-7GB on heavy use (and the most I ever hit at 16GB was about 80% use), so there's still plenty of headroom with 32GB.

 

Like many, I feel that Trident Z Royal is the current "gold standard" (pun intended) for RGB looks, and the performance on them is pretty solid to boot.

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gskill-trident-z-royal-ddr4-4000-c17-2x16gb-review