Intel systems and Trident Z5 RAM

[Emmitt Jay DeLong II]

As name implies. Building a system and I'm getting it really slow due to financial constraints. Just got my RAM. My original choice was Vengeance 32GB [2x16GB] DDR5-5600mhz but that was back in April 2022. After pushing things back, I went to get the RAM from the store (Micro Center) and as I thought it was cheaper than I had originally priced out. So, I decided to get a few sticks that were around my original price point hoping that in the interim time a better product would be on offer. I ended up being directed towards G.SKILL 32G 2X D5 6000 C30 TRGB B. I liked the look of the specs (400mhz faster with a 6-point drop in the CL rating). Unfortunately, I didn't get to do a GREAT dive into the product before I had to pull the trigger. By all accounts it seems to be great RAM but all of the reviews laud its performance on an AMD system, and as the title reads, I'm building an Intel system. Is this something I should be concerned about? It says on the box that it's XMP Ready but I feel that when a product feels it needs to list it compatibility, it's because there may be some less than stellar performance or issues. Again, I'm not looking to ding anyone or call into question a rep’s suggestion. It's possible I forgot to inform them I was building an Intel system or I'm looking at these reviews and over worrying. But I wanted to make sure before I am outside of the return window and stuck with a less viable product.

If not, would anyone be able to point me towards a product that is viable. The only criteria are Intel reliable, 32Gb, DDR5 (board limited), > 5600mhz, CL32 or better, and $210.00 US plus or minus $10. US. If this list is too restrictive then please point out the troublesome variable.

EDIT: I forgot to state use case. I play games. I'm medically retired and play a lot of games to pass the time. I last built my system in 2017 and I currently have an I9-9900K and a Founder Edition 2080. I want my new system to last for at least 5 years. I also want to get into VR and 4K gaming with this system. I am not liquid cooling the system, nor am I planning to overclock any more then what is set up on the individual parts by the manufacturer.

[Zando_]

RAM is RAM. Should be fine. 

[gammafilter]

12 minutes ago, Emmitt Jay DeLong II said:

As name implies. Building a system and I'm getting it really slow due to financial constraints. Just got my RAM. My original choice was Vengeance 32GB [2x16GB] DDR5-5600mhz but that was back in April 2022. After pushing things back, I went to get the RAM from the store (Micro Center) and as I thought it was cheaper than I had originally priced out. So, I decided to get a few sticks that were around my original price point hoping that in the interim time a better product would be on offer. I ended up being directed towards G.SKILL 32G 2X D5 6000 C30 TRGB B. I liked the look of the specs (400mhz faster with a 6-point drop in the CL rating). Unfortunately, I didn't get to do a GREAT dive into the product before I had to pull the trigger. By all accounts it seems to be great RAM but all of the reviews laud its performance on an AMD system, and as the title reads, I'm building an Intel system. Is this something I should be concerned about? It says on the box that it's XMP Ready but I feel that when a product feels it needs to list it compatibility, it's because there may be some less than stellar performance or issues. Again, I'm not looking to ding anyone or call into question a rep’s suggestion. It's possible I forgot to inform them I was building an Intel system or I'm looking at these reviews and over worrying. But I wanted to make sure before I am outside of the return window and stuck with a less viable product.

If not, would anyone be able to point me towards a product that is viable. The only criteria are Intel reliable, 32Gb, DDR5 (board limited), > 5600mhz, CL32 or better, and $210.00 US plus or minus $10. US. If this list is too restrictive then please point out the troublesome variable.

EDIT: I forgot to state use case. I play games. I'm medically retired and play a lot of games to pass the time. I last built my system in 2017 and I currently have an I9-9900K and a Founder Edition 2080. I want my new system to last for at least 5 years. I also want to get into VR and 4K gaming with this system. I am not liquid cooling the system, nor am I planning to overclock any more then what is set up on the individual parts by the manufacturer.

I just built a i5-13600K using g.skill trident z5 F5-6000J3040F16GX2. On an asrock z790 asrock pg riptide d motherboard.  I dont have problems other that it's slightly finicky controlling rgb.   The xmp profile loaded fine.   That said you need to check.woth your mobo vendor about specific ddr5 kit support.  ASRock has a whole list of support memory kits.that being said the 304040 is a good choice since it's Hynix die.   Micron and Samsung dies are said to not handle overclocking as well. My mobo supports speed upto 6800MT/s but I have tried to push the ram up to that clock speed yet. It has no problem running at 6000MT/s. (Windows says MHz but it's ddr so windos is wrong)

[RONOTHAN##]

The kit of DDR5 I've got is a Flare X5 kit (I know, not the same as a Trident Z5 kit, but they share the same PCB, memory ICs and are effectively just a different heat spreader) in that same speed bin (6000 CL30-38-38-96), and that kit is about as AMD focused as it comes (only EXPO profiles, no XMP support whatsoever) while I do run an Intel system. I do have some issues with it, but they're not with the reliability of the memory or anything like that. The main one is that EXPO will not enable no matter what I did, even though if I manually overclocked that kit of memory I could run it at speeds over 7600MT/s. That said, I'm more inclined to believe that this is an issue with my specific motherboard (Z690 Unify-X) and BIOS support than an issue with the actual memory kit itself, as while none of the public BIOS revisions I've tested work with EXPO at all, the latest beta BIOS revision for that board (A91 if you care about that, got it off the overclock.net forums) would actually let the board POST with EXPO enabled so this is likely more of a case that MSI hasn't bothered to implement certain necessary memory training procedures for EXPO, Hynix A die (the memory IC my kit is running), or 13th gen in general. 

 

If the kit lists XMP ready, that's all you really need to know for whether that kit will do well with your system. The issues I've got with mine are with how EXPO is the wild west on Intel systems (I.E. it's entirely up to the board vendors to optimize their BIOS to read it, and it's not exactly a high priority), but if it's got an XMP profile that does mean that it has a profile optimized to some degree for an Intel rig. 

[Emmitt Jay DeLong II]

@gammafilter I'm not sure what you mean by motherboard supported kit's so if you could expand on that but keep it moderately low level. I'm not as knowledgeable in PC parts as I used to be when the pool was far shallower and smaller. Either way, thanks for the reply.

 

@RONOTHAN##Thanks for that. I appreciate the response.

I already have my MB and its: https://www.asus.com/us/motherboards-components/motherboards/tuf-gaming/tuf-gaming-z690-plus-wifi/

From what I am reading it should be fine. It's at the upper limit of what the board says it supports as far as speed (I'm going off the image on the manufacturers page). But I'm not seeing a list of supported anything. Maybe I need to look somewhere else.

SIDE NOTE: I'm looking to get a PS but according to the calculator I need a PSU of about 880w. I was planning to get a 900w just to be sure, as the site said that the load wattage was 830w and it suggested an 880w to be safe. I've looked but 900w seems like a non-existent product. I don't mind getting a 1000w but if there’s a 900w that’s cheaper than great. Am I missing something?

[RONOTHAN##]

1 hour ago, Emmitt Jay DeLong II said:

I'm looking to get a PS but according to the calculator I need a PSU of about 880w

PSU calculators are generally worthless. Don't really trust them. 

 

What hardware are you planning on running anyway?

 

1 hour ago, Emmitt Jay DeLong II said:

 I'm not sure what you mean by motherboard supported kit's so if you could expand on that but keep it moderately low level.

They're likely referring to the memory QVL, the official list of memory kits that ASUS/MSI/Gigabyte/whoever has validated to work on that particular board. G.Skill also has one that I'd be more likely to trust as it's generally a bit more fleshed out and takes into account that a lot of their memory kits are basically identical

[Emmitt Jay DeLong II]

@RONOTHAN##
1.) I'll have to look but I'm going to assume its fine right now. I KNOW for a fact I tole the rep what my MB was. I would have pointed to it on the shelf but they have been suplanted but the now z790 boards.

2.) Thats a big list. I didn't want to put a lot of non-RAM things here but given the quesion I'll give a quick overview.

-CPU: 13900K, thinking of picking it up at the end of this month IF I can save enough money.
-MB: See above
-RAM: See above
-GPU RTX 4090, the specific brand is unknown atm. My disability makes actual in-store shopping difficult and so I'm probably going to have to wait until later in the year to get one reliably. That and, its expensive. VA disability pay sucks, lol.
-2x 1TB M.2 sticks and 3xSATA SDD's (256gb, 256gb, 1tb). I already own the SATA HDD's but they will be passed onto my sone when I finish building my PC. My old one is becoming his new PC at dad's house.
-360 AiO Water Cooling solution from Corsair or Lian Li. Looking at a 360mm between $190 and $210 US.
-Depending on case ($180 to $210 US) a few case fan's and whatever RGB is default. I'm function, not form.
-The only special item I want to add is an in system telemetry UI. But even that's not a major request.

I've ran the spec's through a few power sims and all of them are giving a readout of about the same. 820w-880w power usage.

Again, sorry for bloating this topic beyone the RAM scope. If it needs to be moved then please do.

[RONOTHAN##]

28 minutes ago, Emmitt Jay DeLong II said:

CPU: 13900K, thinking of picking it up at the end of this month IF I can save enough money.
-MB: See above
-RAM: See above
-GPU RTX 4090, the specific brand is unknown atm. My disability makes actual in-store shopping difficult and so I'm probably going to have to wait until later in the year to get one reliably. That and, its expensive. VA disability pay sucks, lol.
-2x 1TB M.2 sticks and 3xSATA SDD's (256gb, 256gb, 1tb). I already own the SATA HDD's but they will be passed onto my sone when I finish building my PC. My old one is becoming his new PC at dad's house.
-360 AiO Water Cooling solution from Corsair or Lian Li. Looking at a 360mm between $190 and $210 US.
-Depending on case ($180 to $210 US) a few case fan's and whatever RGB is default. I'm function, not form.
-The only special item I want to add is an in system telemetry UI. But even that's not a major request.

Yeah, for these types of specs, you want a 1000W unit. Make sure to check with the PSU tier list to find an A tier unit (you want that with a 4090).

 

That said, do you have a plan for how you're gonna deal with the BIOS update? I'm assuming you've had the board for a few months now, so you're likely to have a board that doesn't have the necessary BIOS support for the 13900K, and because ASUS likes to paywall features for whatever reason the Z690 TUF does not have BIOS flashback to do the BIOS update without a last gen CPU. 

[Emmitt Jay DeLong II]

@RONOTHAN##
TBH, I don't know. Is there a way to post and get to BIOS without a processor. If not then I may have put myself in a corner. I'll have to look up a work around. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. It'll definitely impact my future PC building plans (wait for the MB until towards the end, lol). I may have did a dumb.

[RONOTHAN##]

11 minutes ago, Emmitt Jay DeLong II said:

Is there a way to post and get to BIOS without a processor

That's generally what BIOS flashback is for. That board doesn't have it, so it a not gonna be possible without doing something else. 

 

12 minutes ago, Emmitt Jay DeLong II said:

I'll have to look up a work around

There are a couple. There are external BIOS flasher tools you can get for like $5 on sites like Amazon, AliExpress, eBay, etc., they would let you update the BIOS without a CPU, but they're also a royal pain in the butt to work with. The vast majority of computer repair places will do a BIOS update for you for little to no money, if you can call around this is likely your best option. You can also RMA the motherboard and have ASUS do the update for you, but this can also be a pain depending on your luck with how the sales reps are. You could also order a 12600K or something on Amazon, do the BIOS update, then return it free of charge. Also, if you've got a friend with a 12th gen CPU you could do the BIOS update with that, though that's a bit unlikely to be the case even if your friends are entirely computer nerds. 

 

18 minutes ago, Emmitt Jay DeLong II said:

It'll definitely impact my future PC building plans (wait for the MB until towards the end, lol).

There's a reason why you won't find a single person on here that recommends upgrading a system piecemeal like this, you're pretty much always better off saving up and building your computer all at once to avoid stuff like this. 

[Emmitt Jay DeLong II]

@RONOTHAN##

Yea, I did a dumb then, lol. I'll check with Micro Center but it'll have to be delt later on.

My original plan was to get everything within 3 months when I bought the MB back in July. But after then next month I learned that the new GPUs/CPUs were going to drop soon and that they would be supported on it so I held off. I wasn't informed that a BIOS update would be needed for the CPU though. I could theoretically just buy a 12900K and move on but I would prefer to just start off at the high end and then I'm not having one piece fall off before the others in my system. As I said, I'll check with Micro Center and see if they would be willing to help for a fee.

Thanks’ for helping me with the info. I never did hear about a 900W PSU, are they non-existent? A 1000w is fine but I find it odd they are less prolific.

UPDATE: I just found the QVL list for the RAM and it does list the TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS WIFI board. So, I'm set. Again, I appreciate the advice/info. I learned a lot today.

[RONOTHAN##]

8 minutes ago, Emmitt Jay DeLong II said:

Yea, I did a dumb then, lol. I'll check with Micro Center but it'll have to be delt later on.

Micro Center will do it, I know that, and I'm pretty sure they will only charge if it's a busy day, though it depends on your specific Micro Center I guess.

 

9 minutes ago, Emmitt Jay DeLong II said:

I never did hear about a 900W PSU, are they non-existent?

There are some, but generally as you start getting up into the top end of PSUs going in 50-100W jumps makes less and less sense. There are some 950W units that exist, same with 1050W units, but generally they're pretty rare compared to 850W and 1000W units. A 900W unit probably does exist, though I've never actually seen one on sale.