Choosing Memory Speed

[LedLeo]

I've waited faithfully to see what AMD has to offer and am well pleased with their results. I've decided for the price (especially after discount) and my particular usecase however to stick with the currently sound and stable i7-7700K offering. If AMD Keeps it up they'll get my buy next round.

 

I'm going to pair the i7 with the MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon  - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130973&cm_re=MSI_Z270_carbon-_-13-130-973-_-Product

 

Now I'm seeing this board supports a broad range of memory speeds, and I'm seeing various memory brands, predominantly Corsair, G.Skill, Hyper X, and Geil are all vying for attention.

 

-Does the speed rated on the stick chosen denote the maximum overclock available to that RAM, or is it the base clock your guaranteed with a potential to OC up to higher speeds?

-Whats the benefit of just choosing a higher speed of ram outright?

[Guest]

1. Max overclock afaik

2.

 

[LedLeo]

Pretty well rounded summaries, I appreciate the feedback and wont take any points off for having the handy video references on hand to answer for you. (talk about quick-draw!)

 

-I've always been aware of a disparity between higher-speed, higher latency RAM and lower-speed lower-latency RAM. I've also known about memory overclocking. So I've always just wondered how that all is decided upon when building a system and figured I ought ta reach out and get more info on it before I make my buy.

 

Thanks!

[Imakuni]

11 hours ago, LedLeo said:

-Does the speed rated on the stick chosen denote the maximum overclock available to that RAM, or is it the base clock your guaranteed with a potential to OC up to higher speeds?

It's just a guaranteed base, you can usually clock it even further. RAM manufacturers are limited to things such as 1.35v and the timings listed in their products; you, however, don't need to follow those. You can try to increase clocks further, tweak timings, give it more voltage...

 

With that said, something like a 3000/3200mhz kit isn't all that much more expensive than a regular 2133 and will usually OC better, so try and go for that if you can.

 

11 hours ago, LedLeo said:

-Whats the benefit of just choosing a higher speed of ram outright?

The obvious one is the OC profile: just flip XMP on and you've got yourself a stable OC and free performance for next to no effort. Outside of that, a high rated kit will usually OC a bit better than a much lower rated one.

 

 

11 hours ago, deXxterlab97 said:

You know that this video is BS in multiple ways, don't you?

 

11 hours ago, LedLeo said:

-I've always been aware of a disparity between higher-speed, higher latency RAM and lower-speed lower-latency RAM. I've also known about memory overclocking. So I've always just wondered how that all is decided upon when building a system and figured I ought ta reach out and get more info on it before I make my buy.

Just get a decent kit if you can. Doesn't need to be overkill, just something a bit above the base. Skylake generally likes clock more than latencies, so a 2800~3200mhz rated kit would be a good pick. They aren't that much more expensive and will save you the effort of trying to OC yourself, while still allowing to push further if you so desire.