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What takes priority in Ryzen 5 1600 build: speed or quantity of ram?

m3r41ck
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So in a perfect world I would be more patient than I am now, and I would be able to afford the fastest and biggest sticks of ram I could get for my Ryzen 5 1600 build. 

 

BUT... unfortunately I don't live in a perfect world, and at this point I feel I need to make a compromise. I am only 4 parts away from completing my build which I could get at the start of next month, but the ram (and potentially PSU) is the only piece that I feel like I have variability based on system needs. My question is simple, for my choice of ram that I can afford now, should I make sure its fast (3000 14/15 cas), or high in quantity (16 GB) but lower speed. I feel I could get a single stick of 8 gb but at good speed now, and then the following month get another stick (obviously same kind) to get myself at 16GB. Or if I should go quantity, could I just go for a 2x8 but at a lower speed and just be fine. Overall I just don't want to have to wait another long month to finally have my rig and start playing when I am close to getting it now. :) 

 

Any help and critique on remaining parts appreciated (https://pcpartpicker.com/list/hWGc8K)

 

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Get a better mobo, thats for sure.

Avoid all Gigabyte motherboards and avoid all MSI Tomahawk clones.

I have Asus Strix B350-F which is one of the three best B350s atm, latest BIOS update 0902 (released yesterday, Asus has the best BIOS and memory support, they release new BIOS each 2 weeks usually) makes already great memory support even better and boosts up efficiency of the VRM by quite a bit.

Memory speed matters most, size only when rendering videos and stuff.

 

Don't buy Apple M1 computers with 8GB of RAM

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What is your price range for your RAM? What will you use this PC for? 

 

Like @dave_k said, speed matters most especially with Ryzen.

 

7 minutes ago, dave_k said:

Avoid all Gigabyte motherboards

Out of curiosity, why should these mobos be avoided?

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1 minute ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

What is your price range for your RAM? What will you use this PC for? 

 

Like @dave_k said, speed matters most especially with Ryzen.

 

Out of curiosity, why should these mobos be avoided?

Because all Gigabyte mobos are either garbage (everything up to and including K5) or overpriced (G5, K7). Both Gaming 5 and Gaming K7 will get butthurt by Asus Strix X370-F that has extremely good features for the price and makes more sense than Crosshair for most people, even on LN2/SCO2 it would be good.

 

Don't buy Apple M1 computers with 8GB of RAM

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Mostly gaming, but if I have the specs for creative stuff such as Adobe products or twitch streaming, I'll definitely take the opportunity. I would like to keep the ram cost below $130 if possible. Hence the idea of buying a stick now and getting another later because 2x8 at at least 3000 is about >$140 at the moment.  

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Just now, m3r41ck said:

Mostly gaming, but if I have the specs for creative stuff such as Adobe products or twitch streaming, I'll definitely take the opportunity. I would like to keep the ram cost below $130 if possible. Hence the idea of buying a stick now and getting another later because 2x8 at at least 3000 is about >$140 at the moment.  

Change the mobo first

 

Don't buy Apple M1 computers with 8GB of RAM

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3 minutes ago, dave_k said:

Because all Gigabyte mobos are either garbage (everything up to and including K5) or overpriced (G5, K7). Both Gaming 5 and Gaming K7 will get butthurt by Asus Strix X370-F that has extremely good features for the price and makes more sense than Crosshair for most people, even on LN2/SCO2 it would be good.

Dang, I should have talked to you when I was making my Ryzen build. I have the Crosshair VI. I haven't built it yet since I am still waiting on some parts.

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1 minute ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

Dang, I should have talked to you when I was making my Ryzen build. I have the Crosshair VI. I haven't built it yet since I am still waiting on some parts.

Crosshair is extremely good.

Be happy with it.

It still has some advantages.

 

Don't buy Apple M1 computers with 8GB of RAM

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Well mobo aside (mostly because cannot return it now :D whoops! Life lesson learned). What is the best strategy at this point for ram. Should I go for getting >= 3000 8gb now and get another stick a month later?   

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Yea, you'll just suffer in the mean time from not running dual channel.  If your just trying to get up and running, and then adding the other stick in a month you'll be fine going that route, Just make sure you get a matching stick to go with what you get now.

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This question doesn't make much sense. If you do anything demanding, you will know flat out if you need more RAM.  Speed is 100% irrelevant if you are running out of memory and need more. It's not a matter of fast 8gb vs slower 16gb. If you need a decent amount of ram, you'll just know based off individual work load.

 

Does your system slow to a crawl with 8gb? If yes, you need more. If not, 8gb will be ok. It's that simple.

 

 

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If you're choosing between 16gb 2133-2400 and 8gb 3000-3200 I say the 16gb.

Make sure to quote me or tag me when responding to me, or I might not know you replied! Examples:

 

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And make sure you do it by hitting the quote button at the bottom left of my post, and not the one inside the editor!

Or this:

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Buy whatever product is best for you, not what product is "best" for the market.

 

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18 minutes ago, dave_k said:

Crosshair is extremely good.

Be happy with it.

It still has some advantages.

Agreed but might be a bit overkill for my use case. Got it for USD$ 216, though!

 

11 minutes ago, m3r41ck said:

Well mobo aside (mostly because cannot return it now :D whoops! Life lesson learned). What is the best strategy at this point for ram. Should I go for getting >= 3000 8gb now and get another stick a month later?

There are some 8x2 16GB kits for $140 right now but I'm not sure of the compatibility of reaching stock 3000mhz. I have this Ryzen RAM list, it might be outdated and BIOS updates clears up most compatibility issues, but feel free to compare.

 

Here is a list of RAM for your price range. I put in up to $158 (for the life of me I couldn't get $160) in case you want to spend just a little more. 

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22 minutes ago, Mooshi said:

This question doesn't make much sense. If you do anything demanding, you will know flat out if you need more RAM.  Speed is 100% irrelevant if you are running out of memory and need more. It's not a matter of fast 8gb vs slower 16gb. If you need a decent amount of ram, you'll just know based off individual work load.

 

Does your system slow to a crawl with 8gb? If yes, you need more. If not, 8gb will be ok. It's that simple.

Totally makes sense! This is my first build and I wanted to see what direction I should start off with since there have been issues with Ryzen and speed. But information anymore is either outdated or inconsistent since updates, so I wanted to see what others have dealt with and what I should do.   

 

But thanks for the feedback everyone! 

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I would recommend a Ryzen Certified 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200 kit.

 

Keep it simple.

 

That literally covers most enthusiast workloads unless you are doing heavy content creation workloads.

Desktop:

AMD Ryzen 7 @ 3.9ghz 1.35v w/ Noctua NH-D15 SE AM4 Edition

ASUS STRIX X370-F GAMING Motherboard

ASUS STRIX Radeon RX 5700XT

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR4 3200

Samsung 960 EVO 500GB NVME

2x4TB Seagate Barracuda HDDs

Corsair RM850X

Be Quiet Silent Base 800

Elgato HD60 Pro

Sceptre C305B-200UN Ultra Wide 2560x1080 200hz Monitor

Logitech G910 Orion Spectrum Keyboard

Logitech G903 Mouse

Oculus Rift CV1 w/ 3 Sensors + Earphones

 

Laptop:

Acer Nitro 5:

Intel Core I5-8300H

Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR4 2666

Geforce GTX 1050ti 4GB

Intel 600p 256GB NVME

Seagate Firecuda 2TB SSHD

Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum

 

 

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