Which DDR3 2000 to get...

[Casca]

I have moved to i7. 920, eVGA Classified and eVGA GTX285sc on the way. Also ordered the cheapest ram newegg had to use temporarely and as back-up once I get better ram. Other parts will come outta my P45 build.

My knowledge on overclocking is limited, but I would like to get more into it. Everything will be water cooled on a pretty massive level once I get around to completing my scratch build case.

I like the Corsair Dominator DDR3 2000 7-8-7-20. But it is over $500. The cas 8 version is more acceptable to me at $320ish. Then there's the Gskill and OCZ (DDR3 2000 7-8-7-20) which I guess are the same chips as the Corsair but at a more agree-able $400ish. And probably other options I am unaware of.

How much difference will the cas 7 have over the cas 8? How are the Gskill Perfect storm and the OCZ Blade compared to the Dominator GT?

 

[E.R]

Difference between CAS7 and CAS is none worth the money if you not are a benchjunkie and play superpi all day long. Save the money and go CAS8. I had bad luck with OCZ and memory and how they binned them so for me they are out when it comes to memory.

 

[Bigbacon]

Why not just get 1600? 6gb floats around 100 dollars.

Not going to see the difference unless, like above, you run benchmarks all day.

 

[PC_User]

This 6GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 will do just fine. Paying 3x+ more for DDR3 2000 just doesn't make sense. Also, that kit is one of the only ones that runs at a lower voltage (1.5v) than the others.

You won't notice any real-world difference between CAS7 and CAS8. The same is true for CAS8 and CAS9.

I agree with Bigbacon.

If you still really want DDR3 2000, at least get the cheaper kits like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227424

 

[sdlvx]

DDR3 2000 is probably going to be a waste of money.

Memory is probably going to be limited by the CPU's uncore speed when the RAM gets that fast.

 

[E.R]

This 6GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 will do just fine. Paying 3x+ more for DDR3 2000 just doesn't make sense. Also, that kit is one of the only ones that runs at a lower voltage (1.5v) than the others.

You won't notice any real-world difference between CAS7 and CAS8. The same is true for CAS8 and CAS9.

I agree with Bigbacon.

If you still really want DDR3 2000, at least get the cheaper kits like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227424

Guest what my old Dominator and my current GT do that to if i leave them on autosettings, but i hope you mean they run at rated speed on 1,5V but i dont see any benefit of that really as 1,65V is safe.
The only downside with running mem@2Ghz is the uncore that has to run@4Ghz and that take some serious juice to be stable, like 1,45V+ on the QPI but so far no report of dead CPU becaues of this "issue" what i have seen or heard of that can pinpoint this as reson of death.
I rather kill a CPU running mem@2000CAS8 than 2000CAS10 as both requier high/over rated QPI voltage and i guess the benefit of 2000CAS10 is very small/if even measurabe over 1600CAS8.

 

[PC_User]

Guest what my old Dominator and my current GT do that to if i leave them on autosettings, but i hope you mean they run at rated speed on 1,5V but i dont see any benefit of that really as 1,65V is safe.

The benefit is that the RAM runs cooler and since the memory controller is on the CPU with the new i7s, it's best not to reach the maximum threshold (which is 1.65v). 1.5v is well under the safe limit, still leaving some headroom for overclocking as well.

 

[Casca]

Thanks for the insights so far. Will be running my set-up with the cheapie ram for a month or so while I finish building my scratch build case and get it painted. Then I will commit to buying the ram.

I am not a synthic bench or superpi junkie and really the only game I play is Flight Sim X (with a gazillion add-ons) and although I am not up there with the guys that pay thousands of dollars to build flight decks in their homes (hell, one guy even bought an old 737 front fusalage), I really really really like turning up the graphics and traffic and not having the game come to a crawl. If I thought getting four GTX295's would actually do anything, sadly....I'd have already bought one or two and been working on the rest (note, I was holding off my next build till I saw that Microsoft has closed down their Flightsim division nad layed off most of those people). But FSX is indifferent mostly to video cards. What does help though is CPU speed. I saw that with my E8500, not to mention everyone else getting the same result.....upgrade from an 8800GT to a GTX280...no improvement. Upgrade from an e6600 to an e8400...big improvement. And yes, I was pretty close to getting a 965 and maybe I still will.

I don't want to overclock so I can post my scores on the board. I'd like as high as possible overclock for 24/7 use. I am not going to do phase cooling, but my water cooling efforts will include 9 3x120mm rads (all swiftechs). Maybe even add on my old 2x120mm (got two of those) and 3x120mm (only one of those) thermochill rads as well since my case will have space for it. How well this will work, I can only guess, but I think it can keep everythign near ambiant with some pretty crazy settings and ambient in my computer room is under 70F.....with 10 computers running. So the rooms AC will keep up with whatever heat the rads dump and it's nice coffee drinking weather.

I am no overclocking expert, but doesn't having lower cas, higher speeds for ram result in higher stable overclocks? In games where it's all about the GPU, I guess there is no real world improvement (computer games...real world..... ) , but an i7 running at 3.6GHz compared to one running at 4+ GHz, can be huge in FSX.

So what ram will give me the best chance to hit the highest stable 24/7 overclock?

 

[E.R]

The benefit is that the RAM runs cooler and since the memory controller is on the CPU with the new i7s, it's best not to reach the maximum threshold (which is 1.65v). 1.5v is well under the safe limit, still leaving some headroom for overclocking as well.

Running cooler is no issue anymore, regular 1,65V DDR3 are cool enough.
Lower Vdimm are only a sign of lower binned memories, like 1333 CL9 only needs 1,5Vdimm where the same mems but rated 1600MHZ CL9 needs 1.65Vdimm to operate errorfree.

1.65Vdimm is only "max" if you dont know that you need to turn upp the VTT, 1.8Vdimm are also safe if you adjust VTT to keep the offset VTT/Vdimm within the limit specified by Intel that is THE culprit to kill an i7 way to easy, not that the Vdimm is 1.65xV or 1.8xV so how funny it may be it is the low VTT that can kill a i7, not "high" Vdimm.
You can kill a i7 with "only" 1,5Vdimm if you know to lower the VTT though the basement to get that crusial offset above the limit.
As long as you cool the CPU(who doesnt?) there is no need to be scared of 1,65Vdimm and chicken out with 1,5Vdimm memories as they dont have any benefit over 1.65Vdimm other than beeing cheap and more often than never it gives no extra room for OC than a highly binned 1.65Vdimm kit.

 

[PC_User]

Running cooler is no issue anymore, regular 1,65V DDR3 are cool enough.

False. If you don't have the RAM passively cooled, the sticks do get rather hot to the touch. While 1.65v is obviously safe, it wouldn't hurt to stay below that if possible.

Lower Vdimm are only a sign of lower binned memories, like 1333 CL9 only needs 1,5Vdimm where the same mems but rated 1600MHZ CL9 needs 1.65Vdimm to operate errorfree.

False. The DDR3 1600 CL9 kit I mentioned runs 24/7 stable & error free at 1.5v.