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RAM question

Mar 28, 2012 5:50 PM

Hi was wondering if anyone can quickly educate me.  I'm still piecing together my system, I already bought an 3930k chip which I plan to over clock.  I have never OC before.  I am planning on purchasing an ASUS p9x79 deluxe, but as far as RAM is it optimal or even required to purchase RAM that is rated to OC? Or can I just use the RAM at it's normal speed that the board states.  I am just using prem CS5.5 and AE editing mostly 5D stuff. 

 

Thanks for any help

 
Replies
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Mar 29, 2012 8:10 AM   in reply to StarMarc

    I don't recommend higher-clocked RAM because they cost too much money for too little performance benefit versus regular-speed RAM. For example, DDR3-2133 RAM delivers at most a performance boost that's merely equivalent to a 200MHz "overclock" on the CPU. But this RAM costs more than double that of DDR3-1600 RAM for the same amount of RAM.

     
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    Mar 29, 2012 9:30 AM   in reply to StarMarc

    good luck with OCing the 3930k and what ram is available on the market right now

     

    HAS to be low voltage, cant be micron chips (99% of whats sold) has to be tatoo'ed corerctly  good luck with that..

    if it wern't for the ram manufacturer we use we would not be able to ship OCed systems with the 3930k only the 3960

     

    scott

    ADK

     
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    Mar 29, 2012 5:04 PM   in reply to Scott Chichelli

    Scott,

     

    I'm planning a 3930K system and would potentially over-clock.  I sense that there are some problems with the RAM here.  Could you please elaborate, for instance, what do you mean by "tattooed correctly"?

     

    Thanks,

    Len

     
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    Mar 30, 2012 6:09 AM   in reply to LancFM104

    this in part address' it, at least a good start without linking to the Jdec website which you have to be a member to read most of it (which i am ), and some areas i cant get to (have to be a manufacturer) but have had them pdf'ed for me.

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/3851/everything-you-always-wanted-to-kno w-about-sdram-memory-but-were-afraid-to-ask

     

    tatoo'ed is how the EEprom (sorta like a bios for ram) and other parts are programed. including XMP profiles, Main timings (CL, tRCD etc) and sub timings as well as what voltages for what settings (XMPs profiles will have or can have more aggressive voltages/clock cycles.)

     

    the other issue is the chips being used and Micron is the most common presently. (which sucks)

    also what people dont realize is there are various grade levels of ram  grades1,2,3 well there should be a bottom grade below 1 actually, sub par)

     

    most your "named" ram are grade one. (corsair, gskill, etc) the high over clock ram is usually grade 2 or in corsairs case grade 1 binned (OCZ was very guilty of this and why they are done in the ram market), rarely will a consumer see a grade 3. the first 8 gig non-ecc sticks were probably that.

     

    alot of generic ram (big oems and small) Dell for example use sub standard as the bios is so locked down and running slow it works. (EG: cheap DDR3 1600 running at 1333 or even 1066 with many)

     

    grade 2 is what we use, basically its DDR3 2000+ clocked down (actually tatoo'ed that way) to 1600..

     

    the ram biz has been insane the last few yrs the pricing has dropped to where the dramurai are making little to no money.

    (good for us but in many ways not really) as most on the market is crap ram. even samsung now has grade 1 (samsung chips was pretty much all we would use for yrs (ddr3 and DDR2))

     

    here is an example on newegg you can buy 8gig sticks (4 x 8 gig) for $209 it cost me for a single 8gig stick of what we use $205

    even our previously fav vendor has gone down this buy cheap crap route (mushkin)

    also they are all 1.5 or 1.6v not 1.35v

     

    these might run ok on a 3960 stock speed..

    so you can tell just by price if you are getting grade 1 or grade 2...

    never mind how poorly most are tatoo'ed

     

    Scott

    ADK

     
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    Mar 30, 2012 5:25 PM   in reply to Scott Chichelli

    Scott,

     

    Thanks for your candid (as always) reply.  If it's not proprietary information, what memory would you recommend for a 32GB (8 x 4GB) 3930K OC installation?

     

    Thanks,

    Len

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Mar 30, 2012 7:05 PM   in reply to LancFM104

    As much as that RAM problem has cost Scott I seriously doubt you will get that question answered.  I know that if I were in business integrating computers I would not divulge that info.

     
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    Mar 31, 2012 10:06 AM   in reply to Bill Gehrke

    well whats funny is this go round i can.. because you cant buy it anywhere :-) well other than from me..

     

    we get our ram from Top Power in Taiwan, it is custom made for us (the tatoo part etc) the choice of chips is also our choice "not telling" grade 2. (it aint micron thats for sure)

     

    and this is after doing all we could with Mushkin and Super Talent (both of which would tatoo for us) Muskin basically would get the chips we wanted then the price would go up and they would send us other cheaper chips

    (and back they went as they didnt work either) pretty much the same with ST or they would use the right chips but only tatoo correctly 1/2 the time arghhhh and we have used Super Talent since DDR came out.

     

    we had all this dialed out with the others until X79. and used nothing but samsung chips on our ram (not cheap as it was)

     

    there has also been issues with this due to Intel's ondie memory controllers and being different on the processors EG: 3960 is different that 3820/3930k

    as well as micro code issues due to this..

     

    so what works for 3960 (best chance @ stock speed) probably wont work for 3930k... ahh all this fun stuff most people will never hear about and the components companies get away with

     

    Scott

    ADK

     
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