[Stu_M3]

Hi.
I'm building my first PC system for years and I am seriously out of touch
It's taken me a few months to read reviews and I'm pretty much settling on all of the other components now apart from RAM (and case/chassis but that's for another thread!).
What's really confusing me is the various voltages and frequency's available.

The rest of the system is going to be:

- i7 3770k IvyBridge
- Noctua NH-D14 CPU Cooler
- Asus P8Z77 Pro or Premium board with Thunderbolt
- Corsair 600T case with sound dampening added
- Coolermaster 620w Silent Pro Modular PSU

I'm not adding a dedicated GPU right now as mainly using the PC for encoding.
I will be overclocking the CPU but not at the expense of noise, so somewhere around 4.2 - 4.4 sounds sensible.

I'd like to add 16GB of RAM and the Noctua website guides me towards Corsair XMS3 or Vengence Low Profile RAM to ensure it fits below the CPU cooler. But when looking on the Corsair site I see there are different voltages, latency and speed to choose from and now I am confused! I wasn't intending overclocking the RAM (is there any point when encoding?), so what is the best choice? Is there any point going over 1600Mhz for example as I understood that is the max bus speed of the CPU?? And what voltage do I need?

Thanks

[MarkE19]

I've got a 2600K/Z68 PC and use it for encoding video a fair bit. I have 8Gb of XMS3 RAM and didn't bother looking at the more expensive faster RAM as I believe it make no real world difference to the PC's performance.
So my advice would be to just get the RAM at the best price rather than trying to get the fastest. Both XMS3 and low profile Vengence RAM are good.

Mark.

[Stu_M3]

Thank you Mark.
I have my eye on some Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 1.35v. Sounds like that should do the trick then.

[psikey]

Originally Posted by MarkE19

I've got a 2600K/Z68 PC and use it for encoding video a fair bit. I have 8Gb of XMS3 RAM and didn't bother looking at the more expensive faster RAM as I believe it make no real world difference to the PC's performance.
So my advice would be to just get the RAM at the best price rather than trying to get the fastest. Both XMS3 and low profile Vengence RAM are good.

Mark.

Totally agree. Created my new i7 3770K/Z68 rig with GTX670 GPU and just used my 8GB of XMS3 RAM I already had and works great. I know not a real measure but Windows 7 show 7.9 for everything except the CPU which is 7.8 even OC to 4GHz.

[JC78DSL]

Corsair vengeance low profile - black, blue (1.5V) or white (1.35V) - get the colour which matches your mobo. Dont get it from ebay - look at scan, ebuyer, novatech, DABS etc. 8GB will be more than enough.

[Stu_M3]

Thanks for the replies. Slight delay on ordering the components but I know what I need now 8-)