Intel Core i7 - Choosing the Best Memory Kit

[Rob Williams]

Your testing results show little difference between 3GB and 6GB, suggesting that 3GB is sufficient... do you believe this to be true in real world usage when multi-tasking and with background programs (anti-virus, etc) running in Vista (rather than only having the benchmark software running)?

No, because we are just benchmarking one application at a time, which doesn't begin to touch even 3GB. Benchmarking multi-tasking scenarios would better show improvements between 3GB vs. 6GB, but that's something we're still figuring out how to conduct reliably.

There's a huge difference between 3GB and 6GB nowadays, especially with heavy multi-tasking.

The results and your comments indicate that 1600MHz memory is a waste, and that 1333MHz would be a better choice due to price. However, when it comes to overclocking, is it better to get 1600MHz memory?

That's a good point, and if yes, if it comes to overclocking, you might want a DDR3-1600 kit. Some DDR3-1333 kits might be able to make it to DDR3-1440, or even a bit higher, but it'd be best to read reviews on a particular kit first before deciding on one.

 

[Merlin]

A buddy of mine is building a i7 920 machine, Asus Rampage II, Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB 512-bit, the Coolermaster HAF case. And 6 gigs of Corsair XMS3 1600 triple channel
Now thats a nice build.
The AUSU Rampage II Extreme mobo is awesome. He has the after markey CPU cooler, a Cooler Master, I think they only have one so far on the market.
See if I can get some pics of it from the build

 

[Rob Williams]

That build sounds wicked, Merlin. I drool even though we have similar parts here, haha! All components there are amazing, from the CPU to the motherboard to the GPU (especially the GPU). He's going to love that machine, no question.

 

[Stu]

2) The results and your comments indicate that 1600MHz memory is a waste, and that 1333MHz would be a better choice due to price. However, when it comes to overclocking, is it better to get 1600MHz memory? You, and many others, have clocked your 920 to 3.6-3.8 GHz with the BCLK at 180 which "equates to a DDR3 speed of 1440MHz"... is DDR3-1333 guaranteed to support this BCLK frequency?

That's a good point, and if yes, if it comes to overclocking, you might want a DDR3-1600 kit. Some DDR3-1333 kits might be able to make it to DDR3-1440, or even a bit higher, but it'd be best to read reviews on a particular kit first before deciding on one.

After doing some more research, I think I've got an answer to my own question... I have discovered that the i7 offers 6x and 8x memory multipliers when pairing a 920 with a P6T.

A BLCK of 200 would give a CPU frequency of 4 GHz (this is very optimistic overclock).
With a 8x memory multiplier (8 x 200) DDR3-1600 would be required.
However, the 6x multiplier (6 x 200) means that DDR3-1200 can support an overclock to 4 GHz; therefore DDR3-1333 should do the job. The memory is obviously running slower with the lower memory multiplier, however, your article indicates that this is not a real world issue.

 

[Unregistered]

A little question

Hello,

I'm new to the forum, found it by google. I have a dilemna between two DDR3 kit.

I have the choice between:
Corsair Dominator 3gb 3x1gb DDR3-1600 for 216$
G.Skill 6gb 3x2gb DDR3-1333 for 235$

Which one should I go for? I went with the Corsair since I'll be overclocking and I thought I would have enough with 3gb but I'm starting to doubt now. Since I gave you a precise choice, which one would you go for?

This is mainly for movie and gaming.

Thanks

 

[Merlin]

Hello,

I'm new to the forum, found it by google. I have a dilemna between two DDR3 kit.

I have the choice between:
Corsair Dominator 3gb 3x1gb DDR3-1600 for 216$
G.Skill 6gb 3x2gb DDR3-1333 for 235$

Which one should I go for? I went with the Corsair since I'll be overclocking and I thought I would have enough with 3gb but I'm starting to doubt now. Since I gave you a precise choice, which one would you go for?

This is mainly for movie and gaming.

Thanks

It MAY depend on what motherboard you want to use, but Corsair makes some killer memmory sticks.

 

[Rob Williams]

I'd go for the 6GB DDR3-1333 kit over the 3GB DDR3-1600, no question. What good is the DDR3-1600 for anything except overclocking? No good at all, as this article proved. DDR3-1333 modules would still allow a 3.32GHz overclock on the 920... no need to complain there.

 

[Unregistered]

I'd go for the 6GB DDR3-1333 kit over the 3GB DDR3-1600, no question. What good is the DDR3-1600 for anything except overclocking? No good at all, as this article proved. DDR3-1333 modules would still allow a 3.32GHz overclock on the 920... no need to complain there.

Thanks I'll try to get refunded and buy the other kit.

 

[Unregistered]

Hello,
my new Asus P6T Deluxe Mainboard and 6GB-Triple-Kit Corsair TR3X6G1333C9 RAM arrived.
Now I like to overclock the System a liitle bit ;-)
My Core i7 920 should run@3,2Ghz do I only have to change the BLCK to 160 and the Memory multiplier x8(8x160)?Do i have to change anything else(Voltages...)

Greets,
sascha

 

[Rob Williams]

Hello,
my new Asus P6T Deluxe Mainboard and 6GB-Triple-Kit Corsair TR3X6G1333C9 RAM arrived.
Now I like to overclock the System a liitle bit ;-)
My Core i7 920 should run@3,2Ghz do I only have to change the BLCK to 160 and the Memory multiplier x8(8x160)?Do i have to change anything else(Voltages...)

Greets,
sascha

You should check out our review on that motherboard... specifically the overclocking page:

http://techgage.com/article/asus_p6t_deluxe_oc_palm_edition/8

Hopefully that will help.

 

[Sascha]

You should check out our review on that motherboard... specifically the overclocking page:

http://techgage.com/article/asus_p6t_deluxe_oc_palm_edition/8

Hopefully that will help.

Hey,
thanks for your answer!
Do you think it's necessary to set any voltages higher,if i like the cpu to work@3,6ghz?Is it dangerous for CPU to clock so high?
I use Artic Silver 5 and the new noctua CPU cooler.
Which settings would you change?
Do you think i can try this configuration without death of CPU?:
BLCK:166
Memory Multiplier 8x
Voltages@ standard

Greets

sascha

 

[Rob Williams]

Well, as mentioned on that page I linked to, I didn't have to increase the voltages, except for the CPU, and even then, it's nowhere near a dangerous level. The only voltage I changed was the CPU, which I set to 1.2875v. Other than that, everything else was left to Auto.

Your CPU will be safe, but you might want to run a tool like CoreTemp to make sure that it doesn't overheat. It's hard to say what's a safe range for this chip, but if you have a decent CPU cooler, you're probably going to be fine.

For 3.6GHz though, you'll need a higher Base Clock. 166 would give you 3.32GHz... still nice.

 

[Sascha]

Well, as mentioned on that page I linked to, I didn't have to increase the voltages, except for the CPU, and even then, it's nowhere near a dangerous level. The only voltage I changed was the CPU, which I set to 1.2875v. Other than that, everything else was left to Auto.

Your CPU will be safe, but you might want to run a tool like CoreTemp to make sure that it doesn't overheat. It's hard to say what's a safe range for this chip, but if you have a decent CPU cooler, you're probably going to be fine.

For 3.6GHz though, you'll need a higher Base Clock. 166 would give you 3.32GHz... still nice.

That means that it is quiet impossible for me to use the RAM with its full Bandwidth and clock the CPU@3,6Ghz?My RAM is 6GB-Triple-Kit Corsair TR3X6G1333C9 (1333).

 

[Rob Williams]

From what I recall, the minimum memory multiplier available on Core i7 is 8x, so that would require a memory overclock of DDR3-1440. If the memory can support an overclock like that, then it should work fine. If it doesn't, stock speed (DDR3-1333) will still give you a great CPU clock-speed of 3.32GHz.

Basically, you're going to be pushing your memory as high as it can go in order to achieve a higher CPU clock-speed, so you have nothing to worry about with regards to bandwidth.

 

[Omega]

Latency and voltage?

Thank you Rob for your informative article. In light of what was mentioned though, I am deciding between a couple of things here. I'll most likely be overclocking my 920 to about 3.2-3.4ghz (I'm sure the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme cooler should suffice), but I'm having difficulty choosing the right RAM because I get thrown off by the latency and voltage. Which would you recommend for desktop applications/gaming etc?

Mushkin 3x2GB DDR3-1333 6-6-6-18 @ 1.65v
or
Corsair 3x2GB DDR3-1333 9-9-9-24 @ 1.5v

As I'm a beginner with all of this, I'm not sure whether upping the voltage with the Corsair kit in the P6T mobo to 1.65v would mean 6-6-6-18 latency as well? Surely Corsair should be able to defeat a company as inferior as Mushkin, no? Please give me your thoughts. Thank you.

 

[Rob Williams]

If price isn't a huge issue, then I'd get the Mushkin kit, without question. There's a rather significant difference between 6-6-6 and 9-9-9, although it might not be seen in all things. You would see the difference if you compared the same timings in certain kinds of multi-media applications, though. It'd be a little different if it was 7-7-7, but 9-9-9 is too loose for my liking.

"I'm not sure whether upping the voltage with the Corsair kit in the P6T mobo to 1.65v would mean 6-6-6-18 latency as well?"

Not at all... it's dependant on the memory chips. The best chips go into the kits with the tighter timings, so on that 9-9-9 kit, chances are it'd be difficult to hit even 8-8-8. Hope that helps.

 

[Omega]

Thank you very much. I'll be going with the Mushkin then.

 

[sascha]

Hey!
Here I'm again.
My new hardware is now installed it consists of:
i7 920
1TB Samsung SpinPoint
GTX 280
Corsair XMS3 6GB Kit DDR3 PC3-12800 (TR3X6G1600C9) 1600
Noctua NH-U12P SE 1366+ArticSilver 5
NzxT Hush
Asus P6T Deluxe

Do you think i can try to OC@3,8Ghz?This would be quite perfect RAM(8x190=1520) and very nice 3,8Ghz.
Do i have to increase the voltages to a dangerous level?
Which settings would you suggest according to my hardware?

Thank you!
Merry Christmas@all

 

[Unregistered]

3gb or 6gb for just photoshop/music and no games?

hi,

trying to absorb all the info on i7 but not really a techie. so if i get just 3gb of ddr3 will that be fine enough to run photoshop and a low end studio recording program like sonar. well I know it will run, but well enough take advantage of i7 ability versus my old computer pentium 4. after reading the original article and looking at the tests it seems like 3gb was not really that much lower in performance except for the most extreme uses.

thanks.

Msongs aka unregistered

 

[Rob Williams]

Hi MSongs:

If money isn't a huge concern, I'd recommend going with the 6GB, simply because it offers a little more freedom than 3GB, even if you might not notice a difference in most scenarios. Vista as a whole takes up a fair amount of RAM, and so would Photoshop, so with that scenario, you aren't leaving much free. If you really want to save cash, go with 3GB, but if you don't mind splurging a little now to save later, it might be a good idea to get a ~$200 6GB kit now. If you go 3GB now, you might want 6GB down the road, so this way, you'd be covered.

Also note that Photoshop is RAM-heavy, especially if you have a lot of projects open. When I create graphs for our reviews, it hovers around 800MB, but it might not for you... so you might want to see what your typical RAM usage would be. In your case though, if you do heavy work in PS, I'd recommend getting more RAM for the sake of space, but also ram with the best available timings (DDR3-1333 7-7-7, or around there), as image manipulation applications can benefit from the tighter timings.

If this answer doesn't make any sense, let me know and we can work out a solution for you.