i5 vs i7 dilemma

[james888]

Originally Posted by Octopuss

Anyone can confirm the difference between 1866 and 2133 is not something I should worry about?

What I have read before is that 1600 to 1866 doesn't do much more for you. So I imagine the difference between 1866 and 2133 is the same

[wickerman]

I upgraded from DDR3 1600 to 2133 and overall noticed a decent increase in performance, but I generally do a lot of multitasking. I may have my 2560x1600 games up on my middle monitor, chats and music up on the left monitor, and keep an eye on my system performance/temps and the progress of my bluray ripping/encoding on the right. I typically don't have less than 8-12gb of ram used at any given time. But having said that, in terms of raw performance figures I really only saw maybe 3-5fps gain at the most overall. I don't think most people are starved for memory bandwidth these days, but what really does benefit from it is integrated graphics. If you have one of AMD's Llano processors then you absolutely benefit from having faster memory when you are using the IGP. In such a case you really are going to be starved for bandwidth.

But in terms of general system performance, Xbit Labs did a solid write up on the effect of memory timing and speed on the performance of IVB and it would seem generally DDR3 1866 or 2133 would be the sweet spot as they balance price and performance. Anything higher would be quite expensive in a 16gb kit for example. But if you only need 4gb or 8gb you might be able to find a more reasonable price.

The impact of any upgrade is always going to be subjective. How you use it is important, and that is especially true for memory. If most of your ram sits idle and you do very little in the way of bandwidth intensive applications then there is no reason to spend a lot of money on your memory subsystem. But I would recommend at least DDR3 1600 or 1866 given today's prices.

[Octopuss]

Ok problem solved

[Octopuss]

The world hates me!
CMD16GX3M2A1866C9 seems to be out of stock everywhere, apparently because it's new or something. I wouldn't mind to order it abroad if it was available somewhere! Any tips?

[Bo$$]

Originally Posted by Octopuss

The world hates me!
CMD16GX3M2A1866C9 seems to be out of stock everywhere, apparently because it's new or something. I wouldn't mind to order it abroad if it was available somewhere! Any tips?

we have loads in the UK:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...googleshopping

[james888]

Wow that seems expensive to me. The difference is I can barely use my 8gb currently. It is 1866 compared to my 1600 ram but I don't need that. More power to you though

[Octopuss]

omg that's expensive as hell, and we typically have higher prices than further to the west!

[Bo$$]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=8&subcat=1387
try this

[james888]

Originally Posted by Octopuss

omg that's expensive as hell, and we typically have higher prices than further to the west!

Glad its not just me

Originally Posted by Bo$$

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=8&subcat=1387
try this

Thats just a little more than I paid, and its 1866

[Octopuss]

I found something that could be considered alternative, and it's available right now: CMZ16GX3M2A1866C9 - Vengeance series. Unfortunately it doesn't show up on Corsair site (wtf?), so I assume it's not being produced anymore. Timings and voltage seem to be the same - 9-10-9-27/1.5V. Are the chips used the same though? At least this is about $20 cheaper as a bonus.
I don't have many choices it seems.
It's a shame, what I originally chose has those sexy useless blue LEDs I never felt for this PC tuning nonsense, but for just once I wanted a bit of that :P

P.S. I assume it's safe to ignore all the corsair marketing bullshit about the former kit I chose, saying Designed to provide optimum performance for Intel-based PCs, our Intel DDR3 memory upgrades are rigorously tested on multiple Intel platforms and are.. blabla

[Bo$$]

grab the vengance, they are pretty sweet. tight timing and fast.

I have those but in the 1600 format too

edit: these are the same price http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=8&subcat=1387

[Octopuss]

Ok. I'll get it.
But the Dominators look SO cool! boo

[Octopuss]

There we go. I finally bought 3770K thinking fuckit, I will be good for another five years

Also bought Hyper 212 EVO, and am thinking hard whether I should replace the fan with one of my good Noctuas...

[Laurijan]

Here is one of my threads about if HT is worth it http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=165766

[Octopuss]

Up and running and I'm lovin' it more than McD!
8 cores will be cool when I get to install Win2008 server and a client or two in a VM.