Gigabyte GA X58A UD3R, What RAM?

[columboid]

Hi,

I'm upgrading my PC, it's been ages and I'm overwhelmed by the choices of RAM.
I want 6G, I won't be overclocking, I'd like to get something relatively high end but stability is my main concern.

I'm looking at this:
6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 8-8-8-24, 1.65V

Does this look reasonable?
Willit work with the x58a?

Any advice appreciated.
Thanks
C

 

[brandonwh64]

were do you live? can you use Newegg? if so they have alot of good ram choices

 

[columboid]

I'm in the UK.
I'm just abit unsure of what to get to be honest.

 

[fusionblu]

Hi,

I'm upgrading my PC, it's been ages and I'm overwhelmed by the choices of RAM.
I want 6G, I won't be overclocking, I'd like to get something relatively high end but stability is my main concern.

I'm looking at this:
6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 8-8-8-24, 1.65V

Does this look reasonable?
Willit work with the x58a?

Any advice appreciated.
Thanks
C

If you are looking to use RAM that are running at 1.65v I would go a bit further for some 1600MHz RAM of around the same price or a little over (no more than £20 or £30) if you could get something good, but it is your choice on what you decide as there is no problem with the kit you brought up, although I believe that all 1333MHz RAM are meant to be made so there run at 1.5v like my previous kit:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-088-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1390

To be honest I believe any fully functional triple channel kit (without any faulty modules) should run on that motherboard, especially the one you brought up.

 

[columboid]

Cheers, thanks for your answer.
I hadn't really considered the voltage, didn't realise it made a difference.
So should I ideally be looking for 1.5v 1333 RAM?

 

[fusionblu]

Cheers, thanks for your answer.
I hadn't really considered the voltage, didn't realise it made a difference.
So should I ideally be looking for 1.5v 1333 RAM?

I will be honest, it can be 1333MHz 1.65v RAM if you want, although at 1.65v you could easily get either a 1333MHz or 1600MHz RAM at the same price so with my belief I would say that if I was to get RAM that needs 1.65v to run I would want something a bit higher than 1333MHz and go for a 1600MHz RAM at the same price to make full use of that 1.65v.

As for the previous kit I had that is something I would like to personally recommend considering how even though it is running at 1.5v it has some nice timings, but the only flaw that scares people away from it is the fact it has no heat sheilds of it's own so it feels a bit scary to overclock, however, I have actually ran them at 1600MHz before with no problems. If you are the sort of person who would buy some heat sheilds to this kit and fit it to them you would have yourself a very nice kit with some good overclocking potential, although I prefer not to overclock which is why I use a system which is powerful enough as it is at stock.

For how well this kit is against other triple channel 6GB (3x 2GB) 1333MHz RAM Kits I wouldn't know how well they would compete, although I didn't have any problem with these other then setting the correct latency settings on my motherboard for the RAM so it runs at the correct timings it is made to run at.

 

[columboid]

Great advice, thanks.
I'll have a look at the 1600 RAM.

Cheers

 

[columboid]

Just one other question, can you just plug this RAM into the motherboard and switch on?
Does it autodetect or something, or is it usual that you need to manually set some settings somewhere?

 

[fusionblu]

Just one other question, can you just plug this RAM into the motherboard and switch on?
Does it autodetect or something, or is it usual that you need to manually set some settings somewhere?

Depends on what RAM as some like the Mushkin Ridgeback has X.M.P where if you enable it auto adjusts everything except the voltage which you need to do yourself (in my case I adjusted it from 1.5v to 1.66v). As for the GEIL Black Dragon kit I brought up (if that is the one you are referring too) make sure the voltage is correct (1.5v of course) and check the Latency settings and make sure it is read as 7-7-7-24 and if it is not at the correct settings then you will have to correct it yourself.

The problems that occur if you do not correct the settings is if the latency is lower than it should be it would cause crashes while running power consuming applications such as games and benchmark software where if the latency is higher than it should be you should lose speed, but the loss is not noticable by that much unless you are a heavy bench marker.

 

[fusionblu]

As for installing the RAM, disconnect the PC for a electrical supply, swap the RAM with your chosen new kit and make sure it is put in properly. Once you done with the RAM just connect back to the supply and turn your PC on and it should read the RAM with no problems assuming they are not faulty in anyway.

As for RAM, yes they auto detect and they don't need drivers or firmware to be detected, but it is best to check the RAM's settings once installed and put them to the correct settings if there are on the wrong settings.

 

[columboid]

Cheers.
(please excuse my ignorance) I assume then that I access the ram settings through the motherboard configuraton software and just match the settings to those of my chosen RAM?

 

[lisburnni]

you do indeed or select the XMP profile if you ram kit has one preprogrammed

im using the 5R version of your board with 6GB Corsair Dominator CL7 kit 1600mhz and they are brilliant , simple set up and overclock quite well at stock settings . I got mine from Scan.co.uk

 

[fusionblu]

Cheers.
(please excuse my ignorance) I assume then that I access the ram settings through the motherboard configuraton software and just match the settings to those of my chosen RAM?

Of course (should actually be the only way of accessing settings for both enabling X.M.P and doing manual settings) and yes to setting your RAM settings to the exact settings of your chosen RAM on the motherboard configuraton software.

 

[columboid]

Cheers again. Much appreciated.

 

[shadowthor]

I have the X58A-UD3R and have installed 12 GB of Corsair ram, so the ram you are looking at is definitely a good choice. As previous posts have mention, look at the DDR 3 -1600 version, there are more the same price as the 1333 version.