Aiming for a new AMD PC setup for about $/€1800, plus-minus, but I kindly need some help and advice to get the right parts...

[RandallFlagg]

Hmm, the 'decent' $153 is priced about $25 less than the G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4 3600MHz 2x16GB (F4-3600C16D-32GTZNC) here where i live... shouldn't i go for the Trident Z then, or? My budget for the memory is about $200~ btw...

Any thoughts on that?

Gahh so difficult it was to choose the right RAM... Who would've thought...

According to Thaiphoon, that Trident Z Neo is exactly the same kit as the Ripjaws just has RGB.

This is that as a single 16GB Trident NEO stick :

Here's the Ripjaws version :

 

[tabascosauz]

According to Thaiphoon, that Trident Z Neo is exactly the same kit as the Ripjaws just has RGB.

This is that as a single 16GB Trident NEO stick :

Here's the Ripjaws version :

No point in relying too much on Thaiphoon, for G.skill kits it's a horribly convoluted and unreliable way of trying to find out what something is. On G.skill, the 042 code on the DIMM sticker is basically law, AFAIK it's never been incorrect at least for the common ICs. There's plenty of guides over the years on reddit how to decode them, but anything ending in 8820C/8821C will be CJR guaranteed, which all of 3600 16-19-19 should be.

New G.skill packaging might or might not have a cutout to see the sticker, but in any case you'll have to handle the DIMMs anyway so you'll get to see it regardless. And much sooner than you can get to Thaiphoon.

Thaiphoon can only make an educated guess on what's programmed in the SPD, and just as often as it's correct it just goes completely wack. 8Gb C-die is often misidentified as 8Gb B-die, for years Thaiphoon liked to think CJR was DJR (G.skill will not be putting freq-happy DJR in a kit as lowly as 3600CL16), some crazy shenanigans going on with 16Gb dies as well - my own 4Gb E-die kit shows up as 4Gb D-die, which is untrue for various reasons that I don't even have to look at the sticker for.

 

[winterwonderland]

With G.skill, all SKUs that have the exact same speed/timings/volts are literally the same. You won't get a higher chance of a better binned product just because you buy expensive heatspreaders. If you can live without RGB (which on Trident Z is a goddamn pain in the ass), save a buck with the Ripjaws. It'll be the same.

Between 3600CL16 (even if 16-19-19) and 3200CL16, there is no reason to go for 3200 unless it's dirt cheap and 3600 isn't. Period.

Go with the 3600 kit with the lowest timings you can afford preferably at least 16-16-16

Ahh, the only 2x16gb Ripjaws i can find for an affordable price are these, but how good are these: G.Skill Ripjaws V Black DDR4 3600MHz 2x16GB (F4-3600C18D-32GVK)... CL18-22-22... Otherwise, i will have to up the price with about $40 to get the one with CL16-19-19... If the difference is that big between the CL18 vs CL16, i can surely go for the CL16, as that one is within my budget. Should i do so or should i go for the $40-cheaper CL18..?

How about these, as these are priced $15 less than the CL16 Ripjaws: Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 3600MHz 2x16GB (KF436C16RB1K2/32)

And yes, i do NOT need RGB. It is useless to me and my purposes. Hence why the Trident Z are not an option for me + they are above my budget.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Crucial Gaming products | High-performance gaming memory and storage

From hard-core gamers to casual players, we have the gaming products you need for the gaming experience you crave. Crucial's high performance gaming memory and storage fuels legendary gaming experiences.

www.crucial.com

This available in your region? I believe it's better than all the kits you've listed.

Typically for peope who can't afford decently binned bdie it's what I recommend. I would skip the CL18 stuff but maybe someone else can chime in on them vs that 16-19-19 kit.

 

[tabascosauz]

Crucial Gaming products | High-performance gaming memory and storage

From hard-core gamers to casual players, we have the gaming products you need for the gaming experience you crave. Crucial's high performance gaming memory and storage fuels legendary gaming experiences.

www.crucial.com

This available in your region? I believe it's better than all the kits you've listed.

Typically for peope who can't afford decently binned bdie it's what I recommend. I would skip the CL18 stuff but maybe someone else can chime in on them vs that 16-19-19 kit.

I'm not so sure about that one. Last I checked isn't Crucial mixing Rev.E and Rev.B in that bin? If it's 16Gb Rev.B, then you get single rank performance penalty, unless you step up to 2x32GB.

But I suppose it should be quite easy to tell if the sticks are single (Rev.B) or double sided (Rev.E).

 

[Speedyblupi]

I am located in Norway, so DKK-prices are about the same as here in Norway due to the currency conversion. That particular site was prisjakt.no aka pricespy.co.uk. Do note that i cannot order from Amazon either, because of the long shipping time etc.

Ah, ok.

In that case the prices you were looking at before were a lot better than I thought because Norwegian kr is worth a bit less than Danish kr, and RAM prices are higher in Norway. IMO the best options on that list are the top one (HyperX Fury 3600 CL18) and the bottom one (Crucial Ballistix 3600 CL16). This is because all of the kits apart from the Ballistix are CL18 or 19, with fairly high (20+) tRCD and tRP, and most likely using Hynix CJR or DJR. The Ballistix uses either dual rank 8Gb Micron Rev E or single-rank 16Gb Rev B, both of which can run with significantly lower latency than CJR/DJR (16-18-18-38, and tighter subtimings).

So all of the kits on your list are basically the same apart from the Ballistix, so you may as well get the cheapest one, or if you want something a bit better, get the Ballistix as it's the only one that's significantly faster than any of the others.

The only real downside to the Ballistix is that you don't know how many ranks you'll get (though to be honest that applies to most XMP RAM that isn't Samsung B-die - I'm not sure how many ranks any of the other kits have either). Most new 2x16GB Ballistix 3600 CL16 kits seem to be single, but some are dual-rank. You could guarantee a dual-rank configuration by getting 4 x 8GB, but this would be slightly more expensive and you wouldn't have any free slots to add more RAM in the future. Dual-rank memory is sometimes slightly less stable, but has lower latency, so is faster.

Some Gigabyte Z690 DDR4 motherboards have memory stability issues with the old "F4" BIOS, but the new F6a version is better, and future BIOS versions may improve it further. If you get the motherboard and it has BIOS F4, I would update the BIOS before trying to enable XMP, especially if your RAM turns out to be dual-rank.

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

If productivity is your main priority then get Alder lake system.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

I'm not so sure about that one. Last I checked isn't Crucial mixing Rev.E and Rev.B in that bin? If it's 16Gb Rev.B, then you get single rank performance penalty, unless you step up to 2x32GB.

But I suppose it should be quite easy to tell if the sticks are single (Rev.B) or double sided (Rev.E).

Didn't realize that... The op should purchase from a place with a good return policy then because I'd want the Rev. E for sure. All the kits I've come across (4) have been double sided.

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

I'm not so sure about that one. Last I checked isn't Crucial mixing Rev.E and Rev.B in that bin? If it's 16Gb Rev.B, then you get single rank performance penalty, unless you step up to 2x32GB.

But I suppose it should be quite easy to tell if the sticks are single (Rev.B) or double sided (Rev.E).

Lots of new ram from multiple brands are single rank due to component shortages g skill agies is most certainly one of them

Anyway to the OP: Please cancel the sn550 and pick the Samsung 980 M.2, it's one of the better price to performance ssds for budget builds, also the Crucial P5 is slightly better with Dram cach but slightly pricer, and finally WB just released the new SN 570 drive which seem to be good, just pick the cheapest one and you'll be happy

 

[Speedyblupi]

I'm not so sure about that one. Last I checked isn't Crucial mixing Rev.E and Rev.B in that bin? If it's 16Gb Rev.B, then you get single rank performance penalty, unless you step up to 2x32GB.

But I suppose it should be quite easy to tell if the sticks are single (Rev.B) or double sided (Rev.E).

While this is true, most other DDR4-3600 2x16GB kits use 16Gb DJR, which would also be single-rank, but with worse latency timings. I believe some other kits use CJR (which would be dual rank) interchangeably with DJR, similar to what Crucial does with Rev B/E.
If you can find a 2x16GB kit that always uses CJR at a reasonable price it would probably be roughly on-par with single-rank Ballistix, or possibly slightly faster. Timetec sells a 2x16GB 3600MHz kit that they advertise as using CJR, but I don't know if it's available in Norway at reasonable prices.

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

As for the RAM I would pick the Crucial Ballisitx 3600mah, they are very good and reliable kits with rock solid stability, among the most recommended these days, don't mind the single rank concerns they have very minimal performance differences and about 70% of new ram are single ranks so its out of your control, unless you buy dual 16gb kit

 

[winterwonderland]

Ah, ok.

In that case the prices you were looking at before were a lot better than I thought because Norwegian kr is worth a bit less than Danish kr, and RAM prices are higher in Norway. IMO the best options on that list are the top one (HyperX Fury 3600 CL18) and the bottom one (Crucial Ballistix 3600 CL16). This is because all of the kits apart from the Ballistix are CL18 or 19, with fairly high (20+) tRCD and tRP, and most likely using Hynix CJR or DJR. The Ballistix uses either dual rank 8Gb Micron Rev E or single-rank 16Gb Rev B, both of which can run with significantly lower latency than CJR/DJR (16-18-18-38, and tighter subtimings).

So all of the kits on your list are basically the same apart from the Ballistix, so you may as well get the cheapest one, or if you want something a bit better, get the Ballistix as it's the only one that's significantly faster than any of the others.

The only real downside to the Ballistix is that you don't know how many ranks you'll get (though to be honest that applies to most XMP RAM that isn't Samsung B-die - I'm not sure how many ranks any of the other kits have either). Most new 2x16GB Ballistix 3600 CL16 kits seem to be single, but some are dual-rank. You could guarantee a dual-rank configuration by getting 4 x 8GB, but this would be slightly more expensive and you wouldn't have any free slots to add more RAM in the future. Dual-rank memory is sometimes slightly less stable, but has lower latency, so is faster.

Some Gigabyte Z690 DDR4 motherboards have memory stability issues with the old "F4" BIOS, but the new F6a version is better, and future BIOS versions may improve it further. If you get the motherboard and it has BIOS F4, I would update the BIOS before trying to enable XMP, especially if your RAM turns out to be dual-rank.

Lots of new ram from multiple brands are single rank due to component shortages g skill agies is most certainly one of them

Anyway to the OP: Please cancel the sn550 and pick the Samsung 980 M.2, it's one of the better price to performance ssds for budget builds, also the Crucial P5 is slightly better with Dram cach but slightly pricer, and finally WB just released the new SN 570 drive which seem to be good, just pick the cheapest one and you'll be happy

Ok, i have now checked around a little, and it seems that the Crucial Ballistix Black 3600-C16 are not available either, at least not for the announced price of the shop, unfortunately. But, how are these in comparison to the Black ones: Crucial Ballistix Red DDR4 3600MHz 2x16GB (BL2K16G36C16U4R)? They are priced a tad bit LESS than the black ones and they are also available right now... How would the RED ones fit greatly to my system, or?

The SN570 1TB would be about €110 cheaper, so i could always order that one and then return the SN550 2TB? Doesn't that sound like a good plan, or?

EDIT; Wow, so IF the Crucial Ballistix RED will work great with my setup, i can actually order them from the same shop as both the SN570 M.2 1TB (any inputs on that @Solid State Soul ( SSS ) ?) + the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360, which will save me for some shipping cost as well!

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

: Crucial Ballistix Red DDR4 3600MHz 2x16GB (BL2K16G36C16U4R)? They are priced a tad bit LESS than the black ones and they are also available right now... How would the RED ones fit greatly to my system, or?

They are the same kit, just in red

The SN570 1TB would be about €110 cheaper, so i could always order that one and then return the SN550 2TB? Doesn't that sound like a good plan, or?

SN570 just released about a couple months ago, it pack the latest nand chips which gives you better performance than the SN550, which is a VERY popular drive, so yeah, i'd say pick that one up if you can

EDIT; Wow, so IF the Crucial Ballistix RED will work great with my setup, i can actually order them from the same shop as both the SN570 M.2 1TB (any inputs on that @Solid State Soul ( SSS ) ?) + the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360, which will save me for some shipping cost as well!

If you can pick those three at a great deal then yes go for it, all three are great products and i heard very good things about the liquid freezer 2 360m, just make sure it has the LGA 1700 mounting kit or buy one.

 

[tabascosauz]

While this is true, most other DDR4-3600 2x16GB kits use 16Gb DJR, which would also be single-rank, but with worse latency timings. I believe some other kits use CJR (which would be dual rank) interchangeably with DJR, similar to what Crucial does with Rev B/E.
If you can find a 2x16GB kit that always uses CJR at a reasonable price it would probably be roughly on-par with single-rank Ballistix, or possibly slightly faster. Timetec sells a 2x16GB 3600MHz kit that they advertise as using CJR, but I don't know if it's available in Norway at reasonable prices.

DJR is always an 8Gb IC??

Again, if the info is from 2020 or earlier claiming to be "DJR" in a 3600 kit, it's just misinformed use of Thaiphoon that loves to think CJR is DJR...DJR only really took off in 4000-6000 kits starting this year, has way too much freq headroom to ever be in 3600 16-19-19, and if it OCs like crap and stops at 3800-4000 with basically no voltage scaling, it's CJR.

Hynix's common crappy 16Gb IC seems to be MJR in 2x32GB, but it's a shitty chip that is CL17 or CL18 at 3600.

 

[RandallFlagg]

No point in relying too much on Thaiphoon, for G.skill kits it's a horribly convoluted and unreliable way of trying to find out what something is. On G.skill, the 042 code on the DIMM sticker is basically law, AFAIK it's never been incorrect at least for the common ICs. There's plenty of guides over the years on reddit how to decode them, but anything ending in 8820C/8821C will be CJR guaranteed, which all of 3600 16-19-19 should be.

New G.skill packaging might or might not have a cutout to see the sticker, but in any case you'll have to handle the DIMMs anyway so you'll get to see it regardless. And much sooner than you can get to Thaiphoon.

Thaiphoon can only make an educated guess on what's programmed in the SPD, and just as often as it's correct it just goes completely wack. 8Gb C-die is often misidentified as 8Gb B-die, for years Thaiphoon liked to think CJR was DJR (G.skill will not be putting freq-happy DJR in a kit as lowly as 3600CL16), some crazy shenanigans going on with 16Gb dies as well - my own 4Gb E-die kit shows up as 4Gb D-die, which is untrue for various reasons that I don't even have to look at the sticker for.

I think the XMP timings are more important than trying to guess which exact chip is there, unless someone is looking to do serious overclocking. That's read from XMP profile, and should be accurate for the two I posted. Both of those kits are identical in their XMP settings, but yes getting CJR vs DJR is a crap shoot. I would suspect the Trident maybe has slightly better chance of being a better bin, but that's not guaranteed. You're still basically paying for LEDs.

The chip bin is irrelevant though unless one is going to OC them, and that uncertainty level doesn't go away by choosing different RAM unless they specifically note it is something like Samsung B-Die. Even then, it's entirely possible to get B-Die that is crap and won't OC as well. I don't think OP is someone who is going to seriously OC their RAM though, most are not, and these kits are reasonably fast at just XMP settings.

Like I said I considered that to be a 'decent' kit. For someone who wants to do really low latency high speed DDR4, they're still going to need to fork up more like $280 for 32GB kit.

 

[winterwonderland]

They are the same kit, just in red


SN570 just released about a couple months ago, it pack the latest nand chips which gives you better performance than the SN550, which is a VERY popular drive, so yeah, i'd say pick that one up if you can

If you can pick those three at a great deal then yes go for it, all three are great products and i heard very good things about the liquid freezer 2 360m, just make sure it has the LGA 1700 mounting kit or buy one.

Awesome! Then i will order all 3 parts (LF360, Crucial Red 32gb + SN570 1TB) from the same store. Great stuff that then! Also, this is what the particular store shows is included within the package, and isn't that the LGA1700 mounting kit, or?:

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

Awesome! Then i will order all 3 parts (LF360, Crucial Red 32gb + SN570 1TB) from the same store. Great stuff that then! Also, this is what the particular store shows is included within the package, and isn't that the LGA1700 mounting kit, or?:
View attachment 227470View attachment 227471

Unfortunately no, thats not LGA 1700 kit for the liquid freezer ii, it would seem you'll have to buy it separately

LGA1700 Mounting Kit - Liquid Freezer II Series | Rev. 1 | MPSAS00891A

For mounting the Liquid Freezer II Series on Intel Alder Lake and Raptor Lake

www.arctic.de

It should look like what you see inside the link above

Awesome! Then i will order all 3 parts (LF360, Crucial Red 32gb + SN570 1TB) from the same store. Great stuff that then!

Hey, happy to help

 

[winterwonderland]

Unfortunately no, thats not LGA 1700 kit for the liquid freezer ii, it would seem you'll have to buy it separately

LGA1700 Mounting Kit - Liquid Freezer II Series | Rev. 1 | MPSAS00891A

For mounting the Liquid Freezer II Series on Intel Alder Lake and Raptor Lake

www.arctic.de

It should look like what you see inside the link above


Hey, happy to help

Ahh, bummer. It will cost a bit more than i can afford to. HOWEVER, the Noctua NH-D15 is available for the same price at the same store, so i believe i will just go for the D15 instead. That's not a bad choice, right? It will fit nicely with my i7 12700K + Z690 GX + FD D R6? The mentioned Dark Rock Pro 4 is also available, but about $15 more expensive than the D15... Any thoughts on that?

 

[oxrufiioxo]

D15 will be fine as long as you don't push the 12700k hard and then run avx on it... It should be about the same as the dark rock cooler just uglier depending on your taste.


If you are going with a noise focused case thermals probably arent going to be great unless you have a really low ambient the chip sucks down 150w stock when stressed.

 

[winterwonderland]

D15 will be fine as long as you don't push the 12700k hard and then run avx on it... It should be about the same as the dark rock cooler just uglier depending on your taste.


If you are going with a noise focused case thermals probably arent going to be great unless you have a really low ambient the chip sucks down 150w stock when stressed.

Unfortunately no, thats not LGA 1700 kit for the liquid freezer ii, it would seem you'll have to buy it separately

LGA1700 Mounting Kit - Liquid Freezer II Series | Rev. 1 | MPSAS00891A

For mounting the Liquid Freezer II Series on Intel Alder Lake and Raptor Lake

www.arctic.de

It should look like what you see inside the link above


Hey, happy to help

Ahaa, found the LGA1700-kit in the same shop in the end!

BUT! Is this the mentioned WD SN570 M.2 SSD, or is this another model..?

If that is the right SN570, i shall place the order asap!

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

Ahaa, found the LGA1700-kit in the same shop in the end!

BUT! Is this the mentioned WD SN570 M.2 SSD, or is this another model..?
View attachment 227593

If that is the right SN570, i shall place the order asap!

It is, go for it

Ahh, bummer. It will cost a bit more than i can afford to. HOWEVER, the Noctua NH-D15 is available for the same price at the same store, so i believe i will just go for the D15 instead. That's not a bad choice, right? It will fit nicely with my i7 12700K + Z690 GX + FD D R6? The mentioned Dark Rock Pro 4 is also available, but about $15 more expensive than the D15... Any thoughts on that?

D15 is the king of air coolers, cant go wrong with Noctua

Ahh, bummer. It will cost a bit more than i can afford to. HOWEVER, the Noctua NH-D15 is available for the same price at the same store, so i believe i will just go for the D15 instead. That's not a bad choice, right? It will fit nicely with my i7 12700K + Z690 GX + FD D R6? The mentioned Dark Rock Pro 4 is also available, but about $15 more expensive than the D15... Any thoughts on that?

D15 is the king of air coolers, cant go wrong with Noctua

 

[winterwonderland]

It is, go for it


D15 is the king of air coolers, cant go wrong with Noctua


D15 is the king of air coolers, cant go wrong with Noctua

Ordered everything now! That means my final setup is this:

CPU: i7 12700K
Mobo: Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 2x16gb 3600-C16
SSD: WD Blue SN570 1TB
Cooler: Air Liquid Freezer II 360 + LGA1700 kit

These parts will remain the same until some later point:
PSU: EVGA Supernova G3 550W
GPU: MSI GTX 970

That should be all decent, yeah?