PCTech Forums

In the process of building a new system (as most people in this forum are).

i52500
ASUS P8P67
GTX570
Win7 64bit home

Im all but decided on purchasing Crucial RAM for the system, but was hoping I could get some help before the purchase. I can't say that I understand the different timings on different RAMS other than they exist and effect the speed.

I believe there is 1333, 1600, 1866, and 2133. In looking around I can't see any reason to go above 1600. Will I receive noticeable performance boost by moving up from 1600?

Also, is 4GB sufficient or should I go with 8GB from the start ( was thinking I could add 4GB later)

Lastly I am linking the page I am purchasing from. There is 2 types of Ballistix RAM on that page ( Tracer, and regular Ballistix) that are both 1600. I can't see any difference between the 2 but the prices are different. Is it just a price difference and the RAM is the same or am I missing something?

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=P8P67

I really appreciate any information from someone who is more knowledgeable in this area

4 gigs will be ok from the start, no you really wont notice that much difference above 1600, spec wise the 2 sticks are the same. The only difference i could find is cosmetic, timings, frequency and memory banks are all identical. I dont think you missed anything at all.

Im currently running 4 gigs on win 7 64 and it runs good. Im only running a X2 3.2 amd dual core and ddr2800 memory. Id try 4 first and see how it works for you. I was considering jumping to 8 just for the hell of it but i havent as of yet.

As far as timings go, the lower the better. DDR3 has high timings compared to DDR2 but make up for it in throughput/frequency. Even though there naturally high you still want to find the lowest of your available options. Again though, this is one of those things that unless your a hard core gamer or benchmarker you will never really see the difference.

Hehe, I'm obviously a hardcore gamer (dunno what else a GTX 570 would be for) In the future I will make sure and look for the lowest timings!

I really appreciate your response it was extremely helpful.

jb