RAM is a mine field...

[Switch[uK]]

Hey guys, i could do with your help selecting some RAM for my new rig. I will be using at DFI LAN Party UT x48-T3RS Motherboard. I decided to go DDR3 to future proof my self and make it easily upgradable. Of course I also want to get dual channel ram.

The spec's say it will support upto 8gb and has 4x 240pin DIMM sockets
It supports from 800 - 1600MHz
It will support 8x and 16x unbuffered DIMMs (whatever that means)

Ive looked around for a while now and have decided to go for a 2x 2GB dual channel set up. This should give me a simple upgrade path (i.e. just double what ive got) Ive looked at a few sets that seem right (as seen below) but i have a few questions:

OCZ
G.Skill
Cosair1
And
Cosair2

All except the final cosair2 kit is 1600MHz. However, the interesting thing about that seems to be that it is dual channel but only one DIMM. Would that mean that i could surpass the 8Gb that my motherboard says it can accept? I also don't fully understand how ram timings work either. The lower the number is better, right? Is that for all the numbers? Why are the OCZ and G.Skill shown above so much more expensive than the Cosair1 kit? Is 7-7-7-18 really worth the extra £50 compared to 9-9-9-24? Is unbuffered better?

Finally, if anybody could suggest a RAM kit that is better than these for this board that i have overlooked then please let me know.

I appreciate all your help. This forum has been so good to me constantly asking questions about things i really should know something about if i want to build my own PC.

Thanks

Switch[uK]

[Kelainefes]

Timings do not make much difference in ram performance (except in memory benchmarks), i believe you should pick a kit based on how much it will overclock or if it will work at stock frequencies with lower voltages than what it says on the sticker.
Research also compatibility with your motherboard, DFI provides a list of suggested memory on the board's page.
Also, note the 2nd Corsair is a kit of 2 modules, and that your motherboard (and i believe the X48 chipset) does not support buffered memory, wich is used only in server boards.

[Clunk]

Wait for Nehalem before going DDR3 is my advice. It's only 4 weeks or so away and it's looking like the difference is going to be huge in memory performance.

Also keep in mind that you may not be able to use current DDR3 properly with Nehalem because most of the current memory uses at least 1.8v, so it's not really future proof in that respect.

[Switch[uK]]

Right... I have a few more RAM based questions after looking at the responses and doing a bit more research.

Initially i had planned to put decent 16000 DDR3 RAM in my new build but now i'm not so sure. If RAM timings make little difference outside of benchmarking and this machine is going to be used to play games to a good spec then surely i am better to be buying 10666 RAM and that way when i go to upgrade i can not only increase quantity but also speed. Most modern games from what i can gather don't require super fast RAM to get significantly better results. This should help to keep costs down too.

This brings me to the problem of quantity - I can find minimum spec's for current games but very little is said on forums and review websites about maximum quantity's required to get top results. It seem's almost pointless to buy 4GB RAM when games might not be able to utilise that much. Especially given that i initially plan to have only 1 Radeon 4870 and eventually upgrade to 2 in Crossfire.

Not only this but in order to keep costs down i had planned to use my current version of Windows XP Professional. I have already been warned that in order to get the best out of 4GB RAM i would need x64. But a few reviews and sites have warned that to run 4GB RAM i would require x64. Is this true?

Alternatively, am i just getting mightily confused and RAM is actually a lot more simple than this i.e:

- More is better so buy more... games don't have upper limits because the more you feed it the more it will use.
- x64 is required if you are having over 4GB and given that i'm putting in an E8500 wolfdale i need it anyway.
- Stop moaning about costs. You won't save enough by not buying 16000 in favour of 10666 RAM to bother.

I still really appreciate all your help. I seem to remember that last time i built a PC it was a lot easier than this. Mind you i did fall out of the loop for a long time.

Switch[uK]

[Clunk]

Please add your system specs to your profile - see my sig.

[Kelainefes]

4GB will help gaming performance, compared to 2GB, 8GB shouldn't make much sense from the test i've seen.
If you install 4GB and use Windows XP Pro 32 bit you should be able to use 3-3.5 GB.
Anyway i'd wait for Core i7 at this point, unless you absolutely don't need a quad core.