Wraith
Bettyswollocks
Help selecting Memory.
Welcome to my little guide into finding the right memory for you, while I use the term "guide" these are more like pointers to help aid you in your choice of memory to suit your requirements.
How much: Possibly the easiest choice, how much RAM do you "need"? I say "need" because there is very little point in just whacking 16GB or 32GB of RAM in your system if all you do is surf the web and play the latest games titles, for this all you really "need" is a comfortable 8GB of RAM. For example if you have 4 DIMM slots available install a 2x4GB kit (8GB total) this would leave you with 2 spare slots should you feel the need later to upgrade further.
Socket: This might seem like a no brainer but you'd be surprised just how many people purchase the wrong slot type RAM, always check and know your motherboards specs as DDR4 RAM will not fit in DDR3 slots and visa versa, there are currently only 4 classes of RAM module, DDR(obsolete), DDR2, DDR3 and the new DDR4 standard.
Frequency: Frequency of your memory is rated in Mhz and is the measure of speed your memory is capable of, this is not always in your hands and plain sailing I'm afraid, you may buy 2666Mhz RAM but unless your motherboard and CPU memory controller support it you will be restricted to a slower supported frequency, so again always check before pulling the trigger on your memory choice.
While you can settle for stock frequencies with memory, enthusiasts and system builders also perform what is commonly known as RAM overclocking which is where they will install memory which is of a higher frequency and by way of either entering the settings maually or using XMP (Extreme Memory Profiles) will push the RAM to their own specified speeds.. You can see how this is done here with TTLs Overclocking Guide.
Timings: Memory timings are not that important to most when purchasing their RAM and only really comes into play when you are thinking about overclocking or every nanosecond just really matters, but for the sake of being thorough I must inform you of just what this entails. Memory timing in lamens terms is the speed at which the memory reads and writes, it does this in what's known as Clock Cycles, you will find RAM will contain a label with a set of 4 numbers i.e 9-9-9-24 these are the timings, I will do my best now to explain just what these numbers mean. All of these numbers are translated into the following CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS now you have to visualize the memory as a matrix of intersections compiled of lines and columns similar to a spreadsheet.
CL: CAS Latency. The time it takes between a command having been sent to the memory and when it begins to reply to it. This is the time it takes between the processor asking for some data from the memory and then returning it.
tRCD: RAS to CAS Delay. The time it takes between the activation of the line (RAS) and the column (CAS) where the data is stored within the matrix.
tRP: RAS Precharge. The time it takes between disabling the access to a line of data and the beginning of the access to another line.
tRAS: Active to Precharge Delay. How long the memory has to wait until the next access to the memory can be initiated
So as a rule of thumb when it comes to Timings the lower the CL the quicker the modules will perform.
Hopefully you're still reading at this point and your head has stopped spinning, well that is timings in a nut shell.
Aesthetics: This is a popular area usualy only the enthusiasts look into, and rightly so, if your system has a red and black theme then yellow RAM just won't do!
Price: Memory prices vary greatly from Value RAM to the high end premium memory modules with pretty heat spreaders, low timings and high frequencies, so the choice is entirely yours. The one thing to point out here is that you get what you pay for, value RAM will not come with a lifetime warranty and is not really suited to hard load usage such as rendering, image/video editing and high resolution gaming, but it's fine for your everyday run of the mill office user.
With all this in mind you should now have some insight into your new future purchase.
Welcome to my little guide into finding the right memory for you, while I use the term "guide" these are more like pointers to help aid you in your choice of memory to suit your requirements.
How much: Possibly the easiest choice, how much RAM do you "need"? I say "need" because there is very little point in just whacking 16GB or 32GB of RAM in your system if all you do is surf the web and play the latest games titles, for this all you really "need" is a comfortable 8GB of RAM. For example if you have 4 DIMM slots available install a 2x4GB kit (8GB total) this would leave you with 2 spare slots should you feel the need later to upgrade further.
Socket: This might seem like a no brainer but you'd be surprised just how many people purchase the wrong slot type RAM, always check and know your motherboards specs as DDR4 RAM will not fit in DDR3 slots and visa versa, there are currently only 4 classes of RAM module, DDR(obsolete), DDR2, DDR3 and the new DDR4 standard.
Frequency: Frequency of your memory is rated in Mhz and is the measure of speed your memory is capable of, this is not always in your hands and plain sailing I'm afraid, you may buy 2666Mhz RAM but unless your motherboard and CPU memory controller support it you will be restricted to a slower supported frequency, so again always check before pulling the trigger on your memory choice.
While you can settle for stock frequencies with memory, enthusiasts and system builders also perform what is commonly known as RAM overclocking which is where they will install memory which is of a higher frequency and by way of either entering the settings maually or using XMP (Extreme Memory Profiles) will push the RAM to their own specified speeds.. You can see how this is done here with TTLs Overclocking Guide.
Timings: Memory timings are not that important to most when purchasing their RAM and only really comes into play when you are thinking about overclocking or every nanosecond just really matters, but for the sake of being thorough I must inform you of just what this entails. Memory timing in lamens terms is the speed at which the memory reads and writes, it does this in what's known as Clock Cycles, you will find RAM will contain a label with a set of 4 numbers i.e 9-9-9-24 these are the timings, I will do my best now to explain just what these numbers mean. All of these numbers are translated into the following CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS now you have to visualize the memory as a matrix of intersections compiled of lines and columns similar to a spreadsheet.
CL: CAS Latency. The time it takes between a command having been sent to the memory and when it begins to reply to it. This is the time it takes between the processor asking for some data from the memory and then returning it.
tRCD: RAS to CAS Delay. The time it takes between the activation of the line (RAS) and the column (CAS) where the data is stored within the matrix.
tRP: RAS Precharge. The time it takes between disabling the access to a line of data and the beginning of the access to another line.
tRAS: Active to Precharge Delay. How long the memory has to wait until the next access to the memory can be initiated
So as a rule of thumb when it comes to Timings the lower the CL the quicker the modules will perform.
Hopefully you're still reading at this point and your head has stopped spinning, well that is timings in a nut shell.
Aesthetics: This is a popular area usualy only the enthusiasts look into, and rightly so, if your system has a red and black theme then yellow RAM just won't do!
Price: Memory prices vary greatly from Value RAM to the high end premium memory modules with pretty heat spreaders, low timings and high frequencies, so the choice is entirely yours. The one thing to point out here is that you get what you pay for, value RAM will not come with a lifetime warranty and is not really suited to hard load usage such as rendering, image/video editing and high resolution gaming, but it's fine for your everyday run of the mill office user.
With all this in mind you should now have some insight into your new future purchase.
~Wraithguard~
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