G.Skill Ripjaws or Dominator Platinum: Function over Fashion

[McKantis_Mayhem]

I'll be building a rig in the near future using an Intel 3930K, and I have reached the point of finding RAM.

Originally I had picked 8x4GB G.Skill Ripjaws Z series since it's low profile and cheepish, but it looks like it's meant for an Ivy Bridge processor rather than the Sandy Bridge that I'll be using.

So while flipping through RAM selections, I ran across the Dominator Platinum. It's definitely flashy, but a 4 card set of the Platinum is $115 more than an identical pack of the G.Skill.

So here's the bottom line.

Either way there will be eight 4GB cards in the machine. Both have identical Speed (2400), CAS (10), Timing (10-12-12-31), and voltage (1.65v).

So is the only difference between the two the light bar and shiny heat spreaders, or is there an actual quality increase that comes with paying that extra $230?

 

[I Hunta x]

Short answer no, Long answer no.

I've used multiple kits of gskill from the cheaper end of them to the higher end over the years and ive never had a problem with any of them, ive also used a few kits of corsair (currently have 4x4gb xms3 in my server)

 

[Kyze]

Whats with the volts ?
Shouldnt you be keeping them at 1.5 or lower with even Sandy or was that Ivy-specific ?

 

[tinytomlogan]

platinums are ALL about the looks mate.

If you dont understand that I wouldnt bother

 

[McKantis_Mayhem]

platinums are ALL about the looks mate.

Yeah, that's about what I figured. Not sure that a little bit of extra flash is worth the price tag.

Thanks!

 

[Whaler_99]

Here I can get a pretty good deal on a 4x4GB kit of the Dominator Platinum's. The bonus is my rig is a white/black theme with a bit of blue. So, I am more then willing to pay the extra for them to add that extra touch to my overall look.

 

[McKantis_Mayhem]

Mine will be Blue and Black inside a White case, so the chromish look would look really good. That's why I had originally looked at the Zalman CNPS12X (until I found reviews on them that is).

It all depends on what my budget looks like when I go to buy the sticks I guess.

 

[Excalabur50]

I have a similar color scheme to yours, why dont you try the vengeance white lp im using it and its great

 

[McKantis_Mayhem]

While it does look good, I chose the G.skill for the 2400 speed. I live in Alaska so the idea of function over fashion is second nature and most important. Otherwise you're likely to freeze some very important parts off XD.

Plus I want to milk as much power as possible out of this beast.

 

[Bang]

Yar, and that $230 price difference is money that can be spent on something more useful than shiney little heat spreaders.

 

[McKantis_Mayhem]

Yar, and that $230 price difference is money that can be spent on something more useful than shiney little heat spreaders.

Like another SSD or GPU.