Selecting Ram

[Jacob.xray]

before you purchase any parts for any build how do you know if the Ram is going to be compatible (i know about DDR, DDR2, DDR3 and Dual, Triple And Quad Chanel) but what else do you have to look out for to make sure it is compatible with your system.

 

[Pr3d4t0r]

motherboards native supported speed in Mhz, look at lowest supported and maximum WITHOUT overclocking(usually marked with + after the number)

the height of the heatsinks so they dont interfere with big coolers

the aesthetics

it must look good to be in my case lol

and ofcourse RAM amount, a minimum of 2GB for home media pc, 8 for gaming and 12/24/36 for servers/CAD/ and just for being there cause you can have so much

 

[Master&Puppet]

Also low timings is nice and 1.5v too for the SB/IB builds.

Speed is meh performance wise. 1600 is fine for anyone who's job doesn't depend on getting the tiniest bit extra out of there system.

Quad channel/dual channel is a bit misleading - you can put quad in dual and dual in quad and it works fine - it is just the way the manufacturers test and label the modules - they are actually the same.

 

[Jacob.xray]

ok cool

if i have ram that is 2133 and my motherboard (ASUS Rampage IV Formula ) can support 2133 but overclocked can i use the "memok" button to down clock it and then overclock it back to 2133 in the bios

 

[Pr3d4t0r]

ok cool

if i have ram that is 2133 and my motherboard (ASUS Rampage IV Formula ) can support 2133 but overclocked can i use the "memok" button to down clock it and then overclock it back to 2133 in the bios

asus boards often underclock the ram on boot if its too high, but yeah memok will do it all for you if the board doesnt like the high speed