What RAM should I go for?

glynf

Hi,
I have a few questions re. RAM. Recently got a 5870 for a 3 year old PC (spec. below), and now plan to upgrade the CPU, Motherboard & RAM as they are past it. I don’t want to spend a fortune; this PC will be only used for games & music. Not worried about overclocking & benchmarks, just want to put something together that’s stable without any hardware compatibility issues if possible, but at the same time performance wise respectable enough for the latest games to do for the nest 1.5-2 years or so.
From what I read here & on other forums the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 & i5-750 seem like a good option. My problem is what RAM to get:

1)Is anything over 1333MHz is pointless if not overclocking?
2)Would I be right in saying I only require Dual channel for this motherboard as it won’t support triple channel?
3)Does the memory have to be equal to or less than 1.5v?

So far I was looking at:

OCZ Gold Low Voltage 2 x 2 GB DDR3-1333 PC3-10666

Or

Corsair XMS3 Classic, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V

Any help on this would be great. I’ve had a look around but the more I read the more confusing it gets…
Thanks
G.

Current PC:
NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard - - Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz - - 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM - -Force3d HD 5870 - -160GB 10,000 RPM HDD - -250 GB 7,200 RPM HDD - -18x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive - - 1000w Coolermaster PSU - -Alienware P2 Case - -40” Samsung LCD, 1080P

Deano12345

glynf wrote: »

Is anything over 1333MHz is pointless if not overclocking? - Yup, that and benchmarking.


Would I be right in saying I only require Dual channel for this motherboard as it won’t support triple channel? - Yes

Does the memory have to be equal to or less than 1.5v? - I'm pretty sure i5 takes a lower voltage (that being 1.5v)



OCZ Gold Low Voltage 2 x 2 GB DDR3-1333 PC3-10666 - That kit is low voltage and has tighter timings out of the box, go with that

Answers in the bold

Solitaire

1.5V is the basic standard for DDR3. Intel's current CPU architecture can't safely manage DDR3 running at more than 1.65V.

glynf

Many thanks for the advice lads, roll on payday.:)