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NEW build question


bsanders03

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Hello all. I am new to the CORSAIR and custom builds. I currently am working on a 3 monitor setup. My tower included the following..

 

AMD Ryzen 9 3900x

ASUS AMD AM4 ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi) Motherboard

Corsair Force MP600 M.2 2280 1TB - 2 of these

MSI Geforce RTX 2080 TI 11GB Gaming X Trio

Corsair 1000 Watt Platinum Power supply

Windows 10 64 Bit

 

 

Monitors are Asus ROG Swift PG279Q 27inch (Running a 3 monitor setup)

 

Tower is a Corsair Crystal 570X RGB Mirror Black ATX Mid Tower

 

Cooling is Corsair H115i RGB Platinum Liquid Cooler

 

My question, after doing some research, is what memory would be good for this setup. I have read a lot with the Ryzen processors to go with CL16 DDR4 3600. I am very confused when it comes to this, and don't understand what would be good, especially when it comes to the CL 14, 16, 18 etc.... and then the speed changing (mhz) when I go from the different CL's. My motherboard says it support speeds up to 4600mhz and has 4 slots holding up to a maximum of 128 GB. Any information here would be helpful.

 

I am looking to purchase soon, I just want to be sure that I am putting together a system that will run great. We are using it for gaming/streaming.

Edited by bsanders03
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I'm not sure I can really recommend a memory kit however here is what I would consider in your case and a few of my opinions.

 

The following article will help you understand various aspects of ram with your processor even if you are not overclocking.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-memory-tweaking-overclocking-guide/

 

Generally speaking lower CL is good, higher frequency is good, Samsung b-die is good. However the price premium your willing to pay for the combination is your decision.

 

Personally in my opinion CL16 DDR4-3600 I think is a good recommendation for performance but the prices are better at DDR4-3200. The effort trying to snag a b-die kit, well I don't think it matters as much as it used to with the better compatibility these days.

 

Don't worry so much about getting b-die or anything special like that especially if your not overclocking anything. Regardless of what IC's the ram chips have you want something that works at it rated speed and timings and if it does that then your good. If your into RGB then there are other aesthetic factors to consider to your preference.

 

Look at your motherboard memory QVL list. Supposedly those are tested and that is why those compatibility lists exist. This is your best bet for out of the box compatibility with the least hassle. Take it with a grain of salt when considering QVL memory kits supported at really high frequencies.

 

Your Zen2 processor official specification is for DDR4-3200. (just keep that in mind) Many CPU can push higher (and often do) as in previous versions of Ryzen Zen and Zen+ CPU's but no guarantees. At DDR4-3200 speed ram has become more affordable I would consider that as a minimum with your hardware as you already seem to have many premium parts.

 

What speed your ram can actually reach depends on your motherboard-cpu-ram combination and compatibility.

 

Your processor infinity fabric will perform best in a 1:1 ratio with whatever ram is installed so DDR4-3600 is a good choice at the top end. In that scenario the infinity fabric will run at 1800MHz. I forgot if that was the maximum spec for IF, but if you go higher than DDR4-3600 the ratio will change by default and you will take a performance hit on your memory latency.

 

Depending on how many ram sticks you install (and their ranks) and your motherboard memory topology (daisy-chain vs T-topology) your rams supported frequency may be reduced. What it can support will greatly depend on your CPU's integrated memory controller (IMC) too. Don't be surprised if you fully load 128GB of ram if you can only do DDR4-2400 or lower!

 

Dual-rank ram seems to perform well with Zen2 processors so I don't think you need to try so hard to get single-rank kits with Zen2. A 2x16 dual-rank kit should be fine and would allow you to expand later* but in particular if you have daisy-chain topology you should get the best performance when only installing 2 sticks in the primary channel. (note mixing two different kits later, even if identical, may have compatibility issues)

 

For 2 stick kits make sure to install them on the primary channel typically slots A2 + B2 but consult your manual to be sure.

 

I have a 32GB (2x16) DDR4-3200 CMW32GX4M2C3200C16 and it works good for me despite I had some compatibility issues to workaround. I think it was originally an Intel advertised kit but generally ram is ram but it's also complicated too. I overclocked it to DDR4-3600 which was a total surprise that worked for me but now I'm afraid to update my BIOS/UEFI and potentially loose my overclock.

 

On NewEgg I see they have a similar model CMW32GX4M2Z3200C16 that advertises for AMD compatibility. Maybe that will work better without compatibility issues.

 

Both kits above at the time of this writing are fairly low cost between $160 to $180 with RGB and look nice however they are taller than their non-RGB LPX counterparts so depending on your CPU cooler installation you may need to consider ram height.

 

Paying $700 or more for a ram kit - well only if I had money to burn. I'd rather save some of that money for other stuff like a Corsair Obsidian Series 1000D Super-Tower Case.

 

Welcome to the custom builders club!

 

I hang around here on the forums (probably too much) so you will find quite a few posts here from me. Good luck!

Edited by A Computer Guy
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This is awesome. Thank you for such a great reply and detailed response. This has helped a lot.

 

I also have a 2nd thread with some questions involving a SSD on that motherboard. Could you take a look at it when you get a chance ?

 

Here is the link

 

https://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=189714

 

https://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=189714

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