RAM Frequencies, What do they mean and which ones are the best

[roberttk01]

Okay, so I just finished my first build, and the only two things that were not changed out were the HDD and the RAM. Tonight, I was trying to upgrade both, get an SSD to boot windows from and upgrade the ram from 8GB to atleast 16GB, but when I was looking, I saw that they had MHz ratings. Well, I am running 1600 Mhz right now, and I would think that the 2400 Mhz cards would be the best (bigger the better theory) but I wanted to make sure before I spend $160 on 4 new cards. Any help is would be grateful.

Just a little update, I am running a intel i7-2600 sandy bridge, if that helps at all

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Please use the edit button to add new info within 24 hours of your previous post

As to your question, whether it's worth upgrading depends on what you use your PC for. 8Gb is plenty for most people, you'd only want 16Gb if you were planning on some heavy photoshopping, video editing, etc. If not, then 8Gb is plenty.

1600Mhz is also pretty standard, you'd have to check and make sure your motherboard even supports 2400Mhz if you wanted to get that. I wouldn't recommend it though.

 

[roberttk01]

I will from now on, and as for my mother board, I have the Asus P8P67-v Pro, and it supports it, I just wanted to make sure that I should go that route, or should I go with the suggested 1333 like intel's site suggests. My motives are just to build a monster machine

 

[MindoverMaster]

If you ever want to overclock that CPU, 1600 will make it easier. Has more leanway.

 

[Geff-]

the faster the memory the better as usual, but when your talking about 8G you already have and moving up to 16 i wouldent pay the difference as you will look at the resorce consumption in your computer and wonder why you did it but what ever you do you still going to have a killer computer with a i7 and 8G at 1600
(at that stage i would worry more about a video card than anything, but i think you may have done that too?)

 

[roberttk01]

Well I also upgraded, when I built, to the Gefore 570 and that is plenty enough for me, if I upgrade the GPU, I will just get another 570 and SLI plus a larger PSU. I am planning on getting the Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD for the most used programs and to boot windows, but I also wanted to bulk up the memory, so I was going to go ahead and get both at the same time. But if the 8GB that I have is working and there is no real sense in upgrading the memory at this time, then I won't, but what would be the best frequency and combo to go with the Asus P8P67 V Pro mobo and the Intel I7 2600?

 

[MindoverMaster]

You are fine with 1600. It is more than enough. Stay with the 8GB. You have more than enough.

 

[Yami]

You are fine with 1600. It is more than enough. Stay with the 8GB. You have more than enough.

Agreed.