8 GB in two Dimms for a Z77 motherboard, Something cheap and basic from Corsair or Crucial, not super high speed or fancy lights and fins. I plan to buy from MicroCenter or NewEgg.
(Remembers when you only needed to know parity or non-parity and how many nanoseconds).
It seems that all of the Z77 boards use 240 pin DDR3 memory - just looking at the first 20 or so items.
The speed range seems to be anywhere from a low of 1066 to about 1600 (w/o overclocking).
That can be misleading though but you’ll get arguments both ways. I would put more emphasis on the latency (CAS ___ or CL ___). As the speed goes up so does the latency since its measured in clock cycles (long story).
Basically I would look for mid range chips as to speed and try to cherry pick (look for lower numbers) on the latency.
So long as it is DDR3, 1066 or higher, and 1.5V or less, the rest doesn’t really mater.
1066 is pretty slow even by today’s standard and you won’t do any better than CAS 7, so unless he’s counting pennies, he can do better.
This is for a system ($600 budget including the OS) just for light office use and watching Netflix until a customer walks in. So I’m not counting pennies if I can get something better for very little cost, but I don’t want to spend a lot extra for something that would never make a difference.
So anything labeled DDR 3 will work, all the other numbers are just how it would theoretically perform?
Also, if anyone has an opinion on Samsung SSDs. I know Intel are the best and OCZ are the worst as reliablity, but the Samsungs seem to be too new to be rated but seem to be decent? I was going to get an Intel, but Microcenter has $20.00 off a Samsung if bought with a CPU.
I don’t want to sound dismissive, but truly, you’re going to get a greater volume of advice that should be fairly competent on one of the mid-sized computer forums. I just can’t really make any recommendations with real confidence since I was never really a hard core over clocker, case modder, etc. so I was never into the scene to that extent.
Things like product recommendations can change fairly quickly so you really need that kind of near real-time expertise. For example, I wouldn’t worry too much about not getting an Intel branded SSD. Things have progress quite a bit since the MLC/SLC controversy days.
Plus, SSD’s are so fast that virtually any SSD will blow the doors off of an HDD unless maybe you’re talking RAID 5 striping with Velociraptors or some crazy shit like that.
As for the RAM, will you notice the difference between CAS 9 1066 and CAS 9 1333? IDK. Maybe. Like you, I’m not really obsessed with performance and don’t spend hours tweaking my computers. I do find the tech interesting though so I know a bit about it.
You’ll never notice the difference.
Samsung SSDs are regarded as excellent and the among the best you can buy. The only possible exception is the 840, which uses a non-standard and theoretically poor type of NAND. It’s probably a great drive too though, just not proven to be. The 840 Pro is fine.
The Crucial m4 is a popular budget choice too. OCZ SSDs are fine. Their main issue was fixed a year ago or so.
That does put me in a dilema since the 840 regular is the one I can get a deal on ($30 cheaper than Intel). Probably best not to touch it though, I’ve looked online and read scary things about the RAM in the 840. The original question is resolved, I got a deal on 1333 Corsair RAM, $47.99 for 8 MB.
I don’t want to bum you out, but the egg also has a Crucial 2 channel set (2 x 4 gb) that is CAS 7 for $52.99. I’m guessing you got the CAS 9 set.
Of course there are about a dozen other parameters for dram, but they tend to use CAS since it’s a common operation and other common operations tend to require the same number of clock cycles.