Need a new gaming desktop between £800 and £1000

What happens if I get a 8GB 3000mhz and keep the 4gb at 2133mhz, for a total of 12gb?

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If you're lucky the mobo will downclock the 3000MHz RAM to match the 2133MHz. Otherwise I guess the system won't post?

Make sure to read up thoroughly on compatibility before buying any RAM yourself ofc.

Awesome! You've been of great help! It's set then. I'll get that build from PCS and whichever 8GBx2 Ram seems appropriate from somewhere else.

Thank you!


Edit: I thought this would take the whole weekend. I was actually looking forward to it! Now I have to seek some other form of entertainment...

Glad it was of interest Do of course wait and see if others have comments too.

With regards to Ryzen and RAM, see:
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?55786-Ryzen-RAM-MHz&p=398114#post398114
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?55458-Setting-RAM-speeds-on-B350-F-Strix-mobo

I'd probably get advice off the AMD reddit or something.

I'd probably get advice off the AMD reddit or something.

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They'll just end up convincing me to go for the 1700, but ok .

I'm only buying it on the 25th of September. I might even get lucky and PCS will be offering higher ram speeds for Ryzen setups by then.

Edit: Actually, no they wont convince me to get the 1700. It is an extra £100.

Edit: Actually, no they wont convince me to get the 1700. It is an extra £100.

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Yep. If you were doing that you might as well just get the 7700k.

They could always try to talk you into an RX 570 though...

I've sent them an email regarding any upcoming changes to the RAM on offer, and this was their reply:

'We are wanting to include the faster RAM speeds on our AMD Ryzen configurators, however we currently do not have a specific timeframe for this as we are in the process of testing all of the RAM modules that we sell with the current motherboards since the BIOSes have matured.'

That's good to know. I understand that as a company they really can't offer a timeframe, but does anyone else have a sort of ballpark figure for how long do such testings usually take?

If it's not available by the 25th of September I'll probably just wait and save myself the trouble of configuring it myself. Plus it will be properly warranted like the rest of the PC.

AntSou29 said:

I've sent them an email regarding any upcoming changes to the RAM on offer, and this was their reply:

'We are wanting to include the faster RAM speeds on our AMD Ryzen configurators, however we currently do not have a specific timeframe for this as we are in the process of testing all of the RAM modules that we sell with the current motherboards since the BIOSes have matured.'

That's good to know. I understand that as a company they really can't offer a timeframe, but does anyone else have a sort of ballpark figure for how long does such testings usually take?

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Any answer from us would just be speculation. You could just try to contact them again for an estimate.

I don't mind speculation . Like I said, I'll probably just wait if it is still not on offer by the 25th. Worst case scenario I'll just be too eager to get a new PC and buy more RAM separately like Oussebon suggested.

That's good to know. I understand that as a company they really can't offer a timeframe, but does anyone else have a sort of ballpark figure for how long do such testings usually take?

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At the risk of being grossly unfair to PCS, I feel like it takes them quite a while to update their lineups. They're very quick at getting new releases in, with things like Ryzen, Skylake X, Vega, etc all being available as quick as you'd expect.

But they don't do gsync 120hz or 4k screens with the Octane type laptops despite other sellers having similar or the same Clevo chassis with these options, and it's been a year since these things launched. New mobo options don't appear very often. After they discovered compatibility issues with the 3000MHz RAM they used and the Z170 Pro Gaming, they didn't change that up for a long while.

As I say, this is just my personal impression, and I could be way off the mark, but it does seem to take them a while to update lineups after launch.

There are plenty of possible reasons why that's not a bad thing e.g. they have exceptionally robust compatibility standards, have extensive training for staff on new components and build options, etc... but whatever their reasons if I were buying a Ryzen system I wouldn't hold out for them to offer fast RAM.

Cheers!

In that case I'll buy whatever they have available on the 25th, and if the RAM hasn't been updated by then I'll get the 16GB from elsewhere.

Ok, now I've plenty of time to be considering other things. For instance:

What if I were to get a 1080p 144 hz monitor in the future? I don't mean 1440p since it wouldn't be worth it, but 1080p 144 hz monitors are fairly cheap. I don't need to take full advantage of the 144 hz, but a game running at 90 - 120 fps would be a considerable improvement over a 60 hz screen.

Would I need a video card with more VRAM to handle a 144hz screen?

Too many people on the internet raving about 144 hz. This is going to be a slow month.

Would I need a video card with more VRAM to handle a 144hz screen?

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No. VRAM demands increase for higher resolutions (and also settings like texture quality) but the number of frames you get per second at any given resolution is down to the "horsepower" of the card.

If you are going 1080p high refresh you may actually want to get the RX 570 GPU. Decent but relatively inexpensive 144hz monitors like the AOC G2460PF will have freesync, so the 570 would let you take advantage of that.

What does it actually do? I read online but I'm not sure I get it. Basically it removes the need for V-Sync and therefore I'll get the extra frames which I'd lose if V-Sync was enabled. Is that it?

Edit: Also, the guy in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8kXpUQVs7Q&t=467s) goes on about how the RX 570 is supposedly cheaper but it is now more expensive than the 1060 3gb due to lack of supply. That only complicates things further.

It synchronises your monitor's refresh rate to the FPS output.

So if you're getting 80 fps, you get 80hz display.

Perhaps more advantageous is that if you get FPS drops, the gameplay can be a lot smoother.

Nice to know, thank you!

I'm reading all this stuff about crypto-currency mining, saying that's the reason the RX 570 and RX 580 are currently more expensive and unavailable (it's pre-order only on PCS).

Didn't something similar happen in the past with AMD? It seems every time I read about them there's some sort of shortage with their graphic cards.

I'm reading all this stuff about crypto-currency mining, saying that's the reason the RX 570 and RX 580 are currently more expensive and unavailable (it's pre-order only on PCS).

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pretty much

AMD's architecture is a lot better than Nvidia's for some things. e.g. mining.

But is it worth it? What is the downside of having a 144 hz screen with a game running at 90 fps?

Possibly tearing if the FPS doesn't match the refresh rate. hence freesync and gsync.

But in some games FPS will drop below 60 anyway so it's not like you magically avoid tearing by trying to limit yourself to 60hz.

Oussebon said:

AMD's architecture is a lot better than Nvidia's for some things. e.g. mining.

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AMD puts out drivers for mining. They want the miners to buy their cards.