The RAM dilema

[Kaitel]

Hi all, I'm looking for some expert advice about my RAM choice and any experiences with the 1600 kingston ram, the dilema is that the 8gb 1600 kingston ram (4x2) is only 1 quid cheaper than the standard 8gb 1333 (2x4), so I figured it was a no brainer when i ordered to go for the higher and possibly better made kingston xmp choice...
However while I've been waiting in the queue i've found some posts on here and elsewhere that suggest 1600 is a less stable frequency, perhaps causing crashes that may not present themselves in a short period of quality control testing. Any truth to this or is it only a slightly higher risk?
I'm not planning to overclock straight away but it's nice to have the option at a latter date so I thought the higher speed would be better, but if it's gonna cause any stability issues before i even overclock i'd rather just have a stable system.
Basically I'd like to know if anyone has had any lockup problems using the kingston ram and if it's worth me changing to the 1333 standard rather than have problems down the line? Also the standard 1333 is only 2 sticks instead of 4 which i hear is generally better but by how much.
I'm using my system mainly for gaming, WoW, Company of Heroes and looking forward to Shogun Total War 2 when it finally gets finished.
A few miliseconds wont make much difference really if its at the cost of stability, so for a quid either way which is the way I should go ya think, 1600 or 1333?
Also I know many of you are down on the Killer network card, as the jury is out on them, so before you tell me to lose that dont bother, I like the various options and had the 1st killer card in my old system and it gave a slight boost I feel, perhaps placebo but still.

Case
ANTEC NINE HUNDRED TWO - UK, The Ultimate Gaming Case, Evolved
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-870 Quad Core (2.93GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55D-E PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ / SLI SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
1.5TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD15EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£99)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£59)
Sound Card
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium PCI Express (£59)
Network Facilities
Bigfoot Killer 2100 PCI-E Gigabit LAN Card - Max Performance Online Gaming (£69)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

 

[Phoenix]

You can run it at 1333mhz by disabling Xtreme Memory Profile in the BIOS and it won't run at 1600mhz.

 

[Kaitel]

When you put it like that, it doesnt seem much of a dilema does it, heh.
But then aren't its timings messed up or something, sorry dont really know much about RAM apart from what i'm trying to figure out fast.
Anyway, youd go with the kingston 1600 too then seeing as its only a quid more? I'm sure I've seen you advocating the 1333 on other threds, thought you were getting commission on each one they sold?

 

[Phoenix]

Hehe no, while I, Sleinous and Rakk may be moderators we don't get paid for helping people we just like doing it and want to help PCSpecialist grow ^_^
The timings shouldn't be messed up but I'd go with the 1333mhz RAM unless I was ordering an overclocked system. The timings of the Kingston RAM aren't particularly fast and the latency is quite high so there's no real performance difference between the two. The best thing to do would be to leave XMP enabled when you get the PC and if there's any problems you can just disable it but it should be fine.

 

[PCS]

Just to help clear things up here regarding 1600MHz and 1333MHz.

1333MHz is the standard speed and therefore ultimately the most stable speed, but it's very rare that 1600MHz or 1333MHz fails, and therefore select which memory you wish to have. 1600MHz is marginally faster, we're probably talking milliseconds for most tasks, but every little helps.

Either way, the memory is 100% tested by the manufacturer and then by us, so don't worry too much about it failing, just worry about killing your opponents on WoW.

 

[Kaitel]

Hmm, thanks for both your advice, feeling better about my choice now, think I'll stick with the Kingston, if nothing else it'll look slightly better in my see through case.
Oh they wont stand a chance in WoW, if only it could make winning at poker on PKR easier, although I did manage to come 1st in a freeroll this time last year out of over 2000 runners and won $2200 bucks, probably lost more than that since though, easy come easy go I guess, at least this time I'll have a killer rig to show for my money huh

 

[PCS]

...think I'll stick with the Kingston, if nothing else it'll look slightly better in my see through case.

You would be surprised ow many people probably choose advanced components because of this.

It's just like selecting a graphics card that's got more memory, even though you know it's a lower performing card than the other with less memory. I've been guilty of it myself too!

 

[Kaitel]

Well yeah, it seems such a close call over a quid that the looks were just the tie breaker ya know, I wouldn't choose looks over performance normally, not in a computer anyway, but probably in a girlfriend!

 

[Sleinous]

Can I be an extreme pain and point out something regarding the new network ca..... no i wont Yes glad youre feeling a little more at ease with the ram selection now

 

[Kaitel]

I imagine you'd say the network card has little effect if any, especially with uk internet connections. Probably true, but for 69 quid I'm willing to take the gamble just incase. Plus it has more options and monitoring software to play about with, also I think it will help downloading while playing games at the same time.
If you were gonna say something more serious than that then feel free, I'd rather base my decision on all available info, even if I do still ignore your warning

 

[Gorman]

Killer NIC eh?

The card that claims to boost performance through bypassing the windows network stack and substituting it with its own.

No doubt in some scenarios there is a proven benefit for these cards. However anyone would have a tough time convincing me the benefits went beyond the local LAN.

 

[Kaitel]

well, i'm not gonna try and convince anyone, just delude myself perhaps.
Benchmarks seem to show very minor gains, as long as it's no worse then I'll be happy, also the largest of these small gains seems to be in WoW that I play alot on, sometimes even a fraction of a second can mean the difference between victory or my elven head on a smug horde's platter

 

[Sleinous]

yup as ive said before, if youre ping is bad on your external line you can buy as many of those NICs as u want, it jusssst wont help

Edit: The benchmarks are probably done on leased T1 lines lol..

 

[Gorman]

Simple fact is that as soon as you leave the local network then all benefit is lost.

 

[Kaitel]

"you can buy as many of those NICs as u want, it jusssst wont help"
Yeah i'll just buy the one thanks
There has been some positive feedback from average gamers too for WoW and maybe i'll get a better connection one day.
Perhaps i'll get round to running some tests and let you know if I can find an improvement or not over the onboard.

 

[Sleinous]

Please do

Id never get one because i cant use it even if i wanted to lolz, on wireless