G.Skill RAM question for ASRock Extreme3 mobo

[camerajam]

Hi everyone -- Had a quick question I'm hoping you can help me with...

I have a ASRock 870 Extreme3 on the way, which I'll be outfitting with an Phenom II X4 925.

I was originally planning a Sandy Bridge build and bought G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series RAM -- designed "specifically for 967 motherboards" (Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBXL)

The closest G.SKILL RAM that ASRock recommends for the Extreme3 on their website is the F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ memory (Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ)

I have an RMA number and can return the Ripjaws X Series to Newegg with no hassel.

Question is if I should swap out the RAM, or stick with the Ripjaws X. I can't tell any difference by looking at the specs, and I understand that generally RAM is RAM and either should work -- but I'm wary of using RAM not specifically recommended by ASRock for their board...

Thanks for any advice!

[DamnationZeRO]

Hi there. I own the AsRock 870 Extreme 3 Motherboard myself and can offer a little insight on some issues I ran into with the G.Skill memory. I didn't use either one of the memories you listed but I did use this (Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL). It's also a G.Skill product that wasn't on their QVL list. To be honest I had NOTHING but issues with this G.Skill ram and this motherboard. The ram passed many many hours of memtest86 yet I still had random bluescreens from day one of building my new computer. Naturally since the ram passed I assumed it had to be something else and lets just say a couple windows installs later, hardware swaps and probably a 100 hours wasted on researching the issue only to realize it was the ram all along. I switched to some Corsair memory (Newegg.com - CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) and haven't had one single issue since.

For whatever reason the AsRock board at least in my case seems to HATE G.Skill ram, or the ram hates it not sure what yet :P. If you do decide to try what you have my only advice is make sure ALL the timings are properly detected in bios, not just the main 4 timings. I noticed with everything set on auto the board was using timings 1-2 different than what they should be on a couple other timings. Once I did that the issue got a lot less worse with the G.Skill ram but I still had blue screens upon cold boot with that ram. I guess it's possible the ram was still defective even though it could seriously run for 24 hours passing memtest flawlessly but I don't know! I just mailed the ram back to them to see what they say two days ago.

Sorry for the long post I figured I'd offer my experience with similar ram and this motherboard. While researching I did find many other posts especially on G.Skill forums with issues with this board and their ram so just an FYI. Best of luck on your build! Oh and one last thing, make sure any 1600 DDR3 ram you install is installed in the two blue slots (further away from the cpu) as per motherboard manual recommendation.

[camerajam]

Thanks DamnationZeRO -- Much appreciated, and exactly the advice I was looking for. I'm not attached to G.Skill at all; just saw it in a recommended build a while back. The Corsair you recommended looks pretty sweet, so I'll probably grab some of that.

Thanks again!

[camerajam]

And another question... Can I run just one of those 4 GB sticks of CORSAIR Vengeance? Or do I need to get a matching pair? I only need 4 GB at the moment, and I'm not seeing any 2x2GB options...

[DamnationZeRO]

And another question... Can I run just one of those 4 GB sticks of CORSAIR Vengeance? Or do I need to get a matching pair? I only need 4 GB at the moment, and I'm not seeing any 2x2GB options...

You can definitely run only one but in that case your ram will only be operating at single channel speeds so your memory bandwidth will effectively be cut in half D:

[camerajam]

Gotcha...

These Kingston HyperX look to be compatible - at least the Kingston site has a very similar model number listed.

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9AD3K2/4G
Newegg.com - Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9AD3K2/4G

There is also their XMS version of the same thing for $30 more, but that seems to be an Intel thing - so I'm guessing these will be okay.

I sure do like the look of the Vengeance though. Tempted to go ahead and get a full 8GB...

[Flytyer06076]

I had the problem that DZero had. Skill said to bump the voltage up .1 volt to 1.60. They say this is almost always necessary with AMD MB,s. I have not had a single problem since and I have 16GB of memory on a 890FX Deluxe 4.

[DamnationZeRO]

I actually boosted the voltage up and still ended up having issues with them :(. GLad it worked for you though :D. I am actually happy it worked out how it did, even if it was insanely frustrating for awhile! Nothing more difficult then diagnosing an incredibly random BSOD that could literally be caused by any hardware or software issue lol. I'm really happy I went ahead and got the 8gb so I'm a little more future proof and plus the corsair memory really does look awesome :P I used G.Skill in my AM2 build from a couple years ago and never had a single issue, that's part of the reason I choose them again, just didn't pan out this time.

[camerajam]

Thanks to you both for the info. Just want some good gaming RAM that I know will work from the get go.

[secured2k]

I generally use Mushkin Performance RAM but I have used G.Sill RAM on both Intel and AMD builds without a problem. Since the memory controller for new CPUs is integrated, most of the incompatibility is a combination of BIOS/CPU/Power issues (voltages/timing).

However, as I think about, "without a problem" comes from me using other specific hardware and manual controls of the memory voltages and timings in my builds. I have never really tested just using the full Auto/Stock speeds.

I used a memory test from EUroSoft PC-Check which tends to find errors that other testing programs miss. Oddly enough sometimes I've had errors that magically disappear by just re-seating the memory!? (Stable with 24+ Hour memory burn-in test with uTL Micro-topology tests)