Fastest DDR3 memory I can buy for Z77 motherboard?

[fpbear]

I have an Asus Sabertooth Z77 motherboard and I'm upgrading all of the other components to get the max life out of it without having to change the motherboard (already have SSDs, fast quad CPU, great MSI nVidia card, etc). I would like to make the Windows UI feel more "snappy" which I know can be achieved with faster RAM.

My current RAM is 16GB of 2x Corsair Vengeance Blue 8 GB (2X4 GB) PC3-12800 1600mHz DDR3 240-Pin SDRAM Dual Channel Memory Kit CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004QBUL1C/ref=pe_175190_21431760_A1_cs_sce_dp_2

I was thinking about bumping it up to 32GB with 2x Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1866 MHZ (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory (CMZ16GX3M2A1866C10)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007TG91WQ/ref=psdc_172500_t3_B004CRSM52

But on the Corsair website, I see there are even newer DDR3 memory sticks available, and I am not sure if those would be even better, and if they would even work on my motherboard (their website says they work on all DDR3 motherboards)?

If I stick with what's in the old Asus tested compatibility list and go with the product mentioned above, I am not sure if the 1866mHz RAM would feel faster than the existing 1600mHz, since the timing numbers are a little bit slower on the 1866mHz product.

I would continue to use the XMP profile in BIOS. Otherwise I am not into overclocking (beyond safe settings like XMP) since this PC is also used for video surveillance recording and needs to be reliable. Right now it is rock solid running 24/7.

Motherboard:
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_Z77/specifications/

RAM Compatibility list (outdated, probably doesn't include newer products):
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/SABERTOOTH_Z77/SABERTOOTH-Z77-Memory-QVL.pdf

Corsair DDR3 offerings:
http://www.corsair.com/en-us/memory/vengeance?heatspreader=Vengeance|&memorytype=DDR3|

 

[bigboxes]

I'd say you would be flushing your money down the toilet. I can't imagine that swapping that ram out with faster memory would change in any way how Windows feels. As long as you have a modern cpu and an SSD and 16gb of ram I think you are at your limit for the given platform. Could you? Yes. Worth it? No way you'd ever recoup your cost in "feel". You'd be running benchmarks all day on your days off trying to justify your purchase. Now, if you need more ram that's different, but faster memory at this point would not be a good investment, IMHO.

Edit: Not to mention that your next platform will most likely not be using DDR3.

 

[LTC8K6]

I'd say you would be flushing your money down the toilet. I can't imagine that swapping that ram out with faster memory would change in any way how Windows feels. As long as you have a modern cpu and an SSD and 16gb of ram I think you are at your limit for the given platform. Could you? Yes. Worth it? No way you'd ever recoup your cost in "feel". You'd be running benchmarks all day on your days off trying to justify your purchase. Now, if you need more ram that's different, but faster memory at this point would not be a good investment, IMHO.

Edit: Not to mention that your next platform will most likely not be using DDR3.

I concur. Not going to make a noticeable difference.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, waste of money. Faster RAM is really only beneficial to graphics, if you are using the iGPU. Since you're using a discrete GPU, it really won't matter much. Minute percentages in gaming benchmarks maybe. I really can't quite imagine that it would make any level of noticeable difference in Windows' UI "snappiness".

Edit: If it's currently stable, and you have enough RAM for what you use the PC for, then I would save your money and leave well enough alone.

 

[fpbear]

Good advice. Yes the reason is I'm looking to expand to 32GB because the system is using around 10GB when the computer is idle (probably mostly for background video recording to hard drive) and then when I open applications (to process, edit the video etc.) I have 6GB to work with.

When I get the 32GB modules I could get the same I have now, or go with a slightly faster timing. Corsair also has the "pro" series DDR3 and not sure if that is compatible and which one to get.

 

[lehtv]

But are you actually using up all your RAM and noticing slowdowns?

 

[bigboxes]

Do you ever hit the wall, performance-wise? My computer idles right now at 7.15GB of ram usage. No video recording to hard drive. Memory is cheap at the moment. You could load up if you really think you need it. I would test you machine out. Do the things you normally do with that video recording to the hard drive in the background before you make that decision.

However, I read that Haswell doesn't really benefit much from faster ram speeds while Skylake does. So, I went with the tightest timings I could get. I paid a premium for it when ram was not this cheap. But that was my decision when I put my main rig together a year ago.

 

[fpbear]

Yes I use up all the RAM when I do video editing when the surveillance camera captures something of interest and I export the video, it slows down, feels like it is paging to disk sometimes when I use certain editing features.

I originally got 16GB rather than 32GB because memory used to be so expensive back then.

Now I am confused which Corsair memory to get because they have the "pro" line and others which all sound compatible as long as it is DDR3, but they are not on the Asus compatibility list (simply because Asus stopped updating that list a while ago, not because they are not compatible). So amongst these I am not sure which is the fastest.

 

[bigboxes]

I would just get the cheapest ram you can get that's DDR3 1600. As I said before, you are just paying for e-peen, not actually usable performance with that higher speed ram (for the Z77 chipset). It seems that you are sticking with Corsair. I would just get the least expensive name brand memory.

Here's a 32GB kit (4 x 8GB DDR3 1600) from Crucial (and it's blue!): http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Balli...173&sr=1-23&keywords=Corsair+32GB+ddr3+memory

If it doesn't work then you can easily ship it back to Amazon for a replacement or swap out another SKU. Asus's approved vendor list is short. Most major brands have been tested to work by the ram makers. Asus just doesn't spend the resources to check out each and every model.