Memory NOT on MFG's QVL

[Upgr8er]

Hey All.

I'm putting together a new system and I've narrowed it down to these two motherboards:

Asus P8Z77-V LK or the ASRock Z77 Extreme 4.

After reading a bunch of threads on builds with these two highly regarded boards I was planning on following the recommendations of the many that say not to waste money on higher than 1600 speed ram. I want to buy two 8 gig sticks of Corsair Vengence or Dominator (probably Vengence) but neither manufacturer is recommending anything close to what I'm looking for. Have QVLs become a "one hand washes the other" with the memory manufacturers to sell more expensive memory or am I in for problems if I go this route?

I'm sure I can get by with 8 gigs and I'm sure I'll never need more than 16 so 4x2 or 4x4 instead of 8x2 can work, but I don't want to go into the reasons for those choices in this thread. I just want to know if I should follow the QLV or if it's okay to ignore it as long as I get a good set of 1.5V 1600 speed ram.

Thanks.

 

[Coup27]

QVL for RAM is a load of bs. The spec is there for a reason and for Ivy Bridge it's as you say, 1600MHz 1.5v. If you stick to this criteria, then any quality RAM will work.

If you are sticking to 1600Mhz does that mean you are not overclocking the CPU either? If so, can you not save some cash by getting a H77 motherboard?

 

[Upgr8er]

Thanks for the quick response.

I can probably get by with less MB and CPU but I've done a lot of shopping and research and I'm close with some decisions made and don't mind a few extra bucks spent.

I usually do a mild overclock on my systems . . . but it was my understanding that the 1600 memory is fine overclocking or not. If I drive the CPU up to 3.9 (getting the I7-3770k) should I be looking at faster memory? That's not what I heard so far.

 

[Coup27]

Sorry, I can't help you on that. My interest in overclocking ended years ago and now I just build and run stock systems.