I have the following system:
- Intel Core i7 6700
- Asus Z170 based motherboard
- SSD Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB + 2TB WD Blue HDD
- 16 GB (2×8 GB) DDR4 RAM Corsair (up to 3000 MHz)
I've built this system on mid spring 2016.
Like you've probably noticed I don't have a GPU and I have a non k processor.
So I want to ask an advice: should I leave the DDR4 RAM frequency at 2133 MHz or it would be better increase to 3000 MHz thanks to the Z170 motherboard to obtain the maximum of performance?
EDIT:
I'm a electronic engineering student, and this system is a geniuine Windows 10 Pro and I use this pc principally for music (like Adobe Audition, Cubase some vst plugin for guitar and bass) and browsing or Office 2016.
I came from a 2007 Core Duo Duo and in this two year I haven't had big problems, but I was qondering if increasing DRAM frequency cuold improve performances (expecially in audio editing).
Also, my DDR4 RAM kit supports 3000 MHz overclock but I haven't set the XMP profile on BIOS. Should I increase the frequency?
Thank you very much. :).
Best Answer
You havent stated what you use your computer for, however, higher speed RAM is rarely worth the premium price. The speed benefit for general computer usage is often not user noticeable.
If you are a gamer, your benchmarks will be higher. However, you wont notice a few more frames per second (FPS), when most graphics cards can exceed what is noticeable by the human eye. Check out this one gamers comparison of 2133MHz and 3000MHz RAM. He concluded it wasnt really worth the extra cost.
In reality, higher frequency RAM will only shine in tasks that are very memory intensive over a long period of time. Most home users arent running high transaction databases or data modeling on their home computers.
Considering you have 16GB of RAM already and a SSD, save the money and buy a better GPU if youre a gamer.