I am building a Threadripper 2990WX based workstation and i am going crazy , i dont know what RAM to choose.
I need 128GB of RAM for my build , at first i thought any RAM kit would be fine , but than i have been told only “AMD CERTIFIED” Kits are the go to for a threadripper build, than i heard any kit should be fine as long as it has “samsung bdie” , than i heard that only my motherboards QVL list memory is the way to go.
Im going crazy people , i need to get a (as much as possible) clear answer on what RAM kit i should buy.
Will any ram kit what so ever will do? will only “CERTIFIED” RAM for AMD do?
if it matters my motherboard is a X399 Gigabyte Aorus XTREME motherboard , i am planning to use 128GB on all 8 slots , so i want to know what ram to buy, if speed even matters , and if i can get any kit i want or anything specific? and will i even be able to run 8 DIMM’s at more than 2133MHZ?
to be honest the RAM part is the only thing keeping this build away from being done , so i really would love to get some answers on this one!
Any RAM should work no promises.
AMD Certified is meh, good if it happens to be but whatever.
Samsung BDie is the most stable and fastest typically.
QVL is assured to work at the speeds it says.
So the ideal would be RAM that’s on the QVL and Samsund B-Die but anything from the QVL is tested and working from the motherboard maker so that is definitely the way to go.
Edit: 2133 should be fine, but zen like faster memory which is where the various checks come in and Samsung B-Die rules. So shoot for the fastest thing in your budget in the QVL and you should be good to go.
I still didnt really understood what i should buy from your answer , i have seen tons of builds using whatever kits they want - do i have to buy a kit that is off my QVL or just anything will be fine?
i know ryzen likes fast memory , but i cant seem to find anything that is actually purchasable from my QVL list, and also from my QVL List - 128GB on 8 dimm’s only runs at 2133 MHZ , so if ill buy anything higher than this speed it wont boot?
If I’m not mistaken that’s only for single ranked sticks.
It will post and boot but run on AUTO settings. You could buy DDR4-4600 RAM and still only get 2133MHz out of it (or worst case: 1866MHz for dual ranked memory).
I’m on an AM4 mobo with 3200MHz RAM but when I installed it and entered the UEFI it showed up as 2400MHz.
Yes, in general the more ram sticks I stalled the slower the over all speed it will run at. So with 8 sticks 2133 is probably the fastest that itnis going to get.
Corsair Vengeance LPX 8x 16GB ( CMK128GX4M8A2666C16 ) is on your QVL and can be found for $1000.
It’s 2666MHz but Dual Ranked. But I don’t see the benefit of paying more for higher speeds when you might never be able to use it without spending lots of time figuring out the speeds and timings it can run stable on.
Well I just purchased ryzen 2700x with Crosshair Hero VII MBO and G.Skill Ripjavs V 14CL @3200MHz and 2x16GB and it was a bust for me. Exchanged for Corsair vengeance LPX @3000MHz and it is good so far (few days.)
For all I can tell, the gist seems to be “any kit can work, but stick to the QVL”.
That said, there’s always the possibility of a kit having a faulty stick.
The easiest way would probably be to look up 8x 16GB SR kits where ever you want to buy them and then check to see if they’re on the QVL (search function in your pdf viewer).
You can get the part number from PCPartPicker.com.
So far I’ve run 2 x99 ram kits (8x16G - 128G) with my 2990xw
Gskill Ripjaws V 3000C15
Gskill TridentZ 3200C14
In both cases, all dimms would only run at 2933C14 with the bios I had - though I see a new bios is available and specifically targets ram compatibility enhancements.
Getting 2666 was not a challenge at all with the MSI MEG MB. See above - I was able to use the XMP BIOS profile to get 2933 and then improve timings even further to C14 @2933
Where did you buy these kits and how much did you pay? How long has your system been running stable @ 2933MHZ? How much of a risk would it be to buy those kits for my X399 Aorus XTREME? And which kit would you recommend buying?
I bought these kits some time ago - they were around $800-900 if memory serves from newegg at the time.
I’ve been running one or the other since 2990xw launch (Late Oct/Early Sept?). I started with the tridentZ initially and then switched to the ripjaws V about one month later when it became clear I was not going to get either to run at 3000 or above. While it would boot/run and test with 4 dimms at 3200C14 with 8 dimms it would not post at anything above 2933 with either the ripjaws V or tridentZ kit.
The tridentZ is a better kit between the two - both are X99 kits so, if there are TR QVL supported kits, I’d lean towards trying those first as a better option - I just already had these kits available.
As far as the Aorus, I can’t speak to its memory compatibility, so I’d make sure to purchase anything not on QVL from someone with a good return policy.
My suggestion is to strictly stick to the QLV memory list, down to the revision of the kit.
Also keep in mind that comes also to the luck of the draw if you’re going to be able to run higher speed than rated on the QLV. Everything above AMD specs it’s an overclock so it’s not guaranteed to work.
Don’t overstress and do what the manual tells you to do. To improve your chances of achieving higher clocks be sure to buy a Samsung B-die memory kit, still part of the QLV list.
