[rtate]

I decided to get the Inrel core i3 2120 and ASRock H77 Pro4-m combination for my htpc.
I see that the mother board supports DDR3 1600 ram where the CPU only supports DDR3 1333.

Should I buy the DDR3 1600 ram anyway and will I have to make any changes in the system to make this work??

[assassin]

No. It will run at the lower clock speed just fine.

[rtate]

Thanks assassin, By "No" do you mean I should not use the 1600 ram?
I was thinking that if I ever up grade the cpu that,then I would need it....

[assassin]

Use 1600. Sorry for the confusion.

[rtate]

Thanks for clearing that up..
I just read in eskro's sticky for building you very first htpc in post #1 reagrding an i3 build

" ** i3-2105 CPU should be used with DDR3-1066MHz or DDR3-1333MHz memory sticks only ** "

What is the reason for this. and is the i3 2120 different somehow??

[assassin]

Thanks for clearing that up..
I just read in eskro's sticky for building you very first htpc in post #1 reagrding an i3 build

" ** i3-2105 CPU should be used with DDR3-1066MHz or DDR3-1333MHz memory sticks only ** "

What is the reason for this. and is the i3 2120 different somehow??

Because many things in that sticky are incorrect especially regarding the Intel options.

You can use a DDR3 1600 stick just fine and it will run at 1333 on a Sandy Bridge non-Z68 (H67, H61) motherboard or with a Sandy Bridge CPU. But since you are using an Ivy Bridge chipset motherboard (aka "Panther") you should be able to use 1600 speed ram at that speed. This is the same if you were using your i3 with a Z68 motherboard.

[Nimo]

i use 2133 ram(1600 overclocked) with i5-2500k igp on an asrock z77 pro4. and it works fine. the more bandwidth performs great. for my next htpc i ordered 2x4gb 2133 cl11 for 54€. i don´t need it but i like it

[bznotins]

RAM speed means extremely little in the overall performance equation. Better to save money and buy slower RAM and use the extra $ on other aspects.

That said, if the 1600 is cheap and a brand name with a good reputation, it won't hurt anything.

[assassin]

i use 2133 ram(1600 overclocked) with i5-2500k igp on an asrock z77 pro4. and it works fine. the more bandwidth performs great.

That's good to know.

Anandtech did a review of RAM for Sandy Bridge and found DDR3 1600 to be the sweet spot.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy...est-ddr3/8

The sweet spot appears to be at DDR3-1600, where you will see a minor performance increase over DDR3-1333 with only a slight increase in cost. The performance increase gained by going up to DDR3-1866 or DDR3-2133 isn't nearly as pronounced.

[Nimo]

the mhz isnt the expensive problem, the cas latency is expensive. 1600 CL9 cost 43€. and 10€ for more power is not to much i think.
2133 CL9 cost 70€. so i take the middle between cheap and expensive. more bandwidth is even better

[assassin]

the mhz isnt the expensive problem, the cas latency is expensive. 1600 CL9 cost 43€. and 10€ for more power is not to much i think.
2133 CL9 cost 70€. so i take the middle between cheap and expensive. more bandwidth is even better

Only very marginally better, according to Anandtech which is almost certainly meaningless for typical HTPC use.

[Nimo]

for a little bit more money you get a little bit more power 25,6 vs 34 gb/s. both is usable. everyone has to decide this for themselves.

[Dougie Fresh]

This article examines memory speed impact on various tests performed with the SandyBridge CPUs when they first came out: http://techreport.com/articles.x/20377/1

[SavellM]

I have the 2120t processor.
But have 1333 ram as I wanted low voltages.

Ram doesnt have too much of an effect on HTPC as its no all that resource hungry.
Especially if you run a linux flavour.

[bznotins]

for a little bit more money you get a little bit more power 25,6 vs 34 gb/s. both is usable. everyone has to decide this for themselves.

Higher RAM bandwidth means virtually nothing in real-world applications. If you're buying the RAM to perform well in benchmarks, then go for it.

It's true that everyone has to decide for themselves.

At the end of a day, most everyday users would realize the greatest improvement in real-world performance by reallocating every dollar they can to get an SSD. Anand called SSDs the single most impactful upgrade a user can make.

This coming from a user (me!) who runs 32GB of quad-channel RAM in my gaming rig and noticed zero real-world difference in performance.