Asus Maximus IV Extreme (Sandy Bridge)

[Scuba Steve]

ASUS' QVL is very thin so far.

Hoping G.SKILL Support will respond by posting their list of RAM kits they have tested & approved with this Sandy Bridge board.

[GSKILL TECH]

RipJaws X

They will all work with this motherboard. Too bad a lot of high end kits are out of stock.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Scuba Steve]

Thank you for your above reply!

I've narrowed my search to Ripjaws X's, but must ask which is faster/better:

F3-17600CL7D-4GBXHD 2 X 2GB at 7-10-10-27-2N (2200's) or

F3-17600CL9D-8GBXLD 2 X 4GB at 9-11-9-28-2N (2200's).

In other words which is faster/better, 4 gigs of Cas7 vs. 8 gigs of Cas9 ?

Also, the Asus Maximus IV Extreme's manual says that DDR3 2200's run @ 2133.

Do DDR3 2133 also run @ 2133 or do they get similarly throttled down like the 2200's ?
(example: F3-17000CL9Q-16GBXLD 4 X 4GB at 9-11-9-28-2N (2133's))
Thank you in advance!

[GSKILL TECH]

CL7 is always faster and better, but if you run out of available memory, your computer is going to lag.

With CL9, overall latency will be a tad slower, but you will not run out of memory as fast.

It's up to you, depending on your specific needs.

The DDR3-2200 will operate at DDR3-2133 since that is the closest available option. You then need to overclock the base clock to reach the full DDR3-2200.

The DDR3-2133 will not downclock since that exact option is readily available to select.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Scuba Steve]

I really appreciate your teaching a newbie (me) some of the technicals of RAM.

On a not so technical question, where does one look up the installed height of G.Skill RAM?

The reason I ask is that my CPU cooler has 44 mm of vertical clearance in which to squeeze the nearest stick of ram.

How tall is this part? F3-17600CL7D-4GBXHD

Will it fit under a Noctua NH-D14 ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Several of my friends are also looking to buy Ripjaws X's

Are all the same height? And if not, can you please send a link with this spec?

[GSKILL TECH]

40mm tall, so no problem clearing the NH-D14. All RipJaws and RipJaws X are 40mm tall, so they clear most CPU coolers.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Scuba Steve]

G.Skill just earned a pair of orders (via Newegg) because the Ripjaws X's fit under the D14.

We thank you for your quick and personal response!

[Scuba Steve]

Well, I have all four sticks (2 pairs of F3-17600CL7D-4GBXHD 2 X 2GB) installed. CPU-Z and the bios reports all four sticks running at 9-9-9-24-2 @ 1333 Mhz and I am assuming that is normal default timings. I have never overclocked anything, but I am learning. The original plan was to run these at 7-10-10-27 @ 2200 Mhz as advertised on Newegg. (yes I know Sandy Bridge will throttle that down to 2133Mhz) A coworker alerted me to a customer review about how Zarin was unable to use XMP to increase his RAM to the advertised performance level. I am going to attempt this on my own, but must ask why GSkill did not publish a legal disclaimer on Newegg? If I can not tune all four sticks of RAM up to their advertised level of performance, how do I return them please?
-Scuba Steve

[GSKILL TECH]

The Sandybridge can support DDR3-2200, if you have DDR3-2200 modules, you can enable XMP and it will automatically do all the settings for you.

The issue you have is that you purchased 4GB kits, so they are only guaranteed to operate 4GB. Plug them all in and see if XMP can handle them all.

As far as returns, simply contact your original place of purchase.

I would suggest this instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...l%202200%208gb

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Onslaught2k3]

I looked in to the ripjaws x modules and are the very few performance kits available for the maximus 4 extreme. Given you run those modules at spec (fan mounted on) I think they'd be a good way to go for RAM. I'm grabbing the DDR3-2133 2x4GB CL9-10-9-27 kit (I think) tomorrow at a local retailer.