How To Select Ram For A Gaming Computer …
RAM – Random Access Memory – is one of the easiest things to overlook in a gaming computer. After all, you’ve got processors and video cards to worry about! But, RAM is, far and away, one of the most important components of any good gaming machines. , and selecting RAM isn’t as easy as you might think.
While you might be able to buy a low-end processor and low-end motherboard, you probably don’t want to skimp on RAM – the more RAM you have the better performance you’ll get out of your machine.
Types
RAM comes in a variety of types, sizes, and speeds. If you’re following our How to Build a Gaming Computer guide, then you’ve already got a processor and motherboard picked out. If you don’t, I suggest you read those guides (or at least the motherboard guide), as knowing these bits of information make selecting RAM much easier.
Click Here to read How to Select a Processor
Click Here to read How to Select a Motherboard
If you already have your motherboard picked out, then you know the RAM you’re going to buy! The motherboard has several specs that will tell you what the optimal memory component is. There are usually several differences, but they generally fall into these categories:
- RDRAM, also known as Rambus RAM, is pretty expensive (per megabyte) versus other types of RAM and is generally not used in the consumer market, although you may see it in higher-end motherboards.
- DDR, DDR2, DDR3 are the more common types of RAM. DDR is an outdated technology. DDR2 is the current standard, but that is slowly being replaced with DDR3. While DDR3 is the latest technology, its performance isn’t currently up to par with the top of the line DDR2 (but this will change pretty quickly).
Check your motherboard specs – it should list four important pieces of information:
- Memory type, which is RDRAM, DDR, DDR2, or DDR3. If it’s another type, you’ve either bought a high-end server motherboard or a really old motherboard.
- Memory speed, which is typically represented in MHz. common speeds include 500, 600, 667, 1033, etc…
- Memory size, which represents the amount of memory your particular motherboard supports. This is usually represented in GB (Gigabytes) as 1, 2, 3, 4, 16, 32, etc… Currently, 4GB and 8GB are the standard, but 16GB and 32GB standards are not far behind.
- Number of modules tells you how many sticks of RAM can be used. Typically a motherboard will hold anywhere from 1 to 4 sticks of RAM (and some high-end server motherboards can support upwards of 32 sticks of RAM!)
Go Big or Go Home
While building a gaming system on a tight budget is doable, you do not want to skimp on the amount of memory your system is going to hold. If you’re going to build a gaming machine, but only put 512MB of RAM in it, you might as well be using a Commodore 64. At a minimum get 2GB of RAM, and if your motherboard supports it, get more.
Recommended Memory
Tight Budget
Corsair 2048MB DDR2 667MHz – $79.99 – If you’re following our guide, you may have noticed that we’re building three separate machines. This 2-pack of 1GB memory will fit the tight budget motherboard and max out its memory. Plus, it’s clocked at 667MHz, the fastest memory speed the motherboard supports.
Average Budget
Patriot Extreme 4096MB DDR2 800MHz – $219.99 – Don’t let the sticker-shock turn you off: a large capacity of high-speed RAM is crucial to good gaming rig. This 4GB of RAM clocks in at a blistering 800MHz. And, the package leaves room for two more sticks, in case you decide to upgrade to a 64-bit operating system and want to increase your memory to 8GB.
Big Budget
Corsair XMS2 4096MB DDR2 800MHz – $314.99 – OK so you don’t NEED this RAM for the Big Budget gaming computer (you could get away with the Average Budget RAM), but this particular 4GB RAM has low latencies, ensuring peak performance, and attached memory heat sinks, for cooling considerations.
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