ASUS M4A78T-E and Ripjaw memory.

[Aberration]

Support;

I currently have an ASUS M4A78T-E motherboard, with an AMD 720BE CPU.

I'm going to upgrade the CPU to an AMD 960T BE, and while I'm at it, I'd like to upgrade the memory.

The M4A78T-E, per ASUS's website, will support DDR3 1600 ram, however your website doesn't indicate that you have a 4GB x 2 (8GB) memory available in a DDR3 1600.

Would the F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL or F3-12800CL9D-8GBXM be suitable for this motherboard and CPU combo?

Thanks for your assistance!!!

[Tradesman]

Either set should work and having 2 sticks instead of 4 might help the 960's MC carry them at 1600 since it will be less stress on the MC. There's a sticky to help set up 1600 sticks on AMD here:

http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=7688

If problems at running 1600, can drop to 1333 and tighten timings for near same performance

[Aberration]

Thanks Tradesman!

Would there be any advantage in the RipjawX over the Ripjaw series, or is it a case of 6 of 1 or a 1/2 dozen of the other?

[Tradesman]

The X model is lower voltage 1.35, which generally indicates stronger memory chips/ICs used, it can provide a little more leeway in OCing if you try and take the DRAM faster. The regular Ripjaws (F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL) listed and the Snipers (F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR) not-listed are both good sets for AMD also and cost a little less $5-6 per set

[Aberration]

Ok, so the Ripjaw is 1.5V, the RipjawX is 1.35V, and the Sniper is 1.25V.

All 3 use the same memory timings.

http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=390

Keeping cost aside, as the cost between 44.00 and 50.00 isn't going to break the bank, would you then go for the Sniper, since it has the lowest voltage?

(Obviously I'm looking at pricing from Newegg)

[Aberration]

I'm going to assume any of the 3 will be a substantial improvement over the 4GB of the OCZ memory I have installed now: http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-ddr...ition-eol.html

[Tradesman]

The Snipers I listed are 1.5 (F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR), believe you looked at the 1.25, F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR2, diff being the '2' on the end of the model #.....where you'll see a substantial performance is in memory intensive, multi-tasking, etc scenarios, where more DRAM will make a difference...the sticks you have are CL7 while the GSkill sticks are CL9 which clock for clock is a bit slower, though you can usually tighten the timings with the low voltage sticks to CL8 or possibly tighter at 1600 by increasing DRAM voltage, for a native CL7 set at 1600 you'd be looking towards the F3-12800CL7D-8GBXH, F3-12800CL7D-8GBRH or F3-12800CL7D-8GBSR, which at 8GB your CPU might be able to handle (also these are in the ($100-$110 range). Overall though I think you'll be more than happy with the selections suggested earlier

[Aberration]

Thanks for the information... This isn't a hardcore machine, obviously... The motherboard is several years old, as well as the CPU. The memory was pretty good when it was purchased, but 8GB several years ago was darn expensive to build.

I'm just looking for a nice, cost effective, upgrade until better financial times let me build a new system.

I've got the current 720BE OC'd to 3.36GHZ. I'm hoping to be able to OC the 960T to 3.8GHZ. If I can unlock an extra 2 cores like many have been fortunate enough to do, even better.

I think I'll give the Sniper low voltage series a shot...

[Tradesman]

Let us know how it goes