Maximum PC

Happy New Year everyone!!
Got a new Mobo and cpu for Christmas!!!!
Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe, and Intel i73770. I also got more non Asus recommended 1600mhz Kinginton Mem 32GB.
I currently run my i860 with 1333mhz mem. I work at Frys Electronics and can return the 1600 mem for credit. The only Asus recommended mem we sell is a 32gb Corsair Memory running at 1866. We sell faster memory in 16gb kits (as high as 2600 that are very close to the model numbers listed by Asus, but not exact match, though the specs are exactly the same, and some are very close.
I do some heavy gaming once in a while, some movie encoding, and picture editing, working with large files, 10-50gb's, and running a lot of virtual OS's.
Do I get faster non recommended mem at 16gb (4x4) or slower recommended (but faster than what I got now), but more quantity, 32gb (8x4)??
I can go the buy, try, return, but will I risk the mobo, or mem?
Thanks for some advise here!!

I have to ask this question: Do you really use all that RAM? And if so, is that RAM actually being used, or is it there to hold a program in idle? Say for instance you pause your game by alt+tabbing out and go work on your VM. You can free up RAM by closing the game you know. In any case, most motherboards in the mainstream market only support up to 32GB. And I find that a tough sale even with your stated usage.

However one thing I will say is anything beyond DDR3-1600 is a waste of money.

Thanks for the replies.
I asked this because I do not really know much about differences in rams speeds. Or what difference the speed makes in real life usage, and the same for how much ram is enough. You read a lot in upgrade articles that the cheapest and best upgrade is more ram. But how much is too much? What speed is fast enough for the speed of the CPU and chipset, so that there is as little bottleneck as possible. That is within a reasonable value to performance ratio.
That ram link to a samsung stick. No heat spreaders, $30 a stick now. nice specs but why is that a value?
I do not need more SSD's, Got a Revodrive PCI ssd and a fast 240gb sata iii ssd, a couple 2tb, so I'm good on that front.
Thanks again, more input is better than none!

If you browse various hardware review websites, what comes out of them in regards to RAM speed is you get virtually no performance benefit. While you could also point at the timings, timings are in clock cycles, and they usually go down in time as it gets faster.

But again, are you even using that much RAM? Like, actually using? It doesn't count if your programs are idling.

kleinkinstein Thanks for the links. Most helpful.
Those sticks look good, Frys does not stock them. Amazon does, but at $30 a stick, They sell very similar stick for $40 a pair. Are they the same? If you were to pick ram from frys what would you suggest?

no mushkin at frys, they mostly handle patriot, a local company to the frys headquarters bigwigs. good pricing for big quantities, you know.

Fry's typically carries Corsair, Crucial, and PNY, at least the ones down here do. You can't go wrong with either of those or Patriot if they carry it.

Though I'm weary of Fry's for computer hardware as of late. I've had to take back too many parts.

count yourself lucky that you have a frys at all. if you check their website, there are 158 different patriots, corsair is second with 75, and kingston is third with 54, pny 14 and crucial 4.

I miss living in the bay area, hardly a day went by without going by at least one. glad I have had a newegg account for years, in Colorado there are no computer stores to walk into and get something you need. only walmart, which sucks, can't even get a hard drive most of the time. no motherboards, CPUs, cables, need a case, good luck with that.

Thanks everyone for your comments.
It good to be working at frys.
But back to my question. I'm familiar with our brands, but what specific ram kits from frys would be the best with my new broad. I got about $150 credit to use. Should I risk using "non approved" sticks that are faster, or stick with slower approved kits that we carry?
Thanks

Approved RAM kits listed on motherboard manufacturers are just kits they've thoroughly tested. I don't think I've used a kit that was on an approved list, or hell, even seen one since my nForce 4 board.

That's kind of what I thought
Just looking to suggestions from our stock on what kits would be best for my new board.
Faster, and lower GB, or slower, and more GB. The best value/performance for $150?

My avg since install for meminfo is 7.83gb, maxed at 11.34gb. Just been doing my regular stuff. I long ago set the kernel not be paged. I have not rebooted in for a few weeks. The page file is moved off the SSD, to HHD vraptor, to save ssd space, PCI SSD is only 74Gb.
Marketing? rarely read printed stuff, though read reviews and comparison articles online, a lot here.