These looks identical but only one is recommended for my board - noob help!

[FlexiPack]

I'm putting my system together and I've currently got:

Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming motherboard
Ryzen 3600

The original memory sticks I had chosen are Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x 8GB) 3600mhz C18 (SKU CMK16GX4M2D3600C18) but they are not on the QVL for my motherboard .

There's a seemingly identical pair that is on the QVL, same spec but different SKU: CMK16GX4M2Z3600C18

The only two differences I can see are the SPD ratings (which if I'm correct, won't matter if manually set ram timings and speed in the BIOS?) and the stick that is not on the QVL is optimized for both Ryzen and Intel whereas the other is just for Ryzen.

So ultimately, does it matter which I get? There is a small price difference.

Here's a side by side comparison (sorry, I tried to embed in the post but I couldn't get it to work). The stick that is on the Asus QVL is on the left of the image.

Product pages:

CMK16GX4M2D3600C18 - Not on QVL

CMK16GX4M2Z3600C18 - On QVL

 

[stuie]

Having rolled the dice on Asus boards and memory not of the QVL list id suggest caution.

Admittedly z77 boards, which may or may not be related, I get intermittent cold boot issues, memok dram light freezes that for no reason after several power reboots and restarts over 10 - 20min seems to boot fine and be 100% stable all day for many days or weeks. never got to the bottom of it and probably never will. Tried the same sticks in non asus boards no problems tried them in another asus board same issues.

I assume its related to the dram testing on startup asus do and it may have gotten better since the ddr3 days but certainly on asus boards I wouldnt stray from qvl, or as I probably will do next time, not use asus

 

[FlexiPack]

Having rolled the dice on Asus boards and memory not of the QVL list id suggest caution.

Admittedly z77 boards, which may or may not be related, I get intermittent cold boot issues, memok dram light freezes that for no reason after several power reboots and restarts over 10 - 20min seems to boot fine and be 100% stable all day for many days or weeks. never got to the bottom of it and probably never will. Tried the same sticks in non asus boards no problems tried them in another asus board same issues.

I assume its related to the dram testing on startup asus do and it may have gotten better since the ddr3 days but certainly on asus boards I wouldnt stray from qvl, or as I probably will do next time, not use asus

Thanks for your input. I decided to stick to the QVL listed sticks. Not worth the hassle if something doesn't work quite right.