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Core i7 and memory timings for its RAM.

E

ebeattie

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 29, 2007
Messages
441
Specing a core upgrade for my comp and have decided to bite the bullet and splurge for an i7 socket 1366 build (920).

My question is related to the DDR3 memory timings. For about the same amount of coin I see many different 6GB packs and timings from 9-9-9-24 and 7-7-7-20 and DDR3 1333 to DDR3 2000.

I should note that I likely will NOT overclock but I have had much success with Corsair XMS DDR400 (running right now in my PC since 2005!). Id like to stick with this brand. If nothing else, Corsair XMS has proven to me they make a durable RAM kit.

My overall understanding of memory is that the lower CAS the better the performance but what is the relevance of the other timing numbers? What works the best with the Core i7 920's?

What say you?
 
Good choice on the i7. I also did a recent upgrade. I went with the X58 due to the best upgrade path in the future (hexa-core, 32nm, 6 memory slots, 2 x16 PCIe, etc). Still I didn't want to spend $1000s of dollars for stuff that I didn't need or which are outrageously expensive.

While there are specific applications (e.g. overclocking, high memory usage) where you will see performance improvements when getting high grade memory, in most real world applications it is not worth the extra money (ok add bragging rights to the pot).

Read this article on "Memory Scaling on Core i7 - Is DDR3-1066 Really the Best Choice?
"
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=3589&p=13

On DDR3 2000 check this out. http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=3596

Seriously I would sooner overclock your i7 or by a 5850 class or higher GPU than spend a lot of money on higher grade RAM. BTW, this is not new, the same thing applied for DDR2 because modern CPUs are optimized to use slow memory. They rely much more heavily on internal cache to avoid slower memory access. Throw in the pot the ever increasing latencies when clocking RAM to higher speeds...
 
Hmmmm, very interesting read. Lol back to newegg.

EDIT: And thank you for the info!

Will the X58 mobos automatically set mem speed to DDR3 1066?
 
ebeattie said:
Hmmmm, very interesting read. Lol back to newegg.

EDIT: And thank you for the info!

Will the X58 mobos automatically set mem speed to DDR3 1066?
Click to expand...

Normally motherboards will read the speed information stored in the DIMMs registers. For my OCZ3P1333LV2G defaults to 1066. You can easily change the speed to 1333MHz in the bios by changing the dram ratio.
 
Sounds good. I was going to try and buy all my parts at once, but seeing as how this may spread out till may, Ill be getting my hands on my memory first. Why not the processor? Well, simply put Corsair has a lifetime (limited of course) warranty where as the processor from intel has a 3 year warranty and the mobo I want to get only has a 2 year.
 
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