DDR2: Latency or Speed for P4?

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sQuark13

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Jun 25, 2005
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I'm putting together a mid- to high-end system (in [thread=919156]this[/thread] thread), and it was suggested to me to ask this question in the memory section. I will be overclocking my CPU and video card, and probably my RAM as well (if I can). I'm not willing though to spend much more than $150 though for 2x512MB.

I'm looking at getting the following, but I'm not sure about the RAM:
Abit AL8
P4 Prescott 630 3.0GHz LGA 775

Now I had originally picked out this RAM:
OCZ Gold 2x512MB DDR2 533 3-3-3-8 ($127)
because it seemed to be fast with low latencies and not too expensive.

After the comment that P4s care less about latency, I suggested this RAM:
OCZ Gold 2x512MB DDR2 667 4-4-4-8 ($25 more than above)
or this RAM:
Corsair XMS 2x512MB DDR2 675 4-4-4-12 ($40 more than above)

XSNiper suggested that P4s care a lot more about speed, and that I should go for the DDR2 667 OCZ. What do you guys think?

I'm still not totally clear; I'm getting the impression that for AMD boards, latency is more important than speed but for intel boards speed is more important than latency. Is this roughly correct?
 
the last question is basically correct, but... ddr2 that can oc worth a damn is still pretty expensive now, i'd just stick with ddr1 :p
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
the last question is basically correct, but... ddr2 that can oc worth a damn is still pretty expensive now, i'd just stick with ddr1 :p
Click to expand...

Yeah, but to get DDR1 support means dropping down to the 915 chipset if I want to stay with Socket T (which I do). I'm sort of set on the Abit AL8; it has a lot of features I like. I'd also be giving up dual-core support if I went down to the 915. I'd prefer to stick with DDR2.

Anyway, it seems like part of my question may be answered here at the bottom of the page; there is almost no difference between DDR2 667 4-4-4-15 and DDR2 533 3-2-2-12.

However, would I be right in thinking that DDR2 667 would be a little better when I overclock the FSB? More room to grow?
 
sQuark13 said:
However, would I be right in thinking that DDR2 667 would be a little better when I overclock the FSB? More room to grow?
Click to expand...
good to see you got an answer instead of just waiting for one. i like people like you :D

and yeah, you'll have a bit of headroom.. hell, you can get up to 333mhz fsb and run the ram at 1:1 for stock ram speed :eek:
 
Is it just me or is DDR2 memory chepaer than DDR? I thought about getting plain DDR for my P4 rig but when searching newegg, it seemed that DDR2 was cheaper for similar timings, faster speeds, and same size.
 
I have the OCZ DDR6400 Gold Edition and it's a GREAT performer. Have gotten it up to DDR840
 
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