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MHz v Latency

B

Baltazaar

n00b
Joined
Jan 9, 2007
Messages
15
I have what may be a bit of a noobie question but i'm sure someone here knows the answer.

I am buying RAM for a new Core i7 920 gaming rig I am building for myself and I can buy two types of OCZ RAM for the same price:

1) OCZ Platinum DDR3 14400/1800MHz (3x2GB) 8-8-8-24, or;

2) OCZ Reaper DDR3 12800/1600MHz (3x2GB), 7-7-7-24 (includes fancy heat pipes)

Both are found here

The question I have is a higher MHz speed (option 1) better or is a lower latency better (option 2)?

I suspect the higher MHz is better despite the latency increase but I am not confident in that assumption as I don't understand the latency numbers well enough (I know lower is better, that's about it despite reading their meanings several times, lines and rows etc..... and i'm confused :eek: ).

I plan on a medium overclock for the system (about 3.6-3.8MHz), it uses an Asus P6T M/board, a GTX275 GPU and is on air cooling with an Ultra - 120A cooler for the CPU.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Aron
 
the 1800mhz would give you more headroom for overclocking so you wouldnt have to drop the memory multiplier as low.. but the latency arguements pretty much mute now with ddr3.. theres not much of a difference anymore.. unless you are comparing same speed ram.. thats just my opinion on what i know.. im sure some one will post a more detailed answer..
 
Now if you wanted a nice DDR1 system, then you should be concerned more about latency =)
In your case though, the difference isn't even noticeable. 7-7-7 to 8-8-8, you won't notice it, plus you'll have 200mhz faster frequency.
 
With DDR3, there's more of an emphasis on the frequency (MHz) than on the latency (timings). That being said, you won't notice a real-world difference between 7-7-7-24 and 8-8-8-24. The difference may only be noticeable in synthetic benchmarks. Additionally, you won't notice a real-world difference between 1600 MHz and 1800 MHz, but the latter does provide a bit more headroom for overclocking.

Overall, I would go with the cheaper of the two kits.
 
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