Best memory for a new C2D system

[touc]

Hi all,

I recently planned out a new E6400 system with the help of people on this messageboard. My plans have been hampered however by the memory I chose being out of stock, and as I need the parts by the end of this week I can't wait until it's available again.

Crucially, I'm not going to be overclocking this system, so I originally opted for 2gb corsair value ram PC5300 (667mhz), 5-5-5-12 because I figured it wouldn't make much difference and offered good value for money. This ram would have cost me £131.

I plan to replace it with one of these three options:

2gb Corsair Value Select PC4200 (533mhz) 4-4-4-12, £129

2gb Corsair XMS2 PC5400 (667mhz) 4-4-4-12, £175

2gb Corsair XMS2 PC6400 (800mhz) 5-5-5-12, £182

If I was correct in my original choice would the other value select ram be ok? do i lose much with the drop in speed or does the lower latency compensate for that? Or would it be wiser to go for one of the more expensive xms2 sticks - would i see any susbtantial performance increase given the cpu will not be overclocked?

As always thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Operandi]

The value RAM will be fine for that CPU, you will not notice any performance loss vs. more expensive XMS.

 

[touc]

Thanks once again Operandi. Is there likely to be any noticable difference at all between this new value ram and the one i originally chose? I've never really understand whether higher speed or lower latency was more important.

 

[Operandi]

Higher speed RAM will benefit higher clock speed CPUs that need more bandwidth to keep the CPU fed. This is why you will be ok with DDR2 667 or even 533 with your CPU choice.

Lower latency will be a benefit across the board but the gains are always small so the price usually dose not justify the performance gains.

As far as noticing a performance difference I doubt it but I'm not sure. I think Anandtech did some RAM roundups not too far back with the Core2; might want to give that a look.