Is lower timings or higher mhz better in RAM?

[TailsNZ]

I was planning on getting Corsair TWINX2048-4000PT 2GB - 3-4-4-8 set, but then in the store there's Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2 2GB at 2-3-3-6 for less than $20 more.

Looking at the recent RAM round up on Anandtech, the 4000PT when running at DDR400 comes down to 2.5-3-3-7, but there's no mention of this other lower clock speed but faster timing sticks. Am I missing something?

By the way I have an Asus A8N-SLI Premium, so it says it supports up to DDR 400 and an AMD 64 4400+ 2.2ghz. But I assume that doesn't matter when overclocking, running DDR 500 will be fine?

Thanks so much!

 

[BadThad]

Personally, I'd go for the higher clock speed ram so you have plenty of room to overclock, if you decide to do so. The real question for an AMD based system is "will the ram run at 1T or 2T"? AMD systems really benefit greatly from running at 1T.

 

[TailsNZ]

Thanks. From what I can tell there doesn't seem to be any 1GB sticks that'll run at 1T, the lowest they come down to at 2T or 2.5T. But looking at the benchmarks, even at 3T the higher mhz seems to really make the real world difference, so I'm thinking the 4000PT is still probably the way to go.

 

[cubby1223]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=1475190&enterthread=y