Oh man, I have no idea.... Mem for X58 based new rig

[thatsright]

Hi guys,

I will be buying within a week a new X58 based rig. I will be using i7-920 CPU and GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R motherboard. I'm not into crazy overclocking. I'd like to get my 920 CPU from stock 2.66Ghz to maybe 3.2-3.6Ghz range. I'm not really set on it though. Not going to cry a river if I can't O/C at all. The most I want to spend for 6GB is about $150.

Anyway... Please help me pick between these two memory kits:

-G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7T-6GBPK ($150)
Timings 7-7-7-18

or
-OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK ($150 w/ $30 MIR card)
Timings: 8-8-8-24

1. I was thinking of getting the G.Skill sticks only because it has CAS 7 timings at such a price. Now I thought the lower the CAS the better?

2.. Would getting the CAS7 G.Skill sticks make it harder to O/C the CPU if I want to keep the CAS 7 timings?

3. If I go with G.Skill, it is 'only' DDR 1333, does this limit overclock potential?

 

[exar333]

If two different memory kits have different timings, get the lower timings. I recommend getting DDR 1333 or higher, otherwise the memory doesn't matter too much for a 1366 rig. The memory dividers are adjustable, so the RAM speed will not really impact what you can or cannot OC your CPU to. Find a good deal, get a decent speed, if possible, otherwise don't worry too much about the RAM.

 

[thatsright]

The GSkill memory I picked is DDR3 1333 with CAS 7 timings.

1. How would this fare for Overclocking?

2. I noticed there is DDR3 1600 with higher timings for a little higher rpice. Is this just because they are 'better' at overclocking a i7 series CPU?

3. Does it still hold true that using CAS 7 timings will yield a 'snappier' performance in Win7/Apps etc than Mem running with CAS 9 or 10 timings?

 

[Ben90]

The GSkill memory I picked is DDR3 1333 with CAS 7 timings.

1. How would this fare for Overclocking?

2. I noticed there is DDR3 1600 with higher timings for a little higher rpice. Is this just because they are 'better' at overclocking a i7 series CPU?

3. Does it still hold true that using CAS 7 timings will yield a 'snappier' performance in Win7/Apps etc than Mem running with CAS 9 or 10 timings?

1: It would fare great, DDR-1333 will be rated up to a 222 bclock. 222x21=4.6ghz, well over your realistic limits. As well i believe that RAM is based on D9s, which have a very large overclocking headroom as well

2: Yes and no. Yes the ram will allow for a higher overclock (albeit an unrealistic one) and still maintain rated settings. Why anyone would overclock their processor that high and not their RAM is beyond me. I wouldn't worry about your ram selection that much though, as it really doesn't matter as much as it used to back before processors had 8MB cache.

3. RAM timings mean nothing by themselves. The timings are basically how many cycles it takes for it to do something. DDR800@8s and DDR1800@18s have the exact same response time. So in fact the DDR1600@8s respond faster than the DDR1333@7s.

I recommend you read this article, as it shows how little RAM speed actually matters on this modern architecture. http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=3589

 

[thatsright]

Thanks Ben! The article you ref made me realize I am probably over-thinking the Memory thing. The only heavy duty app I will be using is Photoshop CS4. With all the memory tested in the article, there is less than a 2% difference between the different speeds in photoshop. Not worth the extra $100-200.