Originally posted by: Shimyr
Hi. I need some advice and I think I'm in the right thread so here goes
I've got a buddy with this motherboard who at the moment only has 2x512mb DDR400. We're gonna go to 2x1GB of DDR2 but I'm trying to figure out what kinda is the best for his application.
The primary use of his computer is for audio production, so low latency is extremely important, so from what I do know about RAM, that means I'm looking for the lowest CAS latency. From looking at this article,
ASRock 775Dual-VSTA: Does DDR2 matter?, it seems that matching the RAM speed to an even ratio with the FSB produces the best results. He has a E6300 running at 1066, so it seems that DDR2-533 is his best option. Stability is also extremely important so you can count out any chance of needing it to be overclocked.
When I enter those specs into NewEgg, there is only one CAS3 option, which is this one
pqi TURBO 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200). The rest are mostly CAS4. But it seems to be in question whether or not the pqi module can actually do 3-3-3-8 timings at 266, even at 2.0v, despite that the
manufacturer's homepage says it can. Some users are saying that at 266, it'll be 4-4-4-11.
So I guess I should ask, should I expect any DDR2-533 module to be able to get CAS3 timings at 266MHz? Because if I'm destined to run the RAM at CAS4 that opens up many more options regarding brands and prices, so I could go with my beloved GeIL or maybe a solid set from Corsair.
And besides that question, am I right to be focusing on DDR2-533, or should I consider DDR2-667 modules as well? That article seems to indicate that 533 has a slight edge for this bus speed, so if it's all the same price or less I might as well go with that. If I'm wrong please speak up. Hopefully someone here has an idea about all this, or some luck getting CAS3 from their DDR2-533 modules, because that would definitely be the best foreseeable option in this setup. And if you can name any specific modules from personal experience that have gotten CAS3, that would definitely help as well.
Thanks