fast timmings or high fsb?

I have a 2.6, and i want to oc a bit, but i also want Ram that will enhance my gaming. I was looking at the OCZ pc3500 EL with CAS2 or the OCZ pc3700 with Cas2.5, not gold. I'm kinda leaning toward the pc3700, what do you guys think. And before this, i was thinking about buffalo but i want really good performance out of my RAM.

you'll be hard pressed to beat buffalo's bang-for-the-buck.

it'll go at what fsb at 2-2-2? 220? hmm, i'll think about it, a lot.

Timings and FSB are kind of interrelated. For example, crap timings at 250FSB vs. 2-2-2-5 at 230FSB could perform equally as well.

Which is better? My logic is if it performs better then go with it, but lean toward FSB. Reason being is that FSB affects the whole system, whereas timings only help the RAM.

--Illah

I thought timmings help in games and such, so therefore i thought it would be more important to have low fsb and high timmings rather than high fsb and crap timmins.

Well, the higher FSB can compensate for crap timings. If it's only a 5MHz difference then go timings for sure, but if it's a 20MHz difference I'd take the FSB if performance were equal.

If you have to run 3-4-4-9 to get a high FSB, then maybe thats not worth it. But if it's like 220FSB 2-2-2-5 vs. 240FSB 2.5-3-3-7 I'd take the 240.

-Illah

Thank you for your insight

While timings only affect memory, you have the option to run at a 4:5 ratio, allowing your computer to have both benefits of low timing, efficient memory and a high bandwidth FSB. Although this is limited somewhat by the fact that you do have a 2.6C instead of a 2.4C. Depending on the cooling your using in your processor and your case's airflow, if you can take your processor running at 3.4-3.6GHz (would require probably at least a CNPS7000 and good case air flow) then your memory would be able to run at 210-220MHz at 2-2-2-5. This would most likely negate the benfits in bandwidth running at 1:1 at 240 or 250 with 2.5-3-3 or 2.5-4-4 (respectively). And you would have the benefit of low-timing, efficiently running memory.

You mean to say the 5:4 ratio, not 4:5. 5:4 runs the memory slower than the fsb, 4:5 runs it faster than the fsb.

This is not a free lunch though, as latency and PAT effectiveness is compromised in async modes even if the timings are at 2-2-2-5. You can't beat 1:1, and it is because of latency. Compable bandwidth is achieved in the async modes, but is only one component to memory performance. PCMark2002's memory test is a good tool for evaluating the optimal trade-off for your particular hardware.

I have tested the Buffalo 3700 successfully at 225fsb in 1:1 mode (450MHz) on the P4P800 Asus at 2-2-2-5 with PAT enabled. I have not run it that fast on the Abit boards however, and they are picky. But like all 865/875 boards they strongly prefer BH5 chips, and I recommend you get one type or another. The Buffalo 3700 is a pretty good BH5 module, with the slightly more expensive Kingston HyperX 3000 being the only one I've seen to be significantly better.

Yeah, I think that they are both about equal.

well, right now i'm winning an auction on ebay for OCZ pc3700 gold for 192 CAD which is like $143 and there is 9 hours left. I gotta get up early and make sure "everything's in order" I know that I would get more bang for my buck if i got buffalo but actually, $220 ram at $140 is more bang. Its an offer i couldn't refuse and I hope no one will outbid me.

i doubt it will stay at that price

there's always hope