PC4300 or PC3200

Question should I get a Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Platinum series Low latency twin pack 1GB (2X512) of DDR3200 at timing of 2 3 2 6 or say or an equivalent Mushkin PC3200 "222" special matched pair of 512's again DDR400 . Or go with say with a Kingston pair of PC4300 DDR533 pair of matched 512K Dimms?? the difference as I see it is the timings. I think that the PC3200's will run at 2 2 2 or 2 3 2 settings at clock speeds around 200Mhz or DDR 400Mhz. But to run the PC4300 I have to lower timings according to kingston to 3 4 4 8. I think if I underclocked the PC4300 to the PC3200 rates it will be really close to the PC3200 timings/settings. Any ideas or suggestions you guys can add?? or help me with??? I have been mucking around with the PC4300's (loaners) and have been unable even at Kingstons recommended sttings to reach the 533Mhz they say.
my best results with PC4300 are: setting CPU core Freq to 250 and Mem freq to 400...Which resulted in core freq 4Ghz...Mem freq 250x2 for DDR= DDR500. This comes out to a ratio 0f 1:1. That was the maximum i was able run stable.

Help with best memory to get??

Most pc4000+ stuff do not do tight timings at pc3200 speeds. The best RAM for slower tighter timings and really high OC potential is the OCZ pc3700 Gold rev 2.

What processor do you have that won't reach 266 fsb?

What kind of MB and cpu do you have, the first thing to do is estimate around what FSB range you will be able to achieve without the memory factor and then get memory to fit that. if you plan on upgrading soon, consider that and the price. If you could lay your hands on some XMS3200 C2 V1.1 they do nice tight timings up to 220 and close to 230 with the standard timings of what you'd get out of the 4300. Then again, if your setup will allow for super high fsb, mhz are more important then timings for overall system performance. Just make sure your NB can handle those high mhz because your memory may be stable but your NB may crap out on something like integrated NIC, sound, or something else.

System

P4C800 E Deluxe, Intel P4 3.2 Northwood, Kingston Hyper X PC4300 2X512 at DDR533. Raptor 74G 10,000 rpm disk. ATI 9800XT. Last night I won an auction on EBAY for some PC3500 2 matched 512K dimms of Mushkin Black Level 2 memory.

interpreting your "at DDR533" comment as you're running at 266FSB, I would stick with the ram that you have because it's a super long shot that the pc3200 would be able to get up that high, even if you relaxed all the timings(then what's the point anyways).

After rereading, This is your situation********If i didn't divide by 2 enough times (making it really 133x4) then you haven't really overclocked your FSB at all and should go with the PC3200 tight timings and then overclock that baby. The only thing the PC4300 is really good for is when you are able to get super high FSBs (Nforce2= 230+, Pfc800=210+(real FSB so 840 effective/210*4).

Enjoy.

pc4200/ 533 mhz in my opinion is not a good choice for u. realistically speaking how fast will ur 3.2 go? maybe 3.7? that would in effect give u a fsb speed of about 230-235. that equates to ddr 460-470. although the newer revisions of the hynix chips used in the majority of the pc4000-4400 run better at lower latencies, this memory was built for 1 thing... and thats for cranking it just as hi as it will go with very loose timings 3-4-4-8, or if ur lucky 2.5-4-4-7.. you would be much better off to get some memory that runs low timings ie bh5 or volt mod ur board and get bh6. even pc3700 such as the samsung or ocz rev2 pc3700 would be a better idea cause, tho they arent able to run timings like the bh5-6 they will run much tighter for the speeds u need.

btw i live in md also..

he'll probably be only able to get around 3.5 depending on cooling, higher requires some really good cooling and around 1.65v. So that's 210-220 (218 the multi is 16 right?) and V1.1 XMS3200 will run those speeds with [email protected] I think that's your winner dude.

Efforts so far

I have had the machine up and running for the last 3 days, gaming 4 hours or so a night (americas army)
and have the FSB to just over 1Ghz, and CPU core to just over 4.0Ghz. Memory speed at 500Mhz with latency settings of 3 4 4 8
. ...I have liquid cooling on CPU and GPU will add northbridge to liquid cooling tonight or tomorrow. block should have arrived today. I did have a little instability last night and dropped my core freq to 247 from 252 and stabilized everything there.

That is with the kingston hyperX PC4300 1G matched 2x512 dimms
CPU northwood 3.2Ghz not the EE
also have the GPU (ATI 9800xt) tweaked to 440 core and 385 or so memory freq.

ahh, in that case you're set. the Pc3500 would only limit your max FSB, cutting bandwidth more than the fast timings would make up for and cpu speed. Keep what you got and make some dough.

Efforts so far

I have had the machine up and running for the last 3 days, gaming 4 hours or so a night (americas army)
and have the FSB to just over 1Ghz, and CPU core to just over 4.0Ghz. Memory speed at 500Mhz with latency settings of 3 4 4 8
. ...I have liquid cooling on CPU and GPU will add northbridge to liquid cooling tonight or tomorrow. block should have arrived today. I did have a little instability last night and dropped my core freq to 247 from 252 and stabilized everything there.

That is with the kingston hyperX PC4300 1G matched 2x512 dimms
CPU northwood 3.2Ghz not the EE
also have the GPU (ATI 9800xt) tweaked to 440 core and 385 or so memory freq.

thats a nice cpu congrats..

Thanks a bunch flapper.