Theoretical Question on DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333/1066

My board supports DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333/1066. I have a 2500K. I see all these people buying CAS 9 at 1.5v. i notice most people buy 1600 (PC12800) cuz its most common in most current systems. However i have noticed DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) prices dropping pretty close to the 1600 (PC12800).

Qustion 1: Now OC question is i notice most people tinkering with CAS and the volts to achive higher speeds (in OCing). Lets say someone buys 1600 (PC12800) CAS9 1.5v and they bump the ram to 2133 CAS 11 @ 1.65v. Would u guys agree that it was better off buying a stick of 2133 CAS 9 (PC3 17000) @ 1.5v at same price???

Question 2: using the same scenario above, my THEORY is that wouldnt it it be possible to underclock the 2133 CAS 9 (PC3 17000) @1.5v RAM down to 1600 and achieve tighter times as lets just say CAS 8 timings?

Question 3: In buying 2133 CAS 9 (PC3 17000) 1.5v rated ram on a system that would normally run 1600 (PC12800), wouldn't this give me more ROOM for getting a better OC of my CPU??

1. Thats a trade off between speed and CAS latency and are ballpark the same speeds.

2. IN theory yes, But how tight you can go and at what voltage is the question.

3. With a SB system it doesnt matter. We dont use the bclk to overclock so the memory stay at the speed you set it at.

For 99% of people DDR3 1600Mhz CLx is fine. There is not point outside of benching to purchase 2133Mhz ram.

if it is the same price, I would prolly purchase the higher clocked memory-as that way you are guaranteed to make said frequency. With memory that is rated for say 1600 @ 8-8-8 timings you arent guaranteed to make 1866 or anything higher than what is stated. Most times if you get the tigher rams they should make the next step up with loosened timings- just not guaranteed.

on your statement of "For 99% of people DDR3 1600Mhz CLx is fine. There is not point outside of benching to purchase 2133Mhz ram." Everyone wants BETTER for the PRICE. So wouldnt u say if you are gunna purchase 1600 for $50 most people would pay $50 for 2133 knowing its better performance? i guess it comes down to general public not being aware of this, i see it so much.

So from what am getting its a pretty much YES to question 1 and 2. #3 would be yes if it were to apply to older systems but not sandy bridge.

What im getting to is alot of people pay all this money for 1600 memory ($70-$90) with all these crazy gizmo gadgets in hopes of attaining the same performance as a ordinary (no gizmo gadgets) stick of 2133 CAS 9 (PC3 17000) @1.5v RAM for almost half the price $50. So again i ask whats the point of buying the 1600 gizmo gadget memory?? too make them look cool?? Ill be buyiing a 2133 CAS 9 (PC3 17000) @1.5v RAM

If that were, true (better performance) wouldnt we all be buying that speed? Price usually isnt the same for DDR3 1600 and DDR3 2133Mhz anyway. If it is, its because the CL latency is so high...which again makes it just as fast as tighter timing 1600Mhz ram. So there isnt really a performance difference either if the price is the same.

HOnestly, unless you really want to tweak, I simply suggest getting DDR3 CL7 sticks and not worry about it.

Post back your results.

ill check the prices on CL7, once i get the memory i will for sure post backs the results.

Oops. I meant CL9. It really doesnt matter much as far as real world performance.

EarthDog said:

Oops. I meant CL9. It really doesnt matter much as far as real world performance.

Click to expand...

Its exacly what i did, i invested in tighter timings 2x4GB DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 9-9-9-24-2N v1.5 for $37 not too shabby, i figured it was the same mem as the C11 @ 2133 with 11-11-11-30 timings that they were selling for double the price.

thanks guys for the input, i guess i cleared away some issues that i was always wonering about but was too lazy to ask until now that i have to upgrade.