OCZ 3200 Enhanced Latency vs 3700 Gold Dual Channel on a S754 A64 3200

[hooah]

OCZ/corsair 3200 Enhanced Latency vs 3700 Gold Dual Channel on a S754 A64 3200

I'm looking for memory that will go tigher and suit a Socket 754 A64 better then my OCZ PC3700 Gold Dual Channel 2x256MB. The 3700 will do 2-3-3-7 at DDR400 and 2.5-4-4-7 at DDR500, but the A64 board I have MSI K8N Neo isn't dual channel and it seems to want lower latency ram.

I'm thinking Low Latency 3200.
OCZ 3200 EL Platinum Edition (rev1) is 2-3-2-5
OCZ 3200 EL Platinum Edition (rev2) is 2-2-2-8
Corsair 3200XLPT is 2-2-2-5
Muskin Level 2 Black 3200 BH-6 CAS 2-2-2
I'm also considering OCZ 3500EB or 3700EB Series as well.


So would having ram that could do these timings help with an A64 3200+ on a MSI K8N Neo running 230x11 for 2.53Ghz or should I just keep the OCZ3700 Gold Dual Channel Rev1 I have right now that does 2-3-3-7 at DDR400 and 2.5-4-4-7 at DDR500. I'm seriously thinking of getting 1GB (2x512mb) if I go with the 3200 2-2-2-5 stuff.

2x512MB 2-2-2-5 running with my A64 at 230x11 (2.53Ghz) should give me the scores i'm looking to get with graphics and memory bandwith.

 

[NiTrO bOiE]

Dude, my ram will run that. I'm looking for ram that will run high FSB with relaxed timings... hint hint. Those timings are pretty tight, although at 230FSB there isn't much difference between cas2 and 3. It's all in the rcd (the second number)

 

[hooah]

Why high FSB with relaxed timings on a A64 board?

DDR500+ is useless to us unless your running 300x8 or so on your board. I'm going with 230x11 and 237x11 for 2.6Ghz is my goal so the 3700 Gold would be better since it can do DDR500 (515 actually) at 2.5-4-4-7? I though it was the other way around, tight timings should yield better results right?

 

[hooah]

Nevermind, just found an article at anamdtech.com that shows the 3700 gold is the same as 3700EB in tests, so guess that answers that question. I was thinking that tight timings like 2-2-2 would be helpful, but seems it dosen't matter

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.html?i=2057&p=6
they test lots of memory at DDR400, 433, 466 and 500 and the PC3700 is usually around the top in all.

 

[Shuzzy]

if you are trying to hit around 230 fsb with good timings, i would look into the mushkin 222 or the corsair 3200xl. the ocz 3500eb and 3700eb do well at 250fsb, but not all the **** hot at 230.

 

[Gautam]

Between 3500EB and 3200XL is a tough call, but I wouldn't look outside those two. Low speeds and low latencies are what you should aim for, and both of those should provide what you need.

 

[hooah]

Between 3500EB and 3200XL is a tough call, but I wouldn't look outside those two. Low speeds and low latencies are what you should aim for, and both of those should provide what you need.

So its still worth going from OCZ 3700 Gold to the 3200XL or 3500EB. If I switch i'll likely get 2x512MB, but in the link above it shows the 3700 is near the top, so would the tighter timings help with the MSI K8N Neo?

Right now I get
2-3-3-7 at DDR400-460ish (will try 2-2-3-7 when new board arrives)
2.5-3-4-7 at DDR500 (tightest I could get)
2.5-4-4-7 at DDR515 (tightest I could get)
all at 2.8V

2-2-2-5 would be tight timings, but would the OCZ3500EB give better scores because of its enhanced bandwith?

They are both the same price $480cdn for 1GB (2x512). I'd like to go to 1GB but the K8N only has 3 memory slots, so either way if I want to switch from 512MB 3700 Gold, then I'd be looking at most likely the corsair, but the OCZ looks very good too.

 

[Gautam]

It's much more about latency than raw bandwidth, especially in gaming. 2x512 doesn't overclock too well on A64's when you use 1t timing (which you should), so you can't really expect much higher than 220ish. For this reason, you want the tightest timings possible anyways.

 

[hooah]

so that would rule out the 3700EB and make it either corsair 3200XL or OCZ 3500EB then.
wonder whats the absolute tightest the XL would go, 2-2-2-4 maybe? hmmm. I'm gonna look into the corsair some more, but i'd be leaning towards that over the 3500EB.

 

[Speed_Mechanic2]

Corsair's XL is quite costy, as is OCZ's PC-3700 EB. Spending over $300 for two 512MB sticks of memory for good performance is not necessary.

OCZ uses the same product for their entire EB line (PC-3200 to PC-3700), only speed-binned for performance.

The importance of CAS Latency (tCL) is almost always over considered when looking at memory. In nearly all real world applications, the performance differance between a tCL of 2.0 and a tCL of 2.5 is as close to none-existant as you can nearly get. There is no need to spend any more money on something capable of 2-2-2 timings over memory capable of 2.5-2-2 timings.

2.5-2-2-10 may be close to ideal timings for an Athlon 64 system as anyone would need. Pushing 230MHz, with Command Rate set to 1T, may or may not be easy to achieve with OCZ's EB memory, probably depending a good deal on the quality of the motherboard. MSI's K8N is a decent quality board and you should not have any extra problems trying to get this.

OCZ4001024EBDCPE-K sells for $275 from eXcaliberPC, and OCZ4331024EBDCPE-K sells for $300 from the Egg. Corsair's low-latency Samsung memory and OCZ's PC-3700 EB go for an extra $30-60 over the price of OCZ's PC-3500 EB.

 

[hooah]

So i've decided on a single 512MB stick of Corsair 3200XL (2-2-2-5) with plans to add another later on when needed/when more money is there. The OCZ is great, but i have no need for dual channel anymore and the timings of the Corsair is amazing. I'd have it running 2-2-2-10-1T with hopefully the CPU at 255-260x10 or 232-238x11 for betweeb 2.55 and 2.6Ghz. Should really suit the A64 with its single channel memory like the OCZ suited my P4 with its dual channel memory.

$237cdn = $179us

https://www.vibecomputers.com/index.cfm?loc=iview&if=n&vID=192247
This is in canadian dollars and I emailed them to see when they are getting more in. I'll list my OCZ when I get the Corsair in, because who the hell knows how long it could take to arrive at vibe. I'll take either platinum or black heatsink, but i'd prefer black