Memory timings and stuff

[Deleted]

Will I notice any difference between the 8GB 1.5 V 1600 Mhz Vengeance RAM (8-8-24) to Corsair 8GB (2x4096MB) 1600MHz XMS3? The XM3 is 40 euros cheaper, but on the other side if it's worth the price difference I could get it. Heard the Vegeance memory can easily be overclocked to like 1800 Mhz without higher voltage?

Will it affect my overclocking at all by the way? Maybe someone who knows could tell me abit


Aswell sorry for making a few threads here, so close buying my parts now so I kinda want to ask everything i'm unsure about rather than just buying it and regretting it afterwards.

My scenario atm is, either going with a Noctua NH-U12P SE2 cooler and the XMS3 Ram or I could switch the cooler to a Zalman CNPS-9900 MAX and take the Vengeance RAM for just 40 ish euros more. (no other 1.5v Ram is avilable for me at this point, only the Vengeance sadly).

[Deleted]

1.5V seems to be important, would this be because your building a Sandy Bridge system?

[Deleted]

Yeah, building a Sandy Bridge system. But 1.6v seems to be working fine aswell, but with 1.5v you got some headroom to tighten the timings/mhz I think. Or just to be "safe", but i've no clue if it's worth going for that's why i'm asking =)

Just if someone knows the real differences in games/allround usage, and if it would affect my overclocking would be nice to know/worth getting or just go with the cheaper ones.

---------- Post added 2011-02-18 at 05:02 PM ----------

Anyone? Last thing I wanna know before I place my order. Would be appreaciated to know this

[Deleted]

Memory speed doesn't have anything to do with overclocking on a SB system, BLK shouldn't be pushed past 100Mhz as it's tied to too many things now.

The way you overclock now is simply to up the multiplyer on the chip to whatever x 100 and play with the voltage settings around that (without some heavy duty cooling you'll want to be careful going past 1.38v but it's best to read around and make sure based on your own motherboard and settings)

Faster memory timings will effect benchmarks but won't really have any noticable difference in gaming.

I built my system about 3 weeks ago and went for some 1600Mhz XMS3 ram 1.65v (because it was cheap) and I've had no problems pushing my system to 4.5Ghz in a quick and dirty overclock.

[BicycleMafioso]

Memory speed doesn't have anything to do with overclocking on a SB system, BLK shouldn't be pushed past 100Mhz as it's tied to too many things now.

The way you overclock now is simply to up the multiplyer on the chip to whatever x 100 and play with the voltage settings around that.

So faster timings will effect benchmarks but won't really have any noticable difference in gaming.

^This. I very much agree to these sentiments.

[Deleted]

Thanks, just noticed though they had 9-9-9-24 Vengeance 8GB for about 20 euros more, so just gonna go with that. The -1 timings are not worth 20 more euros I guess, to be more on the safe side! Just hope the Zalaman 9990 Max is enough!

[Plasmon]

(no other 1.5v Ram is avilable for me at this point, only the Vengeance sadly).

G.Skill Ripjaws X is 1.5V, and designed for Sandy Bridge. You can get a variety of timings and speeds. Most people tend to get either 1333MHz CL9 or 1600MHz CL9. G.Skill RAM heat sinks are small enough to fit under the Noctua cooler. They're priced similarly to the other brands like Vengeance, maybe even cheaper since the heat sink is less obnoxious.

Also comparing those two CPU fans, I think the temp performance is similar but the biggest difference is in volume, the Noctua is MUCH quieter. Noctua tends to be around the bottom of the volume scale all the time while Zalman coolers tend to be near the top.

Couldn't find a direct comparison of the two in both temps and volume, but using these links you can gather all that info:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Z...900_MAX/6.html
http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi...cnps9900/4.htm
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/385...ew/index6.html

[BicycleMafioso]

G.Skill Ripjaws X is 1.5V, and designed for Sandy Bridge. You can get a variety of timings and speeds. Most people tend to get either 1333MHz CL9 or 1600MHz CL9. G.Skill RAM heat sinks are small enough to fit under the Noctua cooler. They're priced similarly to the other brands like Vengeance, maybe even cheaper since the heat sink is less obnoxious.

Link to all G.Skill-sticks I could find in an UK-based site.

[Deleted]

Only choice 1.5v ram avilable for me is the Vengeance, sadly so no choice here.

Any other other quiter cooler which fits the Vengeance, hm.

[DarkBlade6]

1.35V G.skill 4gb DDR3
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-317-_-Product

Ive build an mITX rig with this RAM =)

[Deleted]

If you are worried about the profile of the heatsinks of the RAM then looking at the voltages of the RAM should not be the issue here. If you are worried about compatibility then by all means use the Memory Finder tool on the Corsair website.

An alternative the to the Ripjaw X series by G.Skill and the Corsair Vengence models is the new Hyperx Grey Kingston models. They have been tested on Sandy Bridge motherboards, have low profile heatsinks and run at 1.65V. They also reportedly perform better than Ripjaw X models, even the CAS7 ones. The 1600Mhz models are pretty competitive price wise. Availability @ your location is another issue however. By all means check the prices out. In the UK, i've not found many stores that stock 2x4GB models. Not from stores that i'd trust anyway.

Here is a review from the Vortez website, found through Anandtech's daily hardware review section a couple of weeks back

[kidsafe]

Unless you are obsessed with squeezing minute performance improvements out of your PC, just buy any 1.5V DDR3-1600 CL9 kit and be done with it. If you really want to play around with OCing your RAM or running tight timings, I have had good luck with my G.Skill Ripjaws. I'm running my 1.55V DDR3-2000 9-11-9-28-2T rated kit at 1.6V DDR3-1866 8-9-8-24-1T.

I see no point in running 1.35V rated memory kits in a normal desktop. If you have a passively cooled HTPC, then sure go ahead...

[Deleted]

Just picked the CL 9 1.5V Vengeance

Thought i'm curious, I can either change the timings on it OR the frequency right? Not both?

Been reading abit but not enough to understand, still dont get whats best "overclocking" timings or the freq.

[Plasmon]

These reviews should help a lot to understand the effect of frequency and latency timings on RAM performance in benchmarks and games as well as overclocking:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mem...sandy-bridge/1
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...-ram,2542.html

They both have multiple pages so make sure to browse through them all because there's a lot more good info than just the introduction.


This one doesn't really address your question but got some pretty useful RAM information:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rade,2778.html

[kidsafe]

I advised against the 1.35V labeled RAM because there's basically no guarantee that you can run the memory at 1.5V at higher frequencies. In general, yes, you can run your memory with relaxed timings and high frequencies. Pumping up your memory frequency at the expense of some latency is generally a performance boost. CL9 at DDR3-2000 is lower actual latency than CL7 at DDR3-1600.