Hi, im curious wheather the timings matter a lot? that is would i see any difference while playing games with a 5.5.5.12 vs a 4.4.4.12 ram? and would there be much difference betwean a 800 and a 1x00 ram?
got out of the loop a long while ago, and im possibly int he market for another 2gb of ram.

Thank you.

The looser timings might allow a the system to reach a higher overclock, but in practical use you would not notice much difference in casual/everyday use between the two.

PC6400 = 6.4 GB per sec. data transfer rate
PC8500 = 8.5 GB per sec. data transfer rate

So yeah, if your RAM is capable of transferring data at a faster rate to the CPU there is obviously a difference. MB BIOS provides dividers that allow the RAM to sync with the CPU/system BUS.


So yes faster RAM data transfer rates are possible. MB BIOS dividers allow for the adjustability of the RAM data transfer speed.

thx for the info, right now im using 2 sticks of 1gb corsair xms 2 ram ddr2 800, and was thinking of geting another 2 gb (even though win xp will recognize only 3gb), so i guess ill have to get the exact same ram as i have righ tnow....its a 5.5.5.12 timed one. i did build the system in 2006 and at the time it was the best bang for the buck ram...lol spent $24o on it, and right now i found the same ram for $50 lol, huge differeance. and im still on the fence regading geting it or not, sinc ei did not plan any upgrades.

Using 4 sticks makes it much harder to overclock, speaking from a failed attempt to run 4x2gb sticks in my own system. Ideally you want 2x2gb sticks but that'd up the price and make your current 2x1gb redundant (unless u run 5gb which would require a 64-bit OS)

im not planing on using a 64 bit os anytime soon, and im trying to stay away from vista for as long as I can, I know, but at the time when i built this system those 2 sticks of 2x1 GB did cost me $270, and to be honest I really did not plan on upgrading any of my components at all till maby mid or late 2009, so if anythign the lack of ram is forcing me to get more ram...i was aiming for 2x 512mb's but since it cost the same($10 difference...actually more) ill just get 2x1GB, which migh come in handy later on, and if anythign think later about more ram, since my mobo supports up to 8GB.