800 cas 4 or 1066 cas 5? (2x 2gb)

[darkdisciple]

Assuming price and quality for each module are identical. Below is the planned setup. I do plan to overclock the e8400 to 3.6 or possibly higher.

Case: Antec p182 ATX Mid Tower
(P182)

Mobo: ASUS P5E X38
(P5E)

GPU: (undecided, waiting a month)

PSU: Corsair 620W Modular
(CMPSU-620HX)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz
(BX80570E8400)

HDD1: WD VelociRaptor 300GB 10000 RPM
(WD3000GLFS)

Heatsink: XIGMATEK 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
(HDT-S1283)

XIGMATEK Retention Bracket
(ACK-I7751)

Will I get more benefit from the cas 4 (lower latency) or the 1066 (higher bandwidth)?

 

[ibuypower]

Well first of all, its a matter of preference. You can always overclock the speed of the DDR2 800 (cas 4) to 1066 (cas 4) or you can tighten the timings on the 1066 from cas 5 to cas 4 to make it 1066 (cas 4). Did any of that make sense???

DDR2 800 is going to be cheaper. But if that's not an issue, then go with the 1066 because its easier to tighten the timings than to overclock the speed.

Also, if you don't want to overclock at all (timings included), then go with the DDR2 800 because the performance increase is not enough to justify the cost of the 1066 over the 800.


Hope this helps. Good luck with your build!!!!

 

[ausch30]

The highest official speed for DDR2 is 800 and anything sold over that speed is sold at it's overclocked speed which is the fastest speed the manufacturer guarantees it to work. This is from my memory, it was sold as DDR2 1066 5-5-5-15 but you can see that the highest JEDEC spec is 800@5-5-5-18 which means that it is really DDR2 800 which the maufacturer states will be capable of faster speeds at increased voltages.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146785

Just as mine is really DDR2 800 a lot of DDR2 800 is really just DDR2 667 so the thing you should look at is it's rated voltage since DDR2 is rated at 1.8v. Here are two examples, with the first one you have good timings but it's at a very high 2.2v where as the second one is at 1.8v. With the second set you should be able to acheive the same timings as the first and likely at lower voltages.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146566
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146118

For 3.6 on a E8400 you will be running the FSB at 1600 which means for 1:1 you will need DDR2 800. If you are looking to go higher then quality DDR2 800 should be able to handle an inrease in speed with either slightly more voltage or relaxed timings. You could however buy DDR2 1066 and run it 1:1 with your overclocked CPU and you should be able to acheive slightly better timings or slightly lower voltages than doing the same with 800.

 

[Shadow703793]

Go with DDR2 800. DDR2 1066 has compatibility issues.