Which memory?

[lehighace06]

I'm building a Core i7 920 system with an Asus P6T Delux and an EVGA GTX 275. I'm getting 6GB of memory, and OCZ looks to be my brand but I'm having trouble picking which Triple Channel kit to buy

Gold http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227365
Platinum http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227381
Reaper http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227379


Given that $115 to $145 isn't a significant factor, what is are the major differences?

 

[Proximon]

You want the lower latency, which has the largest effect on speed. In this case the Platinum. The Reapers probably would not run at CAS 7 1600Mhz.

 

[lehighace06]

how about the fact that the reapers are 1866 rather than 1600? I know a fair amount about how hard drives and video cards work but i'm a bit behind the curve regarding memory. what do CAS latency, timing and the mhz rating all mean?

 

[hunter315]

the timings are how many clock cycles it takes for it to read a bit of data, the lower the number the better. Divide the MHz rating by 8 to get the clock speed and multiple the CL to figure out the latency in ns.

Toms did a review, there was only a 2% difference between DDR3 1066 and DDR3 1600, the difference between tight and loose timings is a bit more.

 

[lehighace06]

so if i understood that properly, 1600 MHz with 7-7-7-24 timings will perform better than 1866 MHz with 9-9-9-28, because the difference in timings makes more of a difference than the higher frequency, is that right?

 

[Proximon]

Yes, at least from the benchmarks I have seen.