Which Corsair TwinX ddr to buy?

[Victorian]

Ok, I can get some

Corsair TwinX1024-3700 PC3700 DDR 2 x 512M (which I presume is simply Cas 2?) for $335 (Canadian)

or

Corsair PC3200(DDR400) 1GB CL2(Low Latency) TwinX Matched Memory Pair Retail(TwinX1024-3200LL) for $429 (Canadian)

It's going to be used in an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard with a P4 3.0 C chip.

Knowing next to nothing about DDR which is the best deal?

[GNEP]

I doubt the 3700 is CAS2. Probably 3.

[Victorian]

Originally posted by GNEP
I doubt the 3700 is CAS2. Probably 3.

Any suggestion as to which is the better choice?

[UtwigMU]

Depends: If you're going to overclock, get fastest memory you can afford and pay less importance to latency. As overclocked FSB will give more performance benefits. Of course lower latency alway helps, but 467MHz RAM at CAS3 is better than 400MHz at CAS2.


If you're not going to overclock, get PC3200 with lowest latency.

Both higher frequency and lower latency apply, if you want best memory.


From Corsair site

TWINX1024-3700 XMS3700 1024MB 3-4-4-8 2x184 DIMM Black

PC3700 = 467MHz

TWINX1024-3200LL XMS3200 1024MB 2-3-2-6 2x184 DIMM Black

PC3200 = 400MHz

[Victorian]

Originally posted by UtwigMU
Depends: If you're going to overclock, get fastest memory you can afford and pay less importance to latency.


If you're not going to overclock, get PC3200 with lowest latency.

Both cases apply, if you want best memory.

Probably not going to bother overclocking in which case latency is more important than speed?

[UtwigMU]

You will likely be able to run 467MHz CAS3 memory at 400MHz with CAS2, but why pay for something you don't plan to take advantage of.

Secondly, PC3200 is highest official JEDEC certified speed. Intel will move to DDRII for higher speeds, while there are rumours that AMD might support PC4000 (500MHz). When/if this happens, PC4000 modules will likely be more common and lower in price, so there's not something like buying faster RAM in advance (buying PC133 RAM for 100MHz FSB system to upgrade to 133MHz PIII) for future upgrades.

[Victorian]

Originally posted by UtwigMU
You will likely be able to run 467MHz CAS3 memory at 400MHz with CAS2, but why pay for something you don't plan to take advantage of.

Secondly, PC3200 is highest official JEDEC certified speed. Intel will move to DDRII for higher speeds, while there are rumours that AMD might support PC4000 (500MHz). When/if this happens, PC4000 modules will likely be more common and lower in price, so there's not something like buying in advance (buying PC133 RAM for 100MHz FSB system to upgrade to 133MHz PIII).

Not sure I quite understand this but it looks like I'd be better off overclocking the PC3700 (and saving almost a $100) than spending more for the lower latency PC3200 and running the system at stock speed?

Sorry if I seem so clueless but I'm still running a PIII and really don't know too much about the P4's and the newer boards and ddr, etc.

[UtwigMU]

I saw that 3200LL is more expensive:

If you have the money, get TWINX (seing your CPU and motherboard choice, this is going to be a high end system) 3200LL, if you want to save a bit, get 3200C2 (2-3-3-6 on Intel platform).

[Victorian]

Originally posted by UtwigMU
I saw that 3200LL is more expensive:

If you have the money, get TWINX (seing your CPU and motherboard choice, this is going to be a high end system) 3200LL, if you want to save a bit, get 3200C2 (2-3-3-6 on Intel platform).

Both choices that I posted are TwinX (but from different computer stores in town). I'm guessing that the 3700 TwinX isn't low latency as the specs on the web page for the store that's selling it web don't mention it. It appears to be the 3-4-4-8 that you mentioned earlier.

I'm just trying to figure out if lower latency at higher cost is better than higher speed at lower cost. If I can get roughly similar performance with either than obviously I'll got for the cheaper price.

That would be $100 that can go towards a dvd burner.

[Wombat]

Originally posted by Victorian
I'm just trying to figure out if lower latency at higher cost is better than higher speed at lower cost. If I can get roughly similar performance with either than obviously I'll got for the cheaper price.

Lower latency is of course a good thing. If you're not going to be overclocking, then it doesn't matter how fast your RAM <I>can</I> go, just that it goes as fast as you plan on asking it to.

[UtwigMU]

You're on different market, but here the prices are such:
TWINX-3200C2 312,60€ / 496CAD
TWINX-4000 349,40€ / 554CAD (3700 would be about 10 Euros less)
TWINX-3200LL 374,60 / 594CAD

Try to find PC3200C2 if you can as it should be cheaper than the other two and offer similar latency to 3200LL.

WRT to 3700 - it depends what latency has it been programmed by Corsair for 3200 speed. It might be 2.5/2-3-3-6, but it might be also 3.

You can post in their support forum and ask the RAM guy.

In both cases (being 2-3-3-6 or 3-4-4-8 at 3200 speeds), it's still cheaper to get 3200C2 that is specced to run 2-3-3-6 or if it's CAS3, value select or some other budget line might yield same results.

[Victorian]

Originally posted by UtwigMU
You're on different market, but here the prices are such:
TWINX-3200C2 312,60€ / 496CAD
TWINX-4000 349,40€ / 554CAD (3700 would be about 10 Euros less)
TWINX-3200LL 374,60 / 594CAD

Try to find PC3200C2 if you can as it should be cheaper than the other two and offer similar latency to 3200LL.

WRT to 3700 - it depends what latency has it been programmed by Corsair for 3200 speed. It might be 2.5/2-3-3-6, but it might be also 3.

You can post in their support forum and ask the RAM guy.

In both cases (being 2-3-3-6 or 3-4-4-8 at 3200 speeds), it's still cheaper to get 3200C2 that is specced to run 2-3-3-6 or if it's CAS3, value select or some other budget line might yield same results.

Ok, the store that is selling the TwinX 3200 low latency at $429 also has the TwinX 3200C2 on their web page and it's priced at $395 which is still $60 more than the TwinX 3700 that the other store is offering at $335.

So based on the specs from the Corsair page I'm looking at:
TwinX 3200 low latency at 2-3-3-6 for1024 meg (2x512) for $429
TwinX 3200C2 at 2-3-3-6 for 1024 meg (2x512) for $395
TwinX 3700 at 3-4-4-8 for1024 meg (2x512) for $335

Which would you pick?

[KvHagedorn]

Low latency is more important for AMD architecture. If it's Intel, it's not as crucial. You could probably actually run DDR500 at cas2 at DDR400 speeds. Depends on the memory.

[Mehen]

my bro has some twinx 3700 runnin at DDR500 with no probs in that same mobo. its cas3

[Victorian]

So, out of the three choices:

TwinX 3200 low latency at 2-3-3-6 for1024 meg (2x512) for $429
TwinX 3200C2 at 2-3-3-6 for 1024 meg (2x512) for $395
TwinX 3700 at 3-4-4-8 for1024 meg (2x512) for $335

Which would seem to provide the best performance to cost.

Note: I'm not averse to overclocking. It just seemed that if I'm going to be running a P4 3.0 on that particular board I figured that the stock speed would be plenty fast, especially coming from a PIII 800 running at 900 for the past couple of years.