Whats the difference between these two? Which timing is better?

[zylander]

Here are the two different sets of ram I am looking at:

OCZ Platinum

OCZ Performance

I currently have the OCZ platinum in my machine. Ive had it for two years. I use to be able to run it at about 250mhz, but not I can barely hit 230.

The platinum has a timing of 2-3-2-5, while the performance has 3-3-3-8. I dont know crap about timings; whats good for OCing, whats bad, what is good for all around performance, ect. I want to OC, between the two listed above, which is better?

 

[IEC]

If I were you... I'd just use what I have for now and upgrade to a newer platform in the near future. With DDR3 out and new chips coming from AMD as well as Intel, socket 939 and DDR are a bit dated. Also, DDR is more expensive than DDR2. Go figure.

 

[zylander]

Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
If I were you... I'd just use what I have for now and upgrade to a newer platform in the near future. With DDR3 out and new chips coming from AMD as well as Intel, socket 939 and DDR are a bit dated. Also, DDR is more expensive than DDR2. Go figure.

I would just keep it, but my friend is building a cheap s939 system right now and needs some ram. If I can unload my current ram on him then Ill use the money to buy either another set of this or that other one. But, I just dont understand the timings.

 

[BenchZowner]

If you don't understand the timings then you'll also need to read a basic overclocking guide to get through.
Anyways, the first kit, with the 2-3-2-5 timings is 'faster'.

 

[zylander]

Ive read a bunch of overclocking guides. I understand how to find the max speed of the ram. But I dont understand what people mean when they say something like "tighten up the timings". I also dont understand why a timing of 2.5-4-3-7 is best for high bandwidth and why a timing or 2-2-2-7 is good for LL. I have yet to find an OC guide that actually explains how to play with the timings and what you want to get out of it.

 

[aka1nas]

In short, those timings are related to how long it takes a memory read/write to complete. The 4 timings listed are the main timings associated with a memory operation that, when added to several other sub-timing values, add up to the total time for the memory access. Timings are expressed in clock cycles rather than absolute time or speed. Lower values indicate that that portion of the memory operation occurs in fewer cycles, which is generally better. If the timings are set too tightly(iow, too low of a value), then one step of the operation might complete too quickly or slowly for the next step and you end up with corrupted or incorrect data being read or written from memory.

LL, or Low Latency, refers to RAM that has tight(low value) timings and thus takes fewer clock cycles for the memory operation to complete. Generally, there is a trade-off between what clockspeed you can OC RAM up to and what timings you can run the RAM at. Which you should focus on depends largely on what platform you are running and what applications you use. Some application might perform better with more memory bandwidth while others are completely unaffected by it but might do better with less latency.

 

[zylander]

Originally posted by: aka1nas
In short, those timings are related to how long it takes a memory read/write to complete. The 4 timings listed are the main timings associated with a memory operation that, when added to several other sub-timing values, add up to the total time for the memory access. Timings are expressed in clock cycles rather than absolute time or speed. Lower values indicate that that portion of the memory operation occurs in fewer cycles, which is generally better. If the timings are set too tightly(iow, too low of a value), then one step of the operation might complete too quickly or slowly for the next step and you end up with corrupted or incorrect data being read or written from memory.

LL, or Low Latency, refers to RAM that has tight(low value) timings and thus takes fewer clock cycles for the memory operation to complete. Generally, there is a trade-off between what clockspeed you can OC RAM up to and what timings you can run the RAM at. Which you should focus on depends largely on what platform you are running and what applications you use. Some application might perform better with more memory bandwidth while others are completely unaffected by it but might do better with less latency.

That gives me a more clearer understanding, thanks.