ram timing or sata speed

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snail

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I am in need of buying a new mobo, and more than likely will swing along the asus path. Now what would be more beneficial, changing ram timings from 9 9 9 24 to 8 8 8 20, or would it be better to go from sata to
sata2 considering hdd is sata2.

In other words, what would be worth it as the 1 mobo comes with a tool to automatically configure the ram, but only comes with sata, and the other mobo comes with sata2 but you wilkl have to do the ram timings manually. Which will give the overall better performance
 
If you are buying a new MB then I'm pretty sure it will have at least SATAII
 
Tool to configure the RAM? RAM timings aren't determined by the motherboard, they are determined by the RAM (hence RAM timings). Yes the motherboard plays a role because it must allow the adjustment of RAM timings, but which motherboard these days don't?

Which motherboards are you thinking of buying?
 
if you pop in the ram, it will auto configure. The ram comes with timings anyway, as in they are on the chip themselves. If you want to change the timings, read them up first, because you don't want to start thrashing the timings and burn the ram out (well, I don't think you'll burn the chip out per se, but you'll basically make the chips over work to keep the timings and it'll get really really unstable.)
 
scotty777 said:
you don't want to start thrashing the timings and burn the ram out (well, I don't think you'll burn the chip out per se, but you'll basically make the chips over work to keep the timings and it'll get really really unstable.)
Click to expand...

Unless the voltage is increased beyond that specified by the manufacturer or 1.65v on Intel platforms using DDR3, there is no risk of damaging either CPU, Motherboard or RAM.
 
As you will see the formula III comes with a standard feature which you select which timing you want for the ram and the motherboard will automatically configure the ram to be stable at those timings. And the formula III has an overburn protection system so you wont be able to damage anything. but the price of it is a bit expensive for the odd few features, therefore i need to pick a decent board. By the looks of things the 3rd option seems pretty good.
 
snail said:
As you will see the formula III comes with a standard feature which you select which timing you want for the ram and the motherboard will automatically configure the ram to be stable at those timings. And the formula III has an overburn protection system so you wont be able to damage anything. but the price of it is a bit expensive for the odd few features, therefore i need to pick a decent board. By the looks of things the 3rd option seems pretty good.
Click to expand...

Sorry to burst your bubble but it can make an "educated" guess but there is no way it can automatically configure and guarantee the RAM will be stable. The only way that is happening is if the RAM was actually rated for the speed you are running it. Trying to go higher than that is futile exercise anyway. As I said, you can't damage memory by changing timings, if you change voltage yes, otherwise no.

If you want RAM to run at tight timings then either buy RAM rated for a higher frequency, clock it down and run with tighter timings or get RAM rated for those timings. For example if you have 1600mhz CL7 RAM the memory is actually running at a latency of (7 / 800) * 1000 = 8.75ns latency. Take it down to 1333mhz @ CL 6 and you have (6 / 667) * 1000 = 8.995ns latency. Therefore RAM rated to run @ 1600mhz @ CL7 will comfortable do 1333mhz @ CL6. That is latency wise, naturally the amount of bandwidth is reduced because frequency is reduced so you can probably run at lower voltage.

Going higher than 1333Mhz on Intel platform requires that you overclock the CPU anyway, so unless that is your plan, get either 1600mhz DDR3 and clock it down or get 1333mhz at the rated timings you want.
 
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so which board would be the best value for money here,

As I can get option 3 for R1000 less than option 1, and im sure option 3 is better than option 2?
 
I have a motherboard with the P55 express chipset (Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3). Great board. Don't like the H57/H55 chipset so much, reason being they have integrated video. I hate this new move (by both Intel and will probably be done by AMD also) to put video processing into the CPU, it's good for low end but top end you have extra heat being generated by the on chip GPU which you aren't using.

If you don't understand what I'm on about, what I'm saying is, Option 3 is P55 express chipset. Option 1 is H57.

I'd go for Option 3, especially at R1000 cheaper. But I haven't looked at the chipsets for a while now, so perhaps wait for some more replies.

EDIT: Oh WAIT!

Option 1 is P55, Option 3 is H57. But don't think Option 1 is worth the extra R1000....
 
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Option 2 is p55, but I don't know how much esquire sells option 2 for as its not on the price list, yet half the stuff they have isn't on the price list
 
P7P55D-E LX is on the midrand pricelist.

But get some input from the hardware guys who usually hang out here on the forum, as I said, haven't looked at motherboards in a while (or reviews).
 
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I have made up my mind. I am going to be taking th P7P55D-E EVO, from asus, but it's not on the durban esquire pricelist. Does anyone else have a price list from esquire that has this mobo on it?
 
Good choice :)
I'm running i7 860 + Asus P7H55D-M Evo at my office.

With the Socket 1156 I would always try to get a motherboard below R1800.

Also, what Gnome said about having to overclock the CPU to run the RAM at faster speeds than 1333MHz was incorrect. I'm running my DDR3 1600MHz at 1600MHz without overclocking the CPU.
However, back at home I'm sitting with an Engineering Sample i7 940, which has a locked memory multiplier, so I have to overclock the FSB/BCLK to get the RAM speed faster than 1066MHz :(
 
I doubt the speed increase with those ram timing would be noticeable. Rather focus on the FSB speed, SATA connectors, RAM slots, and the brand (i.e. Read reviews online to help you choose).
 
Pada said:
Also, what Gnome said about having to overclock the CPU to run the RAM at faster speeds than 1333MHz was incorrect. I'm running my DDR3 1600MHz at 1600MHz without overclocking the CPU.
Click to expand...

How?
 
Well, that depends on your Mboard. Many mboards allow your to reduce the clock multiplier of the CPU so that you can overclock the motherboard while keeping your CPU clockrate constant. I assume that's what Pada is using to overclock his ram.
 
MiyagiDono said:
Well, that depends on your Mboard. Many mboards allow your to reduce the clock multiplier of the CPU so that you can overclock the motherboard while keeping your CPU clockrate constant. I assume that's what Pada is using to overclock his ram.
Click to expand...

Erm, that is still overclocking. If the BCLK changes, the CPU is being overclocked. Also once you do that turbo boost doesn't work anymore, and possible C1-C4 power saving states don't either as the multiplier has been set manually.

From wikipedia:
Core i5:
Wikipedia: Intel Core i5 said:
and support for dual-channel DDR3-800/1066/1333 memory
Click to expand...

Couldn't find the same for Core i7, perhaps it differs, doubt it tho.

Care to enlighten Pada?
 
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Gnome, see here: P7H55D-M Evo with 2:12 memory multiplier
^^ You'll see that the Asus EPU software actually reduced the FSB from 133MHz to 131MHz to save power. You'll also notice that ONLY the FSB:DRAM multiplier was changed from 2:10 (DRAM @ 1333MHz) to 2:12 (DRAM @ 1600MHz)!

I'm currently running Ubuntu, so I don't want to reboot in WinXP again just for CPU-z.
 
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