How much they differ and doest this difference has REAL effect on performance?The money difference is $150, that is essential for me while building new system from the scratch with $1.000 budget.Thanks for your responseDmitriy

From what I have read in reviews, the faster RAM yields up to 10% higher performance in memory intensive benchmarks, but in game benchmarks the performance difference is much less, more like 2-5%. In fact, the following Anandtech article http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2813 shows the real world performance difference to be even less, and in some cases the 800MHz part posted slower results than the 667MHz memory.In terms of bang for buck, that $150 difference is 15% of your budget and, IMO, you will be lucky to see 1% faster performance in FS. That $150 difference would be much better directed to a faster CPU, a better GPU, more memory or a larger hard drive, in that order of preference.Gary

I agree with Gary. You'll never see the difference. Go with the less expensive RAM and put the money saved into the CPU.Doug

Not disagreeing with you, but unless you include the memory timings for each option, I don't think a good comparison can be made.scott s..

I also had the same Q and was doing some research in building my own PC and Overclocking.IF you have a real fast expensive memory, you can try OCing the FSB and don't do much with the memory.. the faster memory would take care of it.But then, if you are going to spend so much for the expensive memory, why not spend the money on a faster CPU?So the suggestion is to get the Good "value for money" memory and try to overclock that instead of getting expensive memory.Manny

Hey Gary.Thanks for that link. I didn't know I can get a MB with AGP and PCI-E slot in them.Hmmm,..... This could be a solution for building a dual 2 core PC today but not invest on any Graphics card until DX10.The only Q is... how much can I overclock this thing.Manny

> I agree with Gary. You'll never see the difference. Go>with the less expensive RAM and put the money saved into the>CPU.>>DougWow, so perhaps it's better to go with even cheaper DDR2_533 and buy DDR2_800 in next year when it will be cheaper? What do you think, guys?

I now have 2gb of PNY DDR2 667 memory (running in Dual Channel mode), and in conjunction with my new Pentium D 945 dual core CPU, I have absolutely NO problems running FS9...:) I saved a little on the graphics card; an Inno3D Geforce 7600GS 256mb PCI-E card which will see me through to the new DX10 cards!I get pretty much a steady 30fps in FS9 (locked) regardless of where I am, except maybe Heathrow (Traffic 2005 at 50%) where it'll hover around 20-22fps. Everything still feels fabulously smooth though with very little stutter.Other games such as Oblivion run amazingly with many graphics options set pretty high - good shadows, bloom, reflections, bump-mapping, etc.....the new Tomb Raider with most options at high (no HDR though....don't like the look, nor the performance drop!). Prey, Fear, and quake 4 demo's all run well with high settings. All at 1280 x 1024.All this with everything at defualt speeds! That 667 memory should be just fine for you; mine is not even one of the better 'performance' brands!

Another question.Below there is 2 DDR2_800 memory types.The price difference is $200. So what is the technical difference?CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820145039CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820145590

IIRC, it doesn't overclock much due to the FSB maxing out on this mobo at something like 330MHz. I was seriously considering this board for a mini-upgrade E6400 @ 3.2GHz (ie. 400MHz) until I found this out.Gary

Alrighty then, how about this review comparing two DDR2 800 memory stick with different timings: http://www.simhq.com/_technology2/technology_085b.html. The result is essentially the same ie. negligble performance gain for a whole lot more bucks.Gary

The difference is the memory timings. El expensivo has a CAS latency of 4 and 4-4-4-12 timings, whereas the more reasonably priced items had a CAS latency of 5 and 5-5-5-12. The difference between the two in FS performance would be that with one of the options you'd have $200 less to spend on FS addons :-lol Gary

Don't know about the C4s, but Anand's test of the Corsair C3s gave good performance in an Intel at DDR1067 and 4-3-4-11 timing, but like you say the bang for tthe buck may not be there.scott s..

With regard the OT, no difference at all unless you were overclocking and thus making use of higher FSB speeds.As for the latency issues, they are measureable under test, but in the real world, totally unoticeable.

Let the vendor specify the RAM for you case you parallely buy a board etc. If there are troubles, it's the vendor's responsibility. ;-) Kind regards, Jaap