Should I build or buy?

[Druid]

You mean of the 1600 MHz ram of a similar price, or the one I listed? I know someone here told me they read some tests that proved 1600 MHz was faster even with worse timings.

 

[zmatt]

Well it will be faster even with looser timings, but there is a point where the timings can be so loose you loose the speed advantage.

The ram you posted is good, but your paying a $70 premium for 1600mhz memory that doesn't have much better timings than much cheaper 1600mhz memory.

For example:
Newegg.com - OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory
8-8-8-24, and they are under $200. I think they just haven't gotten ddr3 refined enough yet to pull good speeds and timings for a reasonable price. When we first started using DDR2 everyone had 800mhz ram. It just takes some time for it to catch up.

 

[scrimstar]

This RAM looks good, and it fairly cheap for DDR3 1600MHz.
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

 

[zmatt]

^That is a much better deal.

 

[Druid]

Crap, I wish I would have seen that before.

Yeah, definitely get that ram right there.