Ram timing

[Dauntae]

I've been putting PC's together for a while and build for people but fer the life of me can't remember crap about the ram timing and what those numbers mean. I'm looking into a build for someone for running autocad and solidworks and want to get some decent speed ram, So are the higher numbers better or the lower better, is Timing: 4-4-4-15 better or is Timing: 5-6-6-18 better? I can't believe how much of a newb I must sound like

Thanks for the help
Dauntae

 

[meat_helmet]

Lower is better, however, it depends at what speed they are rated at. For example 1100Mhz ram at 5-5-5-18 would be faster than 667Mhz ram at 4-4-4-15. The faster the ram gets, the loser the timings. Generally descent timings for 800Mhz ram (the standard now) are 4-4-4-12.

 

[baron5]

alot of ddr2 comes in 5-5-5-15 aswell, but almost of the decent memory brands, (oc, corsair, gskill etc.) all clock down the 4-4-4-15, or at least 4-5-5-15 with a lil voltage. but yeah i rec. you get maybe a set of 1000mhz ram at 5-5-5-15 , ddr800 at 4-4-4-12