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Reading around, i know that the cas7 1333s will time faster of course... however, when more ram stix are involved, there may be a delay in read times.

Can someone explain which setup would end up being faster? Lets keep it at DualChannel specs.

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@techie007 the linked topic is specific to tri-channel modules. – Mechaflash Feb 15 '12 at 20:38
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Note the answers there consist of "Depends on XYZ".. Perhaps fill us in on your XYZ's so we have a full picture. :) It really DOES depend on chip-set, motherboard, CPU configurations, etc, just as described in answers to that question I linked, so this may not have a real answer (just like the dupe I linked). – techie007 Feb 15 '12 at 20:40
the questions also differ in the fact that the comparisons in question include the cas rating being different. If the cas ratings were the same, the answer would be the 2x8GB is faster based on the dupe question. But that may not be the case. – Mechaflash Feb 15 '12 at 20:46
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So if you take the worst case scenario, nothing is cached and your cpu needs to read 1 byte of data, then you have to compare the added delay in read times of multiple ram modules with the time it takes for 2 cycles (9-7). IMO the difference would not be even slightly noticable, and the only way to really find out is to do a benchmark. – DaMacc Feb 15 '12 at 22:18

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Having 4x4GB sticks means you can install two pairs. Most motherboards have color-coded slots (blue and white) to plug them into. Overall, this should get you higher bandwidth since there are 4 available sticks to read from.

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CAS timings have an effect which probably makes this statement more true. However, generally if someone has 4 slots (dual-channeled), running 2 higher GB sticks will be faster than 4 lower GB sticks if at the same CAS based on the dupe post that techie listed. – Mechaflash Feb 17 '12 at 16:15
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I'm going to leave this at "This question cannot be answered without benchmarks", which would be hard because someone would have to test this case exactly.

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