Question about ram timings?

[AKM880]

Hello, I will soon build a computer in the near, near future. I have already replaced major components in computers so I know the basics. But I hear talks about "ram timings" what are these and how to you set them? Sorry I'm a real noob lol.

 

[Helloworld_98]

they are basically the latency of the ram.

and you need more voltage to get lower latencies at the same clock. However clock speed can override latency hence why ddr3 is still ok even when the latency is double ddr2-1066 ram.

 

[AKM880]

So latency is like the speed of the ram, like 533MHZ, 667MHZ, 800MHZ, etc.? So why sometimes people have to set it in the BIOS or something.

 

[Helloworld_98]

no latency is like 4-4-4-12 for high-end ddr2 or 6-7-7-24 for high-end ddr3.

mhz is clock speed.

and sometimes you need to set the ram timings etc due to abnormal settings e.g voltage, speed and latency.

 

[AKM880]

Thanks for your helpful answers, but in the ram's manual it'll tell you how to change these things right?