Locked Question about hardware

[Mikaela]

hello, I have a question about hardware and someone here might know the answer. but if this question is way out of the area, please let me know and I will ask somewhere else.
I have a laptop which supports 3200MHz ram, the default one installed has CL22. I found an online seller who offers RAM of same speed but with CL16. Unfortunately I cannot find anywhere if the motherboard supports such low CL. Can I just switch to CL16 RAM? will there be a compatibility issue?
thanks for the help!

 

[Jimmy Collaros]

Moved to Help & Request Mikaela. Good luck.

 

[Mikaela]

Thanks for the help, Jimmy! sorry for the trouble

 

[Light_Eater]

You must be registered for see links

That is an average description of the ram that should be used in a manual for some laptop. As you can see no CL restrictions are mentioned. Some times producers provide a list of ram that have been tested with a given hardware and this compatibility lists shows CL of tested modules. You shouldn't have problems with finding this information in manual for you machine.

 

[Mikaela]

You must be registered for see links

That is an average description of the ram that should be used in a manual for some laptop. As you can see no CL restrictions are mentioned. Some times producers provide a list of ram that have been tested with a given hardware and this compatibility lists shows CL of tested modules. You shouldn't have problems with finding this information in manual for you machine.

yes... this is what I meant. The the manufacturer don't specifiy the CL restriction, that's why I was concerned if I will be pushing my machine past the limit or not.
as long I don't go higher past the frequency limit, no matter how low the CL is fine, right?

 

[Cyler]

You will get mostly generic answers since you didnt write any specifics like laptop model, mobo, CPU type, etc to look for.

CL should not have any impact on your PC so yes a cl16 should work. CL (CAS latency) value shows how many cycles it takes for the ram to respond to a read or write request. So a CL 22 takes more time to respond than a CL 16 and therefore cl16 is faster. To my knowledge, there was never a real issue with high CL values and the only difference is the price as the lower the CL the higher the price of the ram stick.

Having said that tho, each PC/Mobo/CPU manufacturer has a list on their site of tested and acceptable ram brands for that specific model and you should pay a visit to the site to check. If in general, you see a lot of CL16 sticks you should be fine. Also if it's a second ram stick you are getting and not replacing your existing one, there might be incompatibility issues as in general, it's not a good idea to mix ram sticks of different properties. At best they will both synchronize to the slowest one so you don't gain any advantage from CL 16, at worse they won't even work together.

If you can be more specific as to what you are trying to do (replace/expand) and also some hardware specs you might get a better answer.

 

[Mikaela]

You will get mostly generic answers since you didnt write any specifics like laptop model, mobo, CPU type, etc to look for.

CL should not have any impact on your PC so yes a cl16 should work. CL (CAS latency) value shows how many cycles it takes for the ram to respond to a read or write request. So a CL 22 takes more time to respond than a CL 16 and therefore cl16 is faster. To my knowledge, there was never a real issue with high CL values and the only difference is the price as the lower the CL the higher the price of the ram stick.

Having said that tho, each PC/Mobo/CPU manufacturer has a list on their site of tested and acceptable ram brands for that specific model and you should pay a visit to the site to check. If in general, you see a lot of CL16 sticks you should be fine. Also if it's a second ram stick you are getting and not replacing your existing one, there might be incompatibility issues as in general, it's not a good idea to mix ram sticks of different properties. At best they will both synchronize to the slowest one so you don't gain any advantage from CL 16, at worse they won't even work together.

If you can be more specific as to what you are trying to do (replace/expand) and also some hardware specs you might get a better answer.

here is

You must be registered for see links

I got one stick inside and I plan to get a dual Gskill ripjaws CL16 then flip my old one for sale. upgrading to dual channel and lowering the CL
if you opened the link, they didn't specify any compatible brands or model.

 

[Wichestery2k]

cl doesnt matter just the max speed your mobo supports! 2400,2666,3200 or which ever... but to be honest unless your banks arent maxed out going from 17 to 16 isn't much improvement...

 

[Mikaela]

cl doesnt matter just the max speed your mobo supports! 2400,2666,3200 or which ever... but to be honest unless your banks arent maxed out going from 17 to 16 isn't much improvement...

thank you for your answer. my choice is between 3200 32GB CL22 dual channel and 3200 16GB CL16 dual channel. Since I'm going for speed and 16GB is enough so I'm going for the CL16. besides the CL16 is cheaper than 32GB lol.
I got my answer, mods.. please close this if necessary. thanks guys!

 

[Jimmy Collaros]

Mikaela we are glad you found your answer. The thread will close now.