DDR3 Memory bandwidth versus memory latency…what to buy?

Anandtech has a interesting write up on DDR3 memory and the Intel Core I7 , comparing how performance scales with memory latency and bandwidth.   Pretty good read for those of you that are interesting in moving to a DDR3 platform and would like to know what is the best bang for your $$.   Read about it here.

Basically the article goes through some exhaustive teting of DDR3 in various configuration at DDR3-1066 speeds up to DDR3-2000 and latency of CAS5 up to CAS 9.   In short, most programs are not that sensitive to the plethora of memory speeds tested, although a few are (synthetic tests do not count), but typically the performance gain rarely exceeds 5-6%.  What this means to you as the consumer is that you can feel safe buying a middle of the road  DD3-1333 C6 or DDR3-1600 C6 capable memory kit for a modest price ($75-80 for 4GB) and find solace in the fact that your performance will pretty much equal kits costing twice as much.