Latency vs. Speed

[JFHuff]

I was looking at newegg trying to find some fairly good memory for a machine im building. While searching i noticed when u drill it down that the faster the memory the higher the latency and vice versa. One i saw was pc2 8500 which had a latency of 5 while the fastest ic ould get with a latency of 3 is pc2 5300. Im trying to figure out which is better. To have faster speed rating or a lower latency since ive read on this forum that the lower the latency the better.

 

[diduknowthat]

if you dont intend on overclocking, then just get the memory that is standard for your motherboard with the lowest latency you can afford.

 

[JFHuff]

would i have compatablity issues if a used a different memory?? currently im supposed to have DDR2 667 but im using DDR2 533??