So a general rule of thumb is that the tighter the timings, the quicker the ram responds. So lower CL directly correlates to a faster First Word Latency. However, faster frequency does as well.
So, what I’ve found is that 3600, cl14 is the best you can get for any reasonable amount of money.
CL16 is not bad. You’re going to be waiting another 1.5NS for your first word return, but that’s fine. It’ll be a very minimal change in performance.
Given that, I’m curious why you chose Intel. Seems that AMD has the better all around performance at the moment.