High End Ram Roundup - PAGE 1

Martin Krohn - Friday, June 14th, 2002 0 Favourite (0)

The high end memory market is pushed by the overclocking crowd. The biggest example of this is DDR 400 being around and easy to get a hold of. Yet chipset currently only officially support DDR333. JEDEC has even approved PC2700 (DDR333). Memory companies are even doing quite a bit of overclocking themselves. Taking DDR333 modules and testing them to much higher speeds. We are taking 6 different sticks for a spin today from 4 different manufacturers.

There have been a lot of confusion floating around about the different modules. First thing that you'll have to read is the support pages on that module and take a look at what timings they guarantee the module to work at. 90% of all the people I've seen that are unhappy with the performance of their modules simply didn't look at the specs on the manufacturers site. One of the tricks that some companies have been using to get insane speeds is by turning all fo the tweaks off! Now that high speed memory has become so mainstream I believe that not only are high speeds recquired but it is also recquired that the modules can run DDR333 speeds and higher with a fair amount of tweaks turned on. Thanks to the costs in 6ns modules dropping so fast every company is offering PC2700 memory.

To date I have yet to see any truly good RAM reviews. Most of the articles that I have seen are nothing more than Sandra benches which are completely worthless. A lot of them making certain RAM modules look good even though they suck purely because that module was good at doing what that specified test was looking for. What I'm doing here is using multiple levels of tweaks and 2 different voltages! By combining these two things I hope to give you a very good idea of what to expect from these modules.

There is a BIG difference between the modules out on the market. You will want to check what the SPD says to see what timings your RAM manufacturer suggests. You do this by changing your RAM timings from manual to set by SPD. This will read all of the timings off of the SPD.

Now it's time to dive in and take a look at what we have in front of us today.

Kingston

Kingston's Value RAM line has been a very good option for those on a budget over the years. Kingston never takes a crack at being the fastest memory out there. They do keep up with the times and produce good quality products at a low price. This module from Kingston is meant to run at cas 2 3-6-3 and 2T command rate. It uses Winbond 6ns modules. Winbond has a reputation of NOT handling all of the tweaks very well. Pricing in at $82 today. They do not use a heatspreader and I still don't believe that they are needed for this kind of packaging.

Mushkin

Mushkin has been pushing the limits of RAM since the PC100 days. Their PC150 was undeniably the best SDRAM for tweakers everywhere. I've been a big fan of Mushkins bringing high speed modules to the market that can handle a good amount of memory tweaks. You'll want to read things over carefully when selecting your RAM. Anything using the level 2 naming will be 2-2-2. This modules weighs in at $219 currently making it the most expensive module that we have today. It's also advertised for 2-2-2 goodness. With a heatspreader included of course.

OCZ

Three different modules here today are from OCZ. We have 2400, 2700, and 3200 modules from them here today.

These guys always reach high bus speeds at the expense of tweaks. Since so many "reviews" out there use timings like these for their testing these guys always look good in those reviews.
The PC2400 is cas 2.5 3-6-3 RAM
The PC2700 is cas 2 3-6-3 RAM (heatspreader)
The PC 3200 is cas 2.5 3-6-3 RAM (heatspreader)

Corsair