High End Ram Roundup - PAGE 2

The best motherboard I have found to date for achieving high bus speeds is the Epox 8k3a+. The stock cooler on the northbridge isn't anywhere near adequate for this test so I mounted a crystal orb on it using Arctic Alumina thermal adhesive.

Only 6 different tweaks were used and 5 of them were changed between tests. The settings are noted before the results. We also decided to try varying voltages. the default voltage is 2.5v and we tested using 2.7v also. We did SOME testing using 2.9v but it didn't add enough of an increase to make it worth the added time. It would have added 33% more testing and the results were not very different than those at 2.7v

Tweaked Testing

The first test here is supposed to bring any stick of RAM to it's knees. These are just basic timings that most of us like to run at. These timings are also needed to get the most memory bandwidth possible.

cas = 2
Trp = 2
Tras = 5
Tred = 2
Bank Interleave = 4 way
Command Rate = 1T

Quite a few big surprises here. OCZ's PC2700 module will not run these tweaks even when I turned it all the way down to 100Mhz FSB! If you plan on doing much tweaking cross this off of your list for sure. Also from them their PC3200 only does 166 in this test. Both the Corsair XMS 3000 and the OCZ 3200 use Samsung 6ns modules that is why the results are identical. As you can see from the results this test brings all but the Mushkin to its knees.

The Mushkin PC2100 comes in with the crown when fully tweaked. This is truly amazing for several reasons. The biggest reason is that it's a 512Mb module. The second reason is this RAM is being sold as PC2100!

Untweaked Testing

This will of course reach the highest speeds possible from the RAM. The timings are untweaked

cas = 2
Trp = 3
Tras = 6
Tred = 3
Bank Interleave = 4 way
Command Rate = 2T

When you turn down the Trp, Tras, Tred and command rate timings the RAM will be able to reach much higher speeds but often times the memory bandwidth at the lower speeds with the tweaks will result in just as much bandwidth as the RAM at these high speeds. OCZ's PC2700 barely does 166 at the timings it is supposedly tested at. All modules reach respectable speeds at these timings.

cas = 2.5
Trp = 3
Tras = 6
Tred = 3
Bank Interleave = 4 way
Command Rate = 2T

OCZ's 3200 falls a little bit short of it's DDR 400 claims. While the Mushkin PC2100 module reaches what I believe the limit of my board is!

Conclusion

You will want to read the support pages on the RAM modules quite closely before you buy anything. If you plan on running a decent amount of tweaks then you'll want to make sure that you purchase a high quality module. You will want to pay VERY close attention to the first table of results. That is the test that best shows the quality of the module. It takes a higher quality stick to be able to run that kind of speed with all of those timings so low.

All modules with the exception of the 2400 module in this test are capable of pushing your boards to their limits. Any board without a 1/5 or higher PCI divider will not go higher than ~ 180Mhz. You will want to keep in mind the motheboard you are using. An asynchronous bus is something that I hate but it's really all most motherboards out there can do to run DDR 333 speeds and above. You'll want to read this article to get an idea of why I hate the asynchronous bus

My choice will be the Mushkin level 2 module for the best RAM on the market right now. Even though it's advertised as only PC2100 it still beats the hell out of all the other modules here which are supposed to be the best modules on the market right now.

Coming in second I will have to pick the guys using the Samsung 6ns chips. the OCZ 3200 and Corsair XMS 3000 both use these. Also many places around pricewatch have the Samsung PC2700 which depending on the PCB should do pretty close to the same speeds. Also XtremeDDR who did not get a module here in time also are pimping Samsung 6ns modules. They are currently the lowest priced guys I can find for these modules.

I will be collecting more modules for testing in the coming weeks and I'll update this article with as many new sticks as I possibly can.