OCZ PC2-4200EB: Reaching for DDR2-800
by Wesley Fink on December 21, 2004 3:37 PM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Updated Components for New DDR2 Test Bed
Our first efforts to test DDR2 memory were limited by the 925X motherboard and 3.6E Prescott used for testing. That combination limited the maximum overclock to about DDR2-686 due to the 14X lowest multiplier available and the 925X overclocking capabilities. We took a close look at the new components available on the market and made several changes to our DDR2 memory test bed to allow more accurate testing of the full capabilities of DDR2 memory.Processor
While the 3.46EE CPU is very expensive, it has several attributes that make it a much better choice for our memory test bed than the 3.6ES used in the past. First, it is the only current 1066 FSB CPU. We have been able to run the 3.6ES at 1066 as well, but the 14X multiplier combined with the overclocking limits of the 3.6 keeps FSB to 285 maximum. With the 3.46EE, both 13X and 12X multipliers are available. We found in testing that this 3.46EE is capable of reaching 324FSB at 12X multiplier on the Asus P5AD2-E motherboard. This provides a test bed range of 200 to 324, or 800FSB to 1300FSB, for memory testing.Motherboard
The 925XE version of the P5AD2 series adds some capabilities to the DDR2 memory test bed. In addition to a 533 1:1 memory clock at 1066FSB, Asus also provides a 3:4 ratio of DDR2-711, at stock speed. Combined with the 324 clock of the 3.46EE at 12X multiplier, the P5AD2-e is capable of a maximum memory overclock of DDR2-864. This is a great improvement over the DDR686 limitation of the previous 925X motherboard used for DDR2 memory testing.
Power Supply
We continue with the remarkable OCZ PowerStream 520 power supply. The PowerStream 520 has individually powered rails like the Antec TruePower units. The rails are also individually adjustable with LED readouts for special tweaking needs. Powerstream features high wattage, beefed up connectors for video and hard drive, SATA connectors, and both the 24-pin ATX connector required for 925X/915.server and a 20-pin adapter for a standard 875/865/Athlon system. This may be overkill for an average end user, but these are excellent features for a memory test bed where overclocking, power hungry processors, and power-hungry video are the norm.
Heat Sink Fan
The Thermaltake Jungle512 (CL-P0037) is a third-party LGA 775 Heat Sink that does a decent job of cooling with the demands of the LGA 775 at overclocked speeds.
With the updates to the DDR2 memory test bed, we were confident that we could actually measure the performance of this OCZ PC2-4200EB as well as future fast DDR2 memory without the limitations of a CPU or motherboard wall. The range from DDR2-400 to DDR-864 should provide the latitude to truly test the capabilities of the best DDR2 memory.
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MS - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
JasonIt is certainly true that if you have a system backbone that is not capable of taking advantage of the peripherals it will put a little damper on the enthusiasm. On the other hand, don't blame the components for that.
One of the biggest issues is that the P4, no matter what you do cannot take advantage of latencies or bandwidth. The Prescott is a little better than the Northwood in that respect but it is still the bottleneck. Chances are that Intel finally will wake up and do something about this problem but maybe not. However, from the standpoint of a memory manufacturer, all we can do is try to provide THE very best solution and I firmly believe that we have done just that. Whether anybody wants it or not is a different story --- even though the latter could become our problem... :)
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
#9 - We don't often mention exact price in a review because it is always changing and reviews are read and reread in the future. This is particularly true with memory. Right now, a 2x1GB kit is about $818. The 1GB kit with SS 512MB dimms is about $435.As we said in the review, this is expensive memory.
formulav8 - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
This was most likely a HAND-Picked Dimm that OCZ sent to anandtech. Wait until there is real experiance with this memory to see if it is real or not.Jason
skunkbuster - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
how much does this cost? i dont think i saw it mentioned in the reviewbcoupland - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
What I find ironic with all this huge bandwidth on the 1066 fsb p4's, is that a S754 3700+ with 3.2 GB/s can still beat it in most tests, some more than others. Nice Ram, though.bigtoe36 - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
GuysI haven't seen any other DDR2 clock as good as these dimms. Running 3-2-2- at DDR700+ is pretty impressive. Maybe we need to blame the boards or the cpu's for the lack of speed. Im sure if AMD moves to DDR2 running dimms at DDR700 3-2-2 would be pretty damned fast.
CBone - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
How did the other sticks do in the 1066 FSB bench? I'm going to guess that if there was a difference, it was so slight as to be negligible.It seems that everyone is waiting for the great white hope in DDR2, but manufacturers are delivering the great white hype. So far it looks like ALL DDR2 performs and overclocks about the same so you should buy as cheap as you can and not bother getting the overpriced Corsair or OCZ.
formulav8 - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
Was it mainly just for the oc or the lower timings? I guess if for ocing it is nice. But for timings it is worthless?? That is what I was trying to understand with my above post.Jason
formulav8 - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
Unless I was looking at the wrong numbers, this memory is worthless. There was NOT EVEN 1% increase in performance? It increased the points in some benches but by a wopping 0.5%-0.9% on average???I am not sure why this review is so excited about this memory??
You get a much higher performance increase with DDR1 at low timings compared to high timings. Up to 4-5% increase in almost every bench.
Did I compare the wrong numbers or something??
Jason
Icehawk - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
I'm very impressed that they got dual channel 1gb sticks working so well in DDR2 - wish they could do the same for DDR :( A64 + 2gb DC would be nice...