The New 2GB DDR Kits
The six new kits fall into 2 groups: three kits are rated at DDR400 and three are rated at DDR500.
Two of the DDR400 parts, from G. Skill and Kingston, appear to be based on Infineon B die memory chips, BE5 or BE6. The third DDR400 from Team reached a higher DDR533, but is still likely based on the Infinity B die. The Infineon B die normally performs very well to the DDR480 to DDR 500 range. The DDR500 kit from Mushkin is likely based on Infineon C die memory chips, CE5 or CE6. The C die chips are nearly as fast at slower memory speeds as B die, but they overclock further to the DDR550 to DDR580 range.
Crucial is the marketing arm of Micron, so Crucial is the only 2GB kit featuring Micron memory chips. The Micron-based 2GB chip performs exceptionally well, but availability has been an issue since the Crucial 2GB kit was first introduced. Apparently, yields have been and remain an issue with this 2GB kit.
Corsair submitted a "Value" DDR500 2GB kit for Part 2 that is based on Samsung UCCC memory chips. The Samsung parts are about 60% the price of Infineon 2GB kits. Corsair tells us that the chips are a bit slower in memory timings, but the overclocking capabilities are very good - matching or exceeding the OC capabilities of the Infineon 2GB kits.
This is a very wide range of 2GB kits, and with the retest of our three earlier kits, we will have results from nine 2GB kits to help you choose the 2GB DDR kit that is right for your needs and budget.
The six new kits fall into 2 groups: three kits are rated at DDR400 and three are rated at DDR500.
| Manufacturer | Description (Memory Chips) |
Memory Speed | Rated Timings | Voltage |
| Corsair | TWINX2048-4000PT (Samsung UCCC) |
500DDR | 3-4-4-8 | 2.6V |
| Crucial | CLIII5N.32 PN56278 (Micron) |
500DDR | 3-3-3-8 | 2.6V |
| G. Skill | F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX (Infineon B Die) |
400DDR | 2-3-2-5 | 2.6V |
| Kingston | KHX3200AK2/2G (Probably Infineon B Die) |
400DDR | 2.5-3-3-7 | 2.6V |
| Mushkin | 2GB Redline XP4000 (Infineon C die) |
500DDR | 3-3-2-8 | 2.6V |
| Team | XTreem TXDR 1024M400HC2 (Infineon B die) |
400DDR | 2-3-3-5 | 2.6V |
Two of the DDR400 parts, from G. Skill and Kingston, appear to be based on Infineon B die memory chips, BE5 or BE6. The third DDR400 from Team reached a higher DDR533, but is still likely based on the Infinity B die. The Infineon B die normally performs very well to the DDR480 to DDR 500 range. The DDR500 kit from Mushkin is likely based on Infineon C die memory chips, CE5 or CE6. The C die chips are nearly as fast at slower memory speeds as B die, but they overclock further to the DDR550 to DDR580 range.
Crucial is the marketing arm of Micron, so Crucial is the only 2GB kit featuring Micron memory chips. The Micron-based 2GB chip performs exceptionally well, but availability has been an issue since the Crucial 2GB kit was first introduced. Apparently, yields have been and remain an issue with this 2GB kit.
Corsair submitted a "Value" DDR500 2GB kit for Part 2 that is based on Samsung UCCC memory chips. The Samsung parts are about 60% the price of Infineon 2GB kits. Corsair tells us that the chips are a bit slower in memory timings, but the overclocking capabilities are very good - matching or exceeding the OC capabilities of the Infineon 2GB kits.
This is a very wide range of 2GB kits, and with the retest of our three earlier kits, we will have results from nine 2GB kits to help you choose the 2GB DDR kit that is right for your needs and budget.
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DonPMitchell - Monday, March 6, 2006 - link
I'm surprised there was no discussion of single-rank vs. dual-rank memory. For the Athlon, that's a big issue, becuase its memory controller may down-clock beyond 4 ranks of memory.nyogen - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link
I remember when Nvidia released their 6xxx series there was an all out boycott of paper launches.OCZ and Mushkin released not very long ago their 2GB dual channel high end kits namely:
http://www.mushkin.com/doc/products/memory_detail....">http://www.mushkin.com/doc/products/memory_detail....
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_e...">http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_e...
Apart from these parts not having been available, the new batch that carries only the name given by reviews are flagged by poor performance, different IC's from the original batch, and lots of glitches.
I am sure Corsair and all the other manufacturers are doing the same, paper launch, hard launch cherry picked and then selling out to unsuspecting customers a COMPLETELY different product, backed by reputable reviews.
Don't you feel like they have been using you and used your reputation and popularity in order to commit something very close to fraud ???
If you encourage us to buy these products then you have the responsability to follow up on the products life and batches so that once they try to do this again you will be there to sanction this and PROTECT US. Otherwise your reviews become fairy tales and the only ones that have the reviewed products are you and a couple of people in the world.
GO FOR THEM ! END THIS UNFAIR PRACTICE !
Overlag - Monday, February 6, 2006 - link
Crucial have infact stopped making there 1gig DDRI sticks due to the massive fail rate on there high end products.i have had 6x 512mb failures and 4x 1gig failures. While there customer services is the best of ANY online company ive dealt with, there high end products are really bad quality now.... the ram overheats, then after a few months wont run at 1t, then it starts making noises while you access it, before finaly degrading over a month from 2-2-2-6 settings down to 3-4-4-10 untill failing totaly.
This includes chips (my latest two) which ive been using at 2.7volts ONLY, and with active cooling, yet they are still hotter than my X2 4400 at 4800 speeds...Last week they run fine at 2-2-2-7 1t, now they are at 3-3-3-8 2t :(
... Why there high end products have problems i dont know, there normal or value ram runs fine for YEARS and YEARS.
Very disapointed with it all apart from the customer services. However even that has started to disapoint me, as they refused to RMA/refund me for my 2x 512mb pair...
leexgx - Monday, February 6, 2006 - link
i had no problems getting my ram RMAed and replaced (2 days ago 2 day turn around UK) never had something replaced so fast before :)you can still buy it from here (UK tho)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Crucial_Dua...">http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Crucial_Dua...
on an other note it is an consern to me as well i have never used ram that can heat my room (needs active cooling) like others have posted it does run hot if not cooled i cant seem to get to 2-2-2-7 T1 my asus a8n-sli prem does an anoying thing by auto setting it to 4 5 5 12 {fail safe maybe?}(when i open A64 tweeker as it shows the info) then the nvidia Sound or nvidia video tray Icon crashs the system with an nice BSOD, (works fine tho at 3-3-3-7 T1 @ ddr500 2.7v or ddr speed lower but just run it at ddr400 ish now)
an but realy any way good OCZ or just standered TwinMoss ram is realy real world 2-4% performance dif (Amd64 On chip ram contorler removes the bottle neck that was on the Older k7 chips i go for lower timeings over more bandwith)
realy should have an look at DFI streets Forums on the matter of ddr1 Ocing (AMD overclocking) http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f...">http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f...
(other note i think my ram was partly dead when i got it just put up with it untill me pc did not boot any more )
Overlag - Thursday, February 9, 2006 - link
i wouldnt want to buy ballistix ever again... Once this set finaly gives up the ghost i will ask for a full refund and get some real memory.XeCutor - Thursday, February 2, 2006 - link
My first pair failed memtest at 250mhz, seemed stable at 247mhz. My second pair does 250mhz but not much more. Fails at 255mhz. All this is on a DFI Expert board with an opteron 165 3-4-4-8 1T timings at 2,6-2,8v. Voltage doesn't seem to matter att all to these sticks, they fail at the same speeds regardless for me.bupkus - Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - link
I went for the Twinx2048-3200c2pt because of the lower timings and $197 AMIR price. I haven't researched this much lately, but I recall PC3200 with tight timings getting the nod from the enthusiast community for the Athlon 64.The TWINX2048-4000PT that I faced it off to lists timings of 3-4-4-8 which I thought wasn't preferable to the tighter timings especially with a price of $233.
The OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K is going for the same price of about $200 but the OCZ5001024EBPE only appears on newegg as a single 1GB module for $153.44 + $4.81 shipping.
That's too rich for my blood.
I guess the question for me would be which is the best for $200 +- $20?
Visual - Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - link
Besides the TWINX kit, corsair offers single 1GB modules too - again marked as 4000PTThe price for the kits for some reason seems higher than two separate modules.
So my question is, are the separate modules the same thing as what's in the kits? Why don't you mention them at all, and either recommend them for better value over the overpriced kits, or, if they dont perform as well, warn users about them?
Googer - Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - link
I would have liked to have seen four 512MB modules shown in the graphs as a refrence of how much or how little there is to gain by using these pairs of 1GB modules. By doing this I could form a cost/benefit analasys.bersl2 - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
I'm going to wait to see if the price on DDR1 falls again before AMD goes DDR2. If it does, I'll get 2 x 1GiB to replace the 4 x 512MiB I bought over a year ago, but haven't been able to use until just now.