OCZ 4200EL: Tops in Memory Performance
by Wesley Fink on October 13, 2003 9:33 PM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Performance Test Configuration
The Memory testbed for evaluating the OCZ 4200EL is the same used in our earlier reviews of DDR500 and other High-Speed Memory.Mushkin PC4000 High Performance: DDR500 PLUS
Corsair TwinX1024-4000 PRO: Improving DDR500 Performance
Mushkin & Adata: 2 for the Fast-Timings Lane
Searching for the Memory Holy Grail — Part 2
All test conditions were as close as possible to those in our earlier memory reviews.
| INTEL 875P Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz (800MHz FSB) |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB OCZ 4200EL(DS) 2 x 512MB Mushkin PC4000 High Performance (DS) 2 x 512MB Corsair TwinX4000 PRO (DS) 2 x 512MB Mushkin Level II PC3500 (DS) 2 x 256MB Adata DDR450 (SS) 2 x 512MB Adata PC4000 (DS) 2 x 512MB Corsair PC4000 (DS) 2 x 512MB Geil PC4000 (DS) 4 x 256MB Kingston PC4000 (SS) 2 x 256MB Kingston PC4000 (SS) 2 x 512MB OCZ PC4000 (DS) 4 x 256MB OCZ PC3700 GOLD (DS) |
| Hard Drives | 2 Western Digital Raptor Serial ATA 36.7GB 10,000 rpm drives in an Intel ICH5R RAID configuration |
| PCI/AGP Speed | Fixed at 33/66 |
| Bus Master Drivers: | 875P Intel INF Update v5.00.1012, SATA RAID drivers installed, but IAA not installed |
| Video Card(s): | ATI 9800 PRO 128MB, 128MB aperture, 1024x768x32 |
| Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 3.7 |
| Power Supply: | Vantec Stealth 470Watt Aluminum |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
| Motherboards: | Asus P4C800-E (875) with 1011 Release BIOS |
OCZ targets their 4200EL at the Intel 875/865 enthusiast. Since 4200EL is not targeted at Athlon, performance on an Athlon64 or nForce2 Ultra 400 was not tested.
Test Settings
The following settings were tested with OCZ 4200EL:- 800FSB/DDR400 — the highest stock speed supported on 875/865 motherboards.
- 1000FSB/DDR500 — the specified rating of the majority of recent memory modules that we have tested.
- 1066FSB/DDR533 — the specified rating of OCZ 4200EL.
- Highest Stable Overclock — the highest settings that we could achieve with this memory and other memory that we have tested.
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Wesley Fink - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
As detailed in the review, the CPU is our standard for high-FSB memory testing, a 2.4C (800FSB). This CPU runs at default CPU voltage to about 290 on the P4C800-E, and can go to a bit over 300 (1200FSB) at 1.6V. At 280, the CPU was running near 3.4GHz at DDR560 memory at default CPU voltage.billyzbear - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
Sorry if I missed it but what type cpu was used, one that has unlocked multi? I don't have my pen and paper but at 1-1 that seems like a crazy oc. What was the final cpu speed?Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
I don't care about timings. People who obsess over latency are, again, uninformed.And I don't hold anything against OCZ or anyone else for marketing this stuff. They are businesses, and businesses exist for the sole purpose of making money. Making money at any point in the DRAM chain is very hard right now, so if they can entice suckers to pay outrageous sums for the products then that is what they will do. But supposedly unbiased reviewers are supposed to point these things out. Some sites did. AT did not.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
#25why don't you try to overclock the best ddr400 to ddr560. you can loosen the timing. you can give the memory 3.3+ voltage. and you know what i doubt if u can get any close to ddr500. and btw i believe 3.5ns and 5ns makes a hell lot of difference. ohh, i forgot thej are remarked 5ns chips. and one more thing basic micro economics evri company tries to deferenciate their products so it can sell them on a premium price. just like mercides - u can find better quality cars much cheper - and there is still people paying a hell lot of money to drive a mercides. product defferenciation!
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
#25why don't you try to overclock the best ddr400 to ddr560. you can loosen the timing. you can give the memory 3.3+ voltage. and you know what i doubt if u can get any close to ddr500. and btw i believe 3.5ns and 5ns makes a hell lot of difference. ohh, i forgot thej are remarked 5ns chips. and one more thing basic micro economics evri company tries to deferenciate their products so it can sell them on a premium price. just like mercides - u can find better quality cars much cheper - and there is still people paying a hell lot of money to drive a mercides. product defferenciation!
Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
Personally im pretty damned impressed with it. OCZ are fast approaching DDR600 - something Id never have thought would happen by the end of this year. Only 12 months ago everyone was limited to around DDR470 - thats great work in my view. Its showing progression. Early DDR400 had crappy timings too - given time thsi stuff will mature and we will see the latencies start to fall.PCs live in a world of gradual improvement. You have to look at the 5% improvement in perspective. 5% of a lot is still a lot afterall. You all seem to be complaining that youre not seeing sudden huge leaps in performance. Well thats fine, youre all welcome to sit there with your pcs, not change a thing for 2 years then buy a whole new rig and get your 50% speed improvement. Thats not what memory and other components like this are made for. Theyre made for people who want the best and are willing to pay for the best. Afterall you only get a 5% improvement going from a radeon 9700 pro to a 9800XT on most high end systems - you dont see people bitching about that. All those little 5%'s add up. 5% faster cpu, 5% faster gfx, 5% faster memory gives you a 15% speed boost. Sure its not cheap, but the best never is.
Open your eyes and stop getting stuck in yesterday. The days of low latency memory are gone and wont be coming back any time soon. For any sort of progression to be made people need to stop crying about timings and start looking at performance figures. In my view a 5% increase just from swapping a couple of sticks of ram is good.
This pointless whining about manufacturers is starting to grate a bit too. Look what OCZ have done in the past year and tell me if theyre producing rubbish good? On the weight of the 3700 Gold alone they couldve ended the year happy, but they seem to be going hell for leather to break DDR600 too, so I say good luck to them.
Nice review Wes, and well done OCZ.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
#27 if you have issues email me oczguy2@ocztechnology.com im here to help.#26 I have 3500Gold running 2-2-3-5 street racer, enhanced and CPC enabled at 2.65V on the IC7 and max3...will that do ;-) It also ran turbo and CPC at 233fsb 2.5-3-3-7 2.65V.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
forgot to mention, with upped voltages (+.02) running CAS 2.5-3-3-7Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
My OCZ 3700 Gold wont even do 233mhz, with a I865PE motherboardAnonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
Could you tell me for this memory (and for future "universal" memory) the maximum speed at CAS 2? I ask this because the agressive PAT settings (street racer and F1 on my ABIT IC7-G mobo) will only run at CAS 2.