DDR2 Roundup: Reaching for 667 and Beyond

Each time we had approached the launch date for Intel's new 925X/915 chipsets, we ran into delays. The rumors seemed to be consistent that there were still issues with DDR2 memory for the new platform, and almost everyone with whom we talked had described the difficulties with getting the new DDR2 memory working as it should.

Against that background, it is positively amazing that we find such a broad selection of DDR2 memory just a couple of weeks after the launch (finally) of the new Intel architecture. While we received the first samples of DDR2 memory over 3 months ago, it is clear that development has continued over the past few months. We had already found that DDR2 533 performed about the same as fast DDR433 in our 925X/915 launch review using the Intel D925XCV. While this is not the 1:1 to DDR533 that many hoped for, it is still an excellent improvement in performance over the early results with DDR2. However, Intel motherboards are not traditionally geared toward pushing memory to even higher performance than specification, and we also had to contend with the limitation of the Intel 10% overclock lock that is engineered into the 925X/915 chipsets.

However, with the Abit AA8 and Asus P5AD2 known to have found ways around the 10% lock, it was time to take a closer look at the performance of DDR2. Other 925X motherboard manufacturers, such as Gigabyte and MSI, are also rumored to have broken the 10% lock. With a little more open route above a 220FSB setting, it now made sense to look at the current state of DDR2 memory performance. In particular, we were interested in seeing how far current DDR2 memory would need to develop to reach the magic DDR667 that will be needed for the next speed ramp of the Intel architecture within the next few months. The answers may surprise you.