Value RAM Roundup: Computing On a Budget
by Wesley Fink on April 11, 2005 4:26 PM EST- Posted in
- Memory
OCZ PC3200 Gold: "Value BH5"
When OCZ submitted three different memories for this Value RAM roundup, we first thought it was overkill and an attempt to hijack the roundup. However, as we looked closer at the three memories and the benchmark results with all 3, it is clear that these are memories aimed at 3 different market segments. While all three meet our requirement of costing less than $200 for a Gigabyte, the PC3200 Premier is the more traditional Value RAM that will work on almost any motherboard. The second OCZ memory, PC3200 Gold, will appeal to the enthusiast - particularly those enthusiasts who foam at the mouth over OCZ VX at 3.6V.
Specifications
OCZ PC3200 Gold is the only memory in the Value RAM roundup to be rated at 2-2-2-5 timings.| OCZ PC3200 Gold (DDR400) Memory Specifications | |
| Number of DIMMs & Banks | 2 DS |
| DIMM Size Total Memory |
512 MB 1GB |
| Rated Timings | 2-2-2-5 at DDR400 |
| SPD (Auto) Timings | 2-3-2-5 |
| Rated Voltage | 2.6V |
The SPD is set for "auto" timings to 2-3-2-5. To achieve full 2-2-2 timings, you need to adjust memory timings in BIOS. This is the first opportunity that we have had to test BH5 with high memory voltages. The DFI nForce4 SLI has adjustments to 4.0V in BIOS, so we were able to see for ourselves if the BH5 legends were really true.
Test Results
3.4V is hardly the kind of voltages available on most motherboards - particularly those boards that might use Value RAM. To get this kind of voltage, you need a production DFI nForce4 board - Ultra at about $133 or SLI for $184 to $215. You can also achieve these voltages on many motherboards with an OCZ DDR Booster at about $40. What you can do with voltage and BH5, however, is amazing.| OCZ PC3200 Gold (DDR400) - 2 x 512Mb Double-Bank | |||||||
| CPU Ratio at 2.4GHz | Memory Speed |
Memory Timings & Voltage |
Quake3 fps |
Sandra UNBuffered | Sandra Standard Buffered |
Super PI 2M places (time in sec) |
Wolfenstein - Radar - Enemy Territory fps |
| 12x200 | 400 DDR | 2-2-2-6 2.6V 1T |
568.9 | INT 2984 FLT 2960 |
INT 6100 FLT 6095 |
81 | 120.0 |
| 11x218 | 436 DDR | 2-2-2-6 2.8V 1T |
580.0 | INT 3053 FLT 3132 |
INT 6486 FLT 6413 |
81 | 122.3 |
| 10x240 | 480 DDR | 2-2-2-6 3.1V 1T |
596.7 | INT 3234 FLT 3241 |
INT 6731 FLT 6769 |
80 | 124.6 |
| 11x255 (2.8GHz) |
Highest CPU/Mem Performance 510 DDR |
2-2-2-7 3.4V 1T |
636.5 | INT 3359 FLT 3517 |
INT 7575 FLT 7493 |
69 | 133.5 |
The original BH5 was great up to about DDR450 at decent timings. Above that, it quickly gave out of range - or at least we thought it did in those days. It appears that BH5 with voltage allows 2-2-2 timings to be maintained to levels over DDR500. Frankly, for most users searching for Value RAM, this OCZ PC3200 Gold should be considered as very good and useful to about DDR450 to DDR460, at voltages of 2.9V and lower with very good 2-2-2 to 2.5-3-2 timings. Mad overclockers can consider this an incredible bargain. Feed this value BH5 the voltage and it will deliver at 2-2-2 timings. If you have one of the DFI nForce4 boards, this is one of the memories that can show off what high memory voltage can do.
We have found Aida benchmarks to be very useful in examining read/write performance and memory latency. Aida 32 is now available as Everest Home Edition, a free download from www.lavalys.com.
| OCZ PC3200 Gold (DDR400) 2x512Mb Double-Bank Everest 1.51 |
|||||
| CPU Ratio at 2.4GHz | Memory Speed | Memory Timings & Voltage |
Everest READ MB/s |
Everest WRITE MB/s |
Everest Latency ns |
| 12x200 | 400 DDR | 2-2-2-6 2.6V 1T |
5892 | 2027 | 45.8 |
| 11x218 | 436 DDR | 2-2-2-6 2.8V 1T |
6275 | 2135 | 43.4 |
| 10x240 | 480 DDR | 2-2-2-6 3.1V 1T |
6803 | 2323 | 39.5 |
| 11x255 (2.8GHz) |
Highest CPU/Mem Performance 510 DDR |
2-2-2-7 3.4V 1T |
7268 | 2460 | 37.0 |
Maintaining a constant CPU Speed of 2.4GHz and constant memory timings of 2-2-2, we measured the impact of increasing the Memory Speed from 200 to 240, a 20% increase. Both Memory Read and Memory Write performance increased by about 15%, while Latency improved by a similar 14%. This translated into improvement in game FPS from 4% to 5% at a constant CPU speed.
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CanadianDoc - Sunday, April 17, 2005 - link
1 GB (2 x 512 MB) of Crucial Ballistix PC 3200 now lists for $192 U.S. at crucial.com.On any mobo, it runs at 200 MHz (DDR 400) at 2-2-2-6 timings at 2.8 V, outperforming any other RAM in this review.
As shown by AnandTech (www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2386), on a DFI nF4 mobo, it overclocks to 280 MHz (DDR 560) at 2.5-3-3-6 timings at only 2.9 V, where it closely matches the top performance of any RAM available at any price, bar none. IMHO, this is real value.
Adding a Venice 3200+ overclocked to 10 x 280 MHz = 2.80 GHz (www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/athlon64-venice.html), a Thermalright XP-90 heatsink with a SilenX 92mm 14dBA fan, a Seagate 7200.8 SATA NCQ hard drive, and a Gigabyte X800 XL video card with SilentPipe cooling (GV-RX80L256V), in an Antec Performance One (P160) case (www.anandtech.com/casecooling/showdoc.aspx?i=2346) with an XG Magnum 500W heatpipe PSU (available later this month, according to www.xgbox.com), you have the makings of an ultra-quiet gaming rig with near state-of-the-art performance at a great bang-for-the-buck price.
ozzimark - Thursday, April 14, 2005 - link
you can. i'm a big advocate of crucial ballistixspeaking of that company, why were they missing from the testing too?
BaronVonAwesome - Thursday, April 14, 2005 - link
195 seems a bit steep for value RAM. I'd like to point out that you can get Ballistix from Crucial for less than 210 I believe.Den - Thursday, April 14, 2005 - link
Thanks for pointing out that the part numbers are on page two. As many others have said, it would have been really nice to see the best the different rams would do at 2.9v in addition to what they would do with DFI voltage. Also it would have been nice to see a greater range of memory tested but I understand you are limited by not being able to afford to buy and test what you want. Beggars can't be choosy. Thanks for doing this though, the general concept was good and there was some interesting information.NXIL - Thursday, April 14, 2005 - link
Paying $100 to buy some Corsair Valueram (Newegg--had an $88 special yesterday) would have been the fair and reasonable course of action.Consumer Reports has been testing products fairly for decades--they don't accept advertising, and, they buy the cars, electronics, and other items they test anonymously. Of note is that "Sharper Image" has sued them recently (SI lost) when they tested one of their bogus "air purifiers"--seems to make the air less clean, actually, by releasing ozone.
Anandtech should get some Corsair RAM and test it--and, they should buy samples of the other brands tested, and compare the "off the street" samples with the ones provided by the manufacturers. Unless I am mistaken, video card makers were found to be rigging their drivers to test better with certain benchmarks. It would not be too surprising to find that memory manufacturers had taken some of their special high cost "binned" chips and sent them out with a "value" label on them.
MadAd - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
Oh dear ... I left this review for 2 days till I had time to read it properly, I'm sorry to say I wish I had not bothered.1) Should have been titled value ram from non value companies. Wheres the real value ram?
Since the price began to drop we seem to be up to our ears in stuff ive never heard of purporting to be cas3@3200 - Stupid me for thinking that thats what a value roundup should include, noname oem kit, not some hand selected bunch of good-but-value-priced ram from the majors.
2) Why is the following question being avoided and ignored? Namely why wasnt any corsair memory got from another source and included in the test?
A reader posted some assumptions however further to that it could be i) they use pretty much the same chips all over and dont want to give the game away that the extra $100 doesnt get you much increase and ii) anandtech dont want to bite the hand that feeds so bowed down to the request rather than doing whats right and finding the truth come hell or high water.
Im not usually this negative but I do feel quite let down, sorry.
classy - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
I think a lot of folks are missing it. I think some people need to look at this way. You would have upgrade your cpu 1-2 speed grades to equal the performance increase that using the VX or BH5 memory would bring. Even at stock speeds. Now yes you need more voltage, but DFI I believe produces the best A64 borads as well as the best athlon XP board, Ultra B, which all are capable of supplying the necessary voltage. You can also use the ddr booster on some boards. Its a great alternative to increase system performance without spending a lot of money. And this is memory that you can grow with for at least a couple of years. I believe AMD said it won't go DDR2 until 2007. Great article, good stuff, and nice to see other ways to bring a performance increase. Nice job Wesleyunclebud - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
84 comments in 2 days!!! haven't seen that in a while...thanks for the article! good reading as usual
XRaider - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
The cheap OCZ is faster then the Plat. Rev2 !!! Ain't dat a Bitch!!! >:-(WTF is up with OCZ. shooot.
srstudios - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
Wesley, I hate to be a nag, but now you have both the OCZ PC3200 Gold, and the OCZ PC3200 Premier with the same model number. PC3200 Gold P/NOCZ4001024ELDCGE-Kis correct.
The Premier should be PN- OCZ4001024PDC-K, at least I think that's the correct part. http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_d...
I have a gig of the 'old' BH-5, Mushkin Black L2 PC3500, do you think they would play nice with this new value BH-5? I don't think I would combine them, just wonder if you guys have any thoughts about it.