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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JarredWalton - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
I don't anticipate DDR1 prices changing much, and once AM2 comes out I expect prices to start climbing as DDR1 productions halts. DDR1 prices seem to have hit bottom about 6 months ago, and they're already starting to rise - at least on the budget parts.Thor86 - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
Did I miss this in the review? If not, it would help if you told us what memory settings used in the DFI bios for these sticks reviewed.Wesley Fink - Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - link
I used the 7/06 BIOS, which is basically the Bigtoe BIOS. I have found this BIOS to be remarkably compatible with a wide range of memory. All memory settings were left at default except the 4 reported memory timings (CAS to TRAS) and memory voltage in testing all the memory. We did not do any special tweaking, which is another reason we reran tests with the 3 2GB kits tested earlier. You can definitely achieve better bandwidth and higher scores than we did by tweaking memory in the DFI BIOS.keldog7 - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
I was surprised to find your review stating the Corsair 3500LL could only reach 492 MHz...especially when out of the box, I clocked mine to 500 MHz. This required no special tweaking of the other timings, other than what's listed below. Any careful research on this memory, using the many online reviews of it, show that the RAM runs fine (at slightly relaxed timings), well into 500Mhz territory, and beyond.In my case, I've got it on an A8N32SLI, at 2.7V, running 2.5-3-2-7 1T with a 1:1 divider at 250Mhz. In my case, this has been verfied to be Memtest86+ stable for at least 12 hours (last run was 90 hours...then I had to stop it to actually get some work done!)
I wonder if the motherboard used in your review has biased your overclocking results?
Wesley Fink - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
According to my review notes, the Corsair 3500LL Pro cloked to almost 260 (DDR520) on Super Pi and Sandra memory tests, but the highest we could do with stability on 3D tests was 246 (DDR492). There is always varaition in memory results.Since you criticize my results as being too low for your memory and another reader criticized my results as being too high for his memory, it is likely my results are typical of the range of results readers might achieve. Some will do better than my results and some will do worse. Overclocking results do vary among memory samples.
wildstaroct - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
Unless Anandtech got really good batches of Infineon ICs, I don't buy the analysis. There have been numerous reports of 3D instability issues...I've experienced them myself with the Redlines. They are primex2 and memtest stable at fairly high speeds (270) but only 3D stable near spec (250ish).entrecote - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
Neither do i buy it.I invested in a pair of the mentioned 2GB Mushkin Redline PC4000 memory. I´ve stubbornly been trying to tweak them on my DFI Lanparty + X2 Toledo processor for two months. This Redline kit of mine refuses to surpass 252MHz / DDR504. One module does 256MHz / DDR512, the other one does 252MHz / DDR504 regardless of timings. Trust me, I´ve tried all combinations of different drive strenghts, Trefs and so on. My case is not isolated, I have the same symptoms as the perhaps majority of 2x1GB Redline owners, "3D instability".
My thoughts on the matter is that Mushkin was aware of this bad batch of theirs, possibly due to quality fluctuations of infineon modules. Then they quickly began to separate a few review samples for marketing puposes. I went through the same dissapointment one year ago when buying PC3200 Ballistixs after quickly reading through among other reviews anadtechs infamous "Ballistix cherry pick" DDR roundup.
I put great trust in anandtech, please do me a favor in the future to only review retail samples of memory. Some of these mentioned brands purposefully send special samples to rewievers.
Wesley Fink - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
We reported what we found, and 3D tests are part of our benchmarking. The OCZ for example was Super Pi and memtest stable to 290, but 3D dropped the stability to 275 (DDR550) which we reported. The Redline went well over 300 on memtest and Super Pi, but 293 (DDR586) was our highest 3D stable.What memory controller revision are you using with the Infineons? Our tests are with a Rev. E, and we have seen lower performance on the older clawhammer memory controllers with the 1GB dimms.
wildstaroct - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
I have a rev E6 Opteron 170. Perhaps I just got an unlucky set of sticks, but the forums are loaded w/ people with similar issues, particularly around 3D.Duonger - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
the mushkin parts have been back in stock for over a week now and is available (if not sold out already) on Newegg and on Mushkin`s Site.Wes- the ocz parts u compared. those are 2x512mb kits. why did u include it on this 2gig round up?