FAST 2GB DDR Kits - Part 2

by Wesley Fink on January 23, 2006 12:05 AM EST
G. Skill F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX

G. Skill entered the US market at about the time that Samsung TCCD memory was launched. G. Skill capitalized on the incredible performance of TCCD and produced some excellent TCCD parts that were marketed to enthusiasts on many Forums. We reviewed the early TCCD in PQI & G. Skill: New Choices in 2-2-2 Memory and found that the G. Skill performed very well.

As you can see from the packaging and sky blue heatspreaders, G. Skill has grown up quite a bit since the early TCCD days with basic DIMMs, no heatspreaders, and generic packaging. The real question though is whether the newer packaging still contains DIMMs that stand out from the crowd in performance.

Specifications

G. Skill rates their 1GB DIMMs at DDR400, which is usually an indication that B die Infineon memory chips were used.

G. Skill F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX Memory Specifications
Number of DIMMs & Banks 2 DS
DIMM Size
Total Memory
1GB
2GB
Rated Timings 2-3-2-5 at DDR400
Rated Voltage Standard (2.6V) Voltage
SPD 2-3-2-5

Test Results

G. Skill F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX (DDR400)- 2x1GB 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 400DDR 2-3-2-7
2.5V
539.5 INT 2527
FLT 2669
INT 6033
FLT 6016
82 117.6
11x218 436DDR 2.5-3-2-7
2.6V
541.2 INT 2664
FLT 2802
INT 6438
FLT 6367
82 118.2
10x240 480DDR 2.5-3-2-7
2.7V
552.2 INT 2806
FLT 3018
INT 6715
FLT 6632
81 119.3
9x258
(2.32GHz)
516DDR 3-3-2-8
2.8V
535.7 INT 2969
FLT 3132
INT 6739
FLT 6646
82 116.3
10x258
(2.58GHz)
Highest Mem Speed
DDR 516
3-3-2-8
2.8V
571.0 INT 3041
FLT 3241
INT 7179
FLT 7117
75 127.8
To be considered stable for test purposes, Quake3 benchmark, UT2003 Demo, Super PI, Aquamark 3, and Comanche 4 had to complete without incident. Any of these, and in particular Super PI, will crash a less-than stable memory configuration.

Test results also point to Infineon B die chips. The G. Skill 2GB kit is very fast from DDR400 to the highest stable overclock that we could achieve at DDR516. This is a very high overclock for B die Infineon memory, showing G. Skill has not lost their expertise in squeezing the most out of the memory chips that they use. If fast performance with 1GB DIMMs from DDR400 to DDR500 will meet your goals, then the G. Skill 2GB kit is a good choice. The only problem, compared to other 2GB kits, is that C die Infineon is just as fast at lower speeds, but C die continues to overclock to DDR550 to 580.

Like the Corsair Infineon B die that we reviewed in Part 1, the G. Skill is a memory that does not need a special board with super high voltages to get the best from the memory. You can get the best from these 1GB with almost any decent motherboard, since we never needed more than 2.8V for stable performance at any speed.

Crucial Ballistix CLIII5N.32 PN56278 Kingston KHX3200AK2/2G
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  • bigtoe36 - Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - link

    Tom

    The parts are 2x1204, we don't supply single sided CE5 512 kits, infact no one does.
    For the record, 4000eb is 2048mb so 2x1024mb modules.
  • Wesley Fink - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link

    The OCZ we tested is definitely a 2GB kit. I changed the Corsair name in the review since they refer to 2GB kits as TwinX 2048. However I just double-checked their web site and OCZ uses the 1024 to describe the dimm size. In fairness they are officially a 2x1024 kit, so I will update the reference to hopefully clarify what we tested.

    The memory manufacturers all have pretty awful naming schemes for their memory, but OCZ is still one of the most confusing.
  • CCUABIDExORxDIE - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link

    how does crucial not get gold? honestly, go out and try to buy the EB 4000 or the Redline PC4000, you cant cause of Infenions horrible yeilds. so in your mindset, the gold winner should be the UCCC corsair stuff. also where is the Gskill pc4000 and the Mushkin pc4000?? There should have been more UCCC tested and less CE-6.

    just my opinion though.
  • Wesley Fink - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link

    You can not presently buy Crucial any where, and Crucial told us they would not likely have the product available again. Infineon has had problems with consistency since October, but all of the memory manufacturers here assured us the Infineon-based dimms were current products and supply would continue. Some even sent links on where you could buy the Infineon dimms.

    We asked manufacturers to submit their "best" 2GB kit. There was nothing to stop them from submitting both Infineon CE and Samsung UCCC for the roundup. As we found in the review Samsung UCCC is not as fast as Infineon at most speeds, but it does overclock just as well, and it's generally 30% to 40% cheaper. At present Samsung UCCC chips are easier to find, but manufacturers tell us recent Infineon is finally producing better yields - and chips are becoming available again.
  • CCUABIDExORxDIE - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link

    alright...what about this? http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productdetails.asp?s...">http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productde....asp?sub... aww a bit of misinformation? thats right
  • ozzimark - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link

    while we're mentioning misinformation.. it was stated that teamgroup can be had at newegg? atm, i'll have to disagree.

    second.. micron chips don't go to just crucial. i have a set of 2x1gb teamgroup in my hands that i need do a review on that use micron chips, and they easily hit 280mhz on a DFI that appears to be having serious VTT stability issues :P
  • Wesley Fink - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link

    We checked with Newegg and Team is not available there. We have removed that comment from the review and asked Team where buyers can buy their memory in the US. We'll post the info when we get an answer.
  • cool - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link

    @Wesley:
    On the "Test Configuration" page, I noticed that you're using the following nForce drivers: "NVIDIA nForce Platform Driver 6.86"
    When will they be released and do they solve the PATA/SATA and nvFirewall issues that are still plaguing nForce4 users?
  • Wesley Fink - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link

    I apologize for the typo. We used the latest release 6.70 on our DFI nF4 SLI. The latest release for AMD X16 is 6.82, and we listed a beta x16 driver rev we had on an x16 machine used for editing.

    The platform driver version has been corrected in the article.
  • PrinceGaz - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link

    Hopefully one day, the nVidia softtware team will pay some attention to its chipset drivers and get these issues with the PATA/SATA drivers, which in v6.70 still have issues on my nForce4 mobo, albeit not so badly as some earlier drivers, but are still unreliable enough for me to revert to the default Windows ones.

    As for the hardware firewall; I'm not even going to consider installing the drivers and software for that given the continued reports it has of causing serious problems. I'd rather let my dual-core processor do the work on one of its cores, which as I use Kerio Personal Firewall would hardly be noticed even in a multi-threaded app as it takes very little CPU time.

    Given the mess nVidia have made of the nForce chipset drivers, and how Microsoft recommend ATI graphics-cards for the Vista betas as their drivers are better; I really do wonder if nVidia who built a good reputation for themselves with rock-solid graphics-card drivers a few years ago have lost the plot. I bought an nForce4 mobo and 6800GT last year, but am increasingly thinking an ATI graphics-card would have been a better choice, and if similarly feature-rich mobos with other chipsets were available then, that any of ATI, VIA, SiS would have been a better choice than nVidia.

    It's sites like this that have over-hyped nVidia mobos since the nForce2 on performance alone that I'm sure contributed to their dominance, and the sorry state of afares we are in with their chipset drivers as there is little competition and can afford to give it low priority.

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