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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  • DonPMitchell - Monday, March 6, 2006 - link

    I'm surprised there was no discussion of single-rank vs. dual-rank memory. For the Athlon, that's a big issue, becuase its memory controller may down-clock beyond 4 ranks of memory.
  • nyogen - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link

    I remember when Nvidia released their 6xxx series there was an all out boycott of paper launches.
    OCZ and Mushkin released not very long ago their 2GB dual channel high end kits namely:

    http://www.mushkin.com/doc/products/memory_detail....">http://www.mushkin.com/doc/products/memory_detail....
    http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_e...">http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_e...

    Apart from these parts not having been available, the new batch that carries only the name given by reviews are flagged by poor performance, different IC's from the original batch, and lots of glitches.
    I am sure Corsair and all the other manufacturers are doing the same, paper launch, hard launch cherry picked and then selling out to unsuspecting customers a COMPLETELY different product, backed by reputable reviews.
    Don't you feel like they have been using you and used your reputation and popularity in order to commit something very close to fraud ???
    If you encourage us to buy these products then you have the responsability to follow up on the products life and batches so that once they try to do this again you will be there to sanction this and PROTECT US. Otherwise your reviews become fairy tales and the only ones that have the reviewed products are you and a couple of people in the world.
    GO FOR THEM ! END THIS UNFAIR PRACTICE !
  • Overlag - Monday, February 6, 2006 - link

    Crucial have infact stopped making there 1gig DDRI sticks due to the massive fail rate on there high end products.

    i have had 6x 512mb failures and 4x 1gig failures. While there customer services is the best of ANY online company ive dealt with, there high end products are really bad quality now.... the ram overheats, then after a few months wont run at 1t, then it starts making noises while you access it, before finaly degrading over a month from 2-2-2-6 settings down to 3-4-4-10 untill failing totaly.

    This includes chips (my latest two) which ive been using at 2.7volts ONLY, and with active cooling, yet they are still hotter than my X2 4400 at 4800 speeds...Last week they run fine at 2-2-2-7 1t, now they are at 3-3-3-8 2t :(

    ... Why there high end products have problems i dont know, there normal or value ram runs fine for YEARS and YEARS.

    Very disapointed with it all apart from the customer services. However even that has started to disapoint me, as they refused to RMA/refund me for my 2x 512mb pair...
  • leexgx - Monday, February 6, 2006 - link

    i had no problems getting my ram RMAed and replaced (2 days ago 2 day turn around UK) never had something replaced so fast before :)

    you can still buy it from here (UK tho)
    http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Crucial_Dua...">http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Crucial_Dua...

    on an other note it is an consern to me as well i have never used ram that can heat my room (needs active cooling) like others have posted it does run hot if not cooled i cant seem to get to 2-2-2-7 T1 my asus a8n-sli prem does an anoying thing by auto setting it to 4 5 5 12 {fail safe maybe?}(when i open A64 tweeker as it shows the info) then the nvidia Sound or nvidia video tray Icon crashs the system with an nice BSOD, (works fine tho at 3-3-3-7 T1 @ ddr500 2.7v or ddr speed lower but just run it at ddr400 ish now)

    an but realy any way good OCZ or just standered TwinMoss ram is realy real world 2-4% performance dif (Amd64 On chip ram contorler removes the bottle neck that was on the Older k7 chips i go for lower timeings over more bandwith)

    realy should have an look at DFI streets Forums on the matter of ddr1 Ocing (AMD overclocking) http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f...">http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f...

    (other note i think my ram was partly dead when i got it just put up with it untill me pc did not boot any more )
  • Overlag - Thursday, February 9, 2006 - link

    i wouldnt want to buy ballistix ever again... Once this set finaly gives up the ghost i will ask for a full refund and get some real memory.
  • XeCutor - Thursday, February 2, 2006 - link

    My first pair failed memtest at 250mhz, seemed stable at 247mhz. My second pair does 250mhz but not much more. Fails at 255mhz. All this is on a DFI Expert board with an opteron 165 3-4-4-8 1T timings at 2,6-2,8v. Voltage doesn't seem to matter att all to these sticks, they fail at the same speeds regardless for me.
  • bupkus - Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - link

    I went for the Twinx2048-3200c2pt because of the lower timings and $197 AMIR price. I haven't researched this much lately, but I recall PC3200 with tight timings getting the nod from the enthusiast community for the Athlon 64.
    The TWINX2048-4000PT that I faced it off to lists timings of 3-4-4-8 which I thought wasn't preferable to the tighter timings especially with a price of $233.
    The OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K is going for the same price of about $200 but the OCZ5001024EBPE only appears on newegg as a single 1GB module for $153.44 + $4.81 shipping.
    That's too rich for my blood.
    I guess the question for me would be which is the best for $200 +- $20?
  • Visual - Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - link

    Besides the TWINX kit, corsair offers single 1GB modules too - again marked as 4000PT
    The price for the kits for some reason seems higher than two separate modules.
    So my question is, are the separate modules the same thing as what's in the kits? Why don't you mention them at all, and either recommend them for better value over the overpriced kits, or, if they dont perform as well, warn users about them?
  • Googer - Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - link

    I would have liked to have seen four 512MB modules shown in the graphs as a refrence of how much or how little there is to gain by using these pairs of 1GB modules. By doing this I could form a cost/benefit analasys.
  • bersl2 - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link

    I'm going to wait to see if the price on DDR1 falls again before AMD goes DDR2. If it does, I'll get 2 x 1GiB to replace the 4 x 512MiB I bought over a year ago, but haven't been able to use until just now.

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