Performance Test Configuration

The Memory testbed for evaluating the OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 2 is the same used in our earlier reviews of DDR500 and other High-Speed Memory.

OCZ PC3500 Platinum: A Return to the Fastest Timings
OCZ 4200EL: Tops in Memory Performance
Mushkin PC4000 High Performance: DDR500 PLUS
Corsair TwinX1024-4000 PRO: Improving DDR500 Performance
Mushkin & Adata: 2 for the Fast-Timings Lane
Searching for the Memory Holy Grail - Part 2

All test conditions were as close as possible to those in our earlier memory reviews.

 INTEL 875P Performance Test Configuration
Processor(s): Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz (800MHz FSB)
RAM: 2 x 512MB OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 2 (DS)
2 x 512MB OCZ 4200EL(DS)
2 x 512MB Mushkin PC4000 High Performance (DS)
2 x 512MB Corsair TwinX4000 PRO (DS)
2 x 512MB Mushkin Level II PC3500 (DS)
2 x 256MB Adata DDR450 (SS)
2 x 512MB Adata PC4000 (DS)
2 x 512MB Corsair PC4000 (DS)
2 x 512MB Geil PC4000 (DS)
4 x 256MB Kingston PC4000 (SS)
2 x 256MB Kingston PC4000 (SS)
2 x 512MB OCZ PC4000 (DS)
4 x 256MB OCZ PC3700 GOLD (DS)
Hard Drives 2 Western Digital Raptor Serial ATA 36.7GB 10,000 rpm drives in an Intel ICH5R RAID configuration
PCI/AGP Speed Fixed at 33/66
Bus Master Drivers: 875P Intel INF Update v5.00.1012, SATA RAID drivers installed, but IAA not installed
Video Card(s): ATI 9800 PRO 128MB, 128MB aperture, 1024x768x32
Video Drivers: ATI Catalyst 3.10
Power Supply: Vantec Stealth 470 Watt Aluminum
Operating System(s): Windows XP Professional SP1
Motherboards: Asus P4C800-E (875) with 1011 Release BIOS

OCZ targets their OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 2 at the Intel 875/865 enthusiast. Since PC3700 Gold Rev. 2 is not targeted at Athlon64/Athlon XP, performance on an AMD processor was not tested. We will be adding an Athlon64 test bed in the near future to provide performance data for memory reviews.

Test Settings

The following settings were tested with OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 2:
  1. 800FSB/DDR400 - the highest stock speed supported on 875/865 motherboards
  2. 866FSB/DDR433 - a standard memory specification for recent high-end memory, and a common overclock with premium memory
  3. 933FSB/DDR466 - the specified rating of PC3700 Gold Rev. 2
  4. 1000FSB/DDR500 - the specified rating of the majority of recent memory modules that we have tested
  5. Highest Stable Overclock - the highest settings that we could achieve with this memory and other memory we have tested
These repeat the settings used in benchmarking other memory in the above list of memory tests, and adds settings unique to this PC3700 Gold Rev. 2.

Index Test Results
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  • Leo V - Thursday, January 1, 2004 - link

    And I just received my 3700 Gold rev2, thanks for a happy New Year :-D
  • Pumpkinierre - Thursday, January 1, 2004 - link

    Thanks again wesley for keeping us up to date on the memory front. It does seem though as if this is more of the same. My 2.6c goes up to 246Mhz on default voltage (1.525V) and scrapes 260 even with a .2V boost. At present I run it at 2.8GHz(216) with 1:1 tight memory settings(OCZ platinum 3200) and agressive PAT. I find this gives me almost the same performance as running at 3.2GHz (246)at mem.5:4 with the same tight memory settings (3dmark03 6200 vs 6300). Graphics board memory is under 3ns and two sticks of fast memory costs as much as a good 256Mb video card.So by now DDR500 CAS 2 DDRAM should be out there and is what i'm waiting for as the first upgrade to my rig.

    Also what about 1GBt modules, the i875 has 4 DIMMS and handles up to 4Gb. CORSAIR have been the only ones to announce DDR500 capable 1GBt modules but at CAS3 settings. It would also be good to see how a RAM maxed i875 board performs in particular in the unbuffered tests.

    Even though I'm quite happy with your intel based testing, it would be nice to see how the a64s(even the A-XP) and the FX51 fare in your tests particularly with different memory timings. The FX51 beats the P4 in many memory bandwidth tests but I'd like to see if this occurs in the unbuffered Sandra and Memtest-86 tests.

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