Buffalo FireStix: Red Hot Name for a New High-End Memory
by Wesley Fink on July 22, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Performance Test Configuration
The Buffalo FireStix PC4000 were tested on our standard Intel Pentium 4 Memory testbed. The hardware for evaluating FireStix PC4000 is the same used in our earlier reviews of DDR400 and faster Memory.All test conditions were as close as possible to those used in our earlier memory reviews. We have also eliminated from our charts any memory that has been discontinued, including Winbond BH5 & BH6 versions from several vendors and earlier versions of several current memory products.
| INTEL 875P Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz (800MHz FSB) |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB Buffalo FireStix PC4000 (DS) 2 x 512MB Shika XRAM PC4400 (DS) 2 x 512MB OCZ PC4400 EL Gold (DS) 2 x 512MB Corsair 3200XL PRO (DS) 2 x 256MB Samsung PC4000 (SS) 2 x 512MB OCZ 3700EB (DS) 2 x 512MB OCZ 3500EB (DS) 2 x 512MB PMI4200 Gold (DDR533 DS) 4 x 256MB Samsung PC3700 (DDR466 SS) 2 x 512MB Kingmax DDR500 Hardcore Series (DS) 2 x 512MB Kingmax DDR466 Hardcore Series (DS) 2 x 512MB Corsair XMS4400v1.1 TwinX (DS) 2 x 512MB OCZ PC4400 DC Kit (DS) 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 256MB Adata DDR450 (SS) 2 x 512MB Adata PC4000 (DS) 2 x 512MB Corsair PC4000 (DS) 2 x 512MB Geil PC4000 (DS) 2 x 512MB OCZ PC4000 (DS) |
| Hard Drives: | 2 Western Digital Raptor Serial ATA 36.7GB 10,000RPM 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 4.6 |
| Power Supply: | Vantec Stealth 470 Watt Aluminum |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
| Motherboards: | Asus P4C800-E (875) with 1016 Release BIOS |
We have found the fastest performance on Intel 865/875 to be achieved at Cycle Time or tRAS of 5, or the fastest tRAS setting that is stable with the tested memory. Therefore, Intel platform benchmarks were run with the fastest stable tRAS timings.
Test Settings
We ran our standard suite of memory performance benchmarks. The following settings were tested with Buffalo FireStix PC4000:- 800FSB/DDR400 - the highest stock speed supported on 875/865 and K8T800/nF3/SiS755 motherboards.
- 1000FSB/DDR500 - a standard speed rating we have used in testing the highest speed memory available and the rated speed of Buffalo FireStix.
- Highest Stable Overclock - the highest settings we could achieve with this memory and other memory that we have tested.
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9 Comments
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rahzim - Sunday, July 25, 2004 - link
Hi,Just had a few questions about overclocked/high performance ddr ram in general. Im about to build a computer waiting for the msi neo2 mb and want fast memory for it. Only thing is i read that most of the memory im looking at namely DDR550 is overclocked and wont actually run at that speed unless you overclock the fsb.
Is it just a matter of setting the timings and voltages in the mb bios to get the ram to perform at ddr550 speeds, or do i also need to adjust the fsb? Will I have any trouble getting speeds around pc4400 with a nforce3 250 chipset / athlon fx 53?
IkeEisenhower - Saturday, July 24, 2004 - link
I dunno about awful names, there seems to be a sub-trend of names that seem to denote product suitability for the "just okay" mediocre PC you get tricked into building for your cousin or some distant friend... e.g.:Foxconn Athlon motherboards,
Albatron's "Proll" (Prole?) mobos,
Powmax PSUs,
XFX video cards,
Firestix memory,
so on and so forth, they just SOUND right...
BlackMamba - Thursday, July 22, 2004 - link
I love these awful names for memory products. :)Bozo Galora - Thursday, July 22, 2004 - link
Off topic, but the blue/grey before white page load is still happening (Firefox .0.9.2)Man, these timely reviews are coming like a
waterfall.(Wesly is the best)
Are we spiffing up the site for a possible sale??
johnsonx - Thursday, July 22, 2004 - link
Isn't Jolly Rancher going to be upset about Buffalo using their name? I don't see them much anymore, but I'm pretty sure Firestix is what Jolly Rancher called their firey-hot cinnamon candy sticks. I mostly see the small bite-size ones now, but the sticks still exist as far as I know.Zebo - Thursday, July 22, 2004 - link
Excellent article thanks:)Little secret for my anandtech friends..Go the Circut City and they have the same ram labled as kingston value ram PC3200 for $68-$99 for 512 depending on the day..
You mustlook through the boxes which are clear plastic until you find one with "Hynix BT-D43" chips labeled as such... Just awesome and found on expensive PC4200 modules...as you see.
Calin - Thursday, July 22, 2004 - link
I love the colored bar for the memory in discussion. It makes reading the article much more enjoyableAnand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, July 22, 2004 - link
Fixed :)TrogdorJW - Thursday, July 22, 2004 - link
Hey, the new graphs are great. One small problem, though. All the graph images are 450x450, but the HTML is specifying a 450x337 size, so they're getting a little squished vertically.