Super Talent & TEAM: DDR3-1600 Is Here!
by Wesley Fink on July 20, 2007 11:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Super Talent W1600UX2G7
Super Talent was all but invisible in the desktop memory market until Joe James moved from marketing at Corsair to Super Talent. Since that time Super Talent has been pushing for visibility in the enthusiast desktop memory market, and the brand is appearing at a number of online etailers. With the introduction of DDR3, Super Talent has been heavily sampling memory expert sites like the forums at xtremesystems.org. Of course this is an effort to strongly identify Super Talent as a player in the enthusiast memory market, and it is certainly having a positive impact among memory enthusiasts.
The Super Talent website has been gradually including more emphasis on enthusiast memory products, which were barely mentioned in the past due to the heavy emphasis on flash memory products. Despite being a relatively new name in the enthusiast memory market, you will find the company has been making memory products for about 20 years. The Super Talent design center is located in San Jose, California.
Today you will find an expanded line of flash memory products at Super Talent that range from flash cards for devices to Solid State Drives. The traditional memory offerings now include memory targeted at the desktop, laptop, and server markets, and a specialized line of high-performance overclocking memory. Manufacturing is in the US with 14 SMT assembly lines, which Super Talent claims is the largest and most modern memory manufacturing facility in North America. All memory products are 100% tested for compliance with specifications. Memory and flash products come with a lifetime warranty.
We complained in early Super Talent reviews about the somewhat amateurish packaging of Super Talent DIMMs. That has matured over time, and as you can see above, Super Talent uses the protective clamshell common in the memory industry and attractive high-gloss graphics that help communicate manufacturer identity.
The DIMMs themselves are typical Super Talent. The only feature that makes them stand out in appearance is the increasingly familiar "basketweave" design identifying the memory as Super Talent. This 2 GB kit is made up of two 1GB DIMMs that are populated on just one side. Super Talent chose to use just one heatsink on the populated side which works very well for keeping the DIMM cool. With the current density of Micron Z9 memory chips it would be a relatively easy task to make a 4 GB memory kit. However, performance and timings would likely be somewhat below current specs in a 4 GB kit (not to mention what such kits would cost given current Z9 memory chip pricing).
DDR3 is lower voltage, higher speed, and slower timings than DDR2. The chart below summarizes some of the differences in the official JEDEC DDR2 and DDR3 specifications.
JEDEC specs a starting point for enthusiast memory companies. However, since there was never a JEDEC standard for memory faster than DDR-400 then DDR memory running at faster speeds is really overclocked DDR-400. Similarly DDR2 memory faster than DDR2-800 is actually overclocked DDR2-800 since there is currently no official JEDEC spec for DDR2-1066. DDR speeds ran to DDR-400, DDR2 has official specs from 400 to 800, and DDR3 will extend this from 800 to 1600 based on the current JEDEC specification.
The Super Talent is the first DDR3 we have tested with a rated 1600 or higher speed. It also offers lower latency at 1600, 7-7-7 timings, than many of the speed ratings of the first DDR3 DIMMs at 1066. Super Talent DDR3 is available in three configurations:
2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1600 7-7-7-18 kit Street Price $648
2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1600 9-9-9-21 kit Street Price $598
2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1333 8-8-8-18 kit Street Price $417
Street prices are approximate selling prices at launch, since final prices for Super Talent memory are set by the resellers.
Super Talent was all but invisible in the desktop memory market until Joe James moved from marketing at Corsair to Super Talent. Since that time Super Talent has been pushing for visibility in the enthusiast desktop memory market, and the brand is appearing at a number of online etailers. With the introduction of DDR3, Super Talent has been heavily sampling memory expert sites like the forums at xtremesystems.org. Of course this is an effort to strongly identify Super Talent as a player in the enthusiast memory market, and it is certainly having a positive impact among memory enthusiasts.
The Super Talent website has been gradually including more emphasis on enthusiast memory products, which were barely mentioned in the past due to the heavy emphasis on flash memory products. Despite being a relatively new name in the enthusiast memory market, you will find the company has been making memory products for about 20 years. The Super Talent design center is located in San Jose, California.
Today you will find an expanded line of flash memory products at Super Talent that range from flash cards for devices to Solid State Drives. The traditional memory offerings now include memory targeted at the desktop, laptop, and server markets, and a specialized line of high-performance overclocking memory. Manufacturing is in the US with 14 SMT assembly lines, which Super Talent claims is the largest and most modern memory manufacturing facility in North America. All memory products are 100% tested for compliance with specifications. Memory and flash products come with a lifetime warranty.
We complained in early Super Talent reviews about the somewhat amateurish packaging of Super Talent DIMMs. That has matured over time, and as you can see above, Super Talent uses the protective clamshell common in the memory industry and attractive high-gloss graphics that help communicate manufacturer identity.
The DIMMs themselves are typical Super Talent. The only feature that makes them stand out in appearance is the increasingly familiar "basketweave" design identifying the memory as Super Talent. This 2 GB kit is made up of two 1GB DIMMs that are populated on just one side. Super Talent chose to use just one heatsink on the populated side which works very well for keeping the DIMM cool. With the current density of Micron Z9 memory chips it would be a relatively easy task to make a 4 GB memory kit. However, performance and timings would likely be somewhat below current specs in a 4 GB kit (not to mention what such kits would cost given current Z9 memory chip pricing).
| Super Talent W1600UX2G7 Memory Specifications |
|
| Number of DIMMs & Banks | 2 SS |
| DIMM Size | 1GB |
| Total Memory | 2 GB (2 x 1GB) |
| Rated Timings | 7-7-7-18 at DDR3-1600 |
| Rated Voltage | 1.8V (Standard 1.5V) |
DDR3 is lower voltage, higher speed, and slower timings than DDR2. The chart below summarizes some of the differences in the official JEDEC DDR2 and DDR3 specifications.
| JEDEC Memory Specifications | ||
| DDR2 | DDR3 | |
| Rated Speed | 400-800 Mbps | 800-1600 Mbps |
| Vdd/Vddq | 1.8V +/- 0.1V | 1.5V +/- 0.075V |
| Internal Banks | 4 | 8 |
| Termination | Limited | All DQ signals |
| Topology | Conventional T | Fly-by |
| Driver Control | OCD Calibration | Self Calibration with ZQ |
| Thermal Sensor | No | Yes (Optional) |
JEDEC specs a starting point for enthusiast memory companies. However, since there was never a JEDEC standard for memory faster than DDR-400 then DDR memory running at faster speeds is really overclocked DDR-400. Similarly DDR2 memory faster than DDR2-800 is actually overclocked DDR2-800 since there is currently no official JEDEC spec for DDR2-1066. DDR speeds ran to DDR-400, DDR2 has official specs from 400 to 800, and DDR3 will extend this from 800 to 1600 based on the current JEDEC specification.
The Super Talent is the first DDR3 we have tested with a rated 1600 or higher speed. It also offers lower latency at 1600, 7-7-7 timings, than many of the speed ratings of the first DDR3 DIMMs at 1066. Super Talent DDR3 is available in three configurations:
2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1600 7-7-7-18 kit Street Price $648
2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1600 9-9-9-21 kit Street Price $598
2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1333 8-8-8-18 kit Street Price $417
Street prices are approximate selling prices at launch, since final prices for Super Talent memory are set by the resellers.
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metalgrx - Thursday, December 13, 2007 - link
If you check the official site of TEAM ( http://web.teamgroup.com.tw/teamgroup/en/productDe...">http://web.teamgroup.com.tw/teamgroup/e...php?pd_i... you ll see the PC3 12800 DDR3 1600MHz CL7 (2*1GB),7-7-7-21-2T, 1.75V~1.85V which is available in my country and i must say it's quite cheap compared to the other options...what do you think about this? To set it clearly...should i buy it?Bozo Galora - Friday, July 20, 2007 - link
FWIW: I picked this little blurb up from EVA's forum:Quote:
BTW... The Micron Z9's are just Engineering samples (rev B), while the D9's are going to be on the market soon (if not already out there), and those are the non-Engineering samples.
Hopefully the D9's can overclock as well as the Z9's (or even better)
(Unquote)
So it looks like the DDR3 will also have D9's
DigitalFreak - Friday, July 20, 2007 - link
Wait a sec... so all this Z9 memory being reviewed isn't what will actually be available for sale? I thought these were retail DIMMs?Wesley Fink - Saturday, July 21, 2007 - link
We have kits identified as Retail from both Super Talent and OCZ. Both have also announced the availability of these parts and pricing for the retail parts. TEAM has told us the TEAM kit is an Engineering Sample, but that retail kits will be announced soon.EVGA boards use nVidia chipsets and do not support DDR3. I would guess EVGA and its users would not be happy with DDR3-2000 chips being available as it would likely hurt their sales.
Bozo Galora - Friday, July 20, 2007 - link
Another fine memory review - you da man, Wesley.Please ignore all the knuckle draggers - they have nothing better to do in their boring empty lives than to argue just for for the sake of arguing.
Keep up the good work - don't let the losers get to you.
theprodigalrebel - Friday, July 20, 2007 - link
TEAM's timings are listed as 5-4-3-9 2.1V @ 1900MHz in the 'Highest Speed' column.Wesley Fink - Friday, July 20, 2007 - link
The charts have all been corrected and now show the correct DDR3-1900 TEAM settings of 9-8-7-18 at 2.1V. Since our Web Editor is traveling and not available I ended up redoing the charts myself, so I added a few things like larger type to communicate the winner at each memory speed.strikeback03 - Monday, July 23, 2007 - link
while you're at it, last page, 4th paragraph from the end mentions DDR2-2000 DIMMs, assume that should be DDR3.Wesley Fink - Friday, July 20, 2007 - link
Thank you for pointing that out. It will be corrected.MadBoris - Friday, July 20, 2007 - link
At first I was like wow.Then I saw all DDR2 comparisons were at 33% less CPU frequency.
We need to get back to real world thinking here.
As an example if I am buying a MOBO capable of DDR2 or DDR3 with a 2.8 GHZ CPU. I would like to know what the actual performance difference would be on that platform for extra cost of DDR3. As it is, by guessing, a faster CPU would probably be a better value and keeping DDR2.
Anyway, unique charts and data this time guys. I know it shows the scaling of memory speed and I am sure this some amazing electronic achievement in some laboratory, but it doesn't communicate much value to me until I see some apple to apple comparisons.
I'm sure that will come around next time, looking forward to it.