has had a pretty rough ride in recent years when it comes to customer satisfaction. As a company, they've received a fair amount of flak over their business practices, and this has reflected poorly for them in their reseller rating.

Although I have never dealt with OCZ much in the past, I do know that in the past twelve months, they've gone through some restructuring, and they are working very hard to clean up their image within the community. This hasn't been very easy on their part, as a lot of people don't seem willing to give them much of a chance to redeem themselves. There's a new management team, and I can vouch for them that they work late into the nights, constantly improving on their products.

Today, OCZ is making a push to bring their products to the enthusiasts. What I mean is anybody can market PC2700 ram for the regular consumer, but the target audience OCZ is aiming for have much higher demands. Enthusiasts want fast ram, JEDEC specifications be damned, with aggressive memory timings, lower CAS latency, and good performance.

Today, we're going to be looking at such a product, their . No, this is not their top-of-the-line PC3700 ram, but rather, this ram is specifically designed for the DualDDR platforms such as the nForce2 and Intel's Granite Bay. Knowing that, the PC3500 model we'll be reviewing is the 512MB kit, and it's the top speed rating in their Dual Channel series.

Specifications

ULN Technology: (U)ltra (L)ow (N)oise shielded PCB
Copper Heat Spreaders
Lifetime Warranty
512MB ( 256MB x 2 modules) or 1024MB(512MB x 2 modules) kits based on OCZ brand EL DDR IC (4.5 ns)
CL 2*
217 (434) MHz*- may require async mode
Optimized for dual channel operation
184 Pin Dimm
Unbuffered

In case you're wondering about the asterix(s), here's what they have to say about it on their site…

Based on dual module load at 2.5 volts +/- 5% DIMM Voltage. Certain chipsets/motherboards may allow faster timings Due to chipset and motherboard diferences on a non JEDEC standard product Make sure to check our motherboard qualification page for the exact information for your motherboard. OCZ Dual Channel optimized EL DDR modules are rated to handle up to 2.8 volts with heatspreader installed.

Basically, they're telling you that you will be able to do those speeds, or not, depending on the motherboard you use. Since most enthusiasts will have a premium motherboard, I doubt this will be a major problem.

One thing that is tricky with memory reviews is that many reviewers will receive either hand picked (more on this later), or engineering samples, we received actual retail samples from . I am basically telling you that the performance of our modules should realistically reflect the performance you can expect if you pick some up.

Dual Channel - Huh?

I covered this quite extensively in our Corsair TWINX review, but in summary, both the nForce2 and Intel's Granite Bay are DualDDR platforms. What this means is that for the best performance out of, let's say, your nForce2, you are better off with two 256MB sticks of ram, rather than going with one stick of 512MB. DualDDR is effectively a 128-bit interface with two 64-bit controllers working together. Latency is lowered as well by this method. Think of this scenario: The first controller can be gathering information, while the second controller is publishing it. Basically, both hands are working independently of one another, while still working towards the same end result. Therefore, latency is effectively cut in half.

OCZ DDR PC3500 Dual Channel EL Kit

Click to Enlarge

Since our samples came from , these are retail samples, with everything neatly packed in a sturdy cardboard box. The ram modules themselves are individually packaged, with instructions, and arrived in tip-top shape. Here's OCZ's product description…

OCZ Enhanced Latency PC-3500 Dual Channel optimized kits memory using state of the art ULN technology are capable of achieving outrageous speeds of up to 434 MHz at CL2*. In addition we have optimized the design to take advantage of the increased bandwidth of Dual Channel DDR platforms. Each module is hand tested and matched across a variety of motherboards to insure flawless performance on any motherboard.

I mentioned earlier how hand picked modules make for flawed reviews, since manufacturers may send cooked modules to reviewers so that the performance shows the ram in the best possible light. Although we received retail samples, the memory kit themselves consist of hand picked parts. Basically, by selecting two PC3500 modules that have been tested together as a matched pair, the consumer is spared the task of matching up ram that they buy individually. Before you think "what's the big deal", realize that it isn't as easy as one may think to get two sticks of ram to play nicely together.

One of the things that took me a bit by surprise was the weight. With copper ramsinks, these memory kits are going to piss off the local mail person, but they are going to look swank in your case, so their suffering is your gain. Here's a bit of what OCZ have to say…

Our copper heat spreaders maximize cooling and extend your rams life while increasing performance.

I am going to admit that these are high quality spreaders, but in my opnion, the jury is still out on these things as being effective enough to improve your overclocking adventures with ram. I'm not knocking OCZ's decision to add copper spreaders, as it will cool the memory chips down a little, but past experiences here at VL have shown that spreaders don't really do much for overclocking. That being said, they are included with the ram, so it's not like you have to go out and buy your own.

The ramsinks are attached to the memory modules via a heatspreaders and frag tape. Whereas the Corsair TwinX reviewed this week had one long strip of frag tape running across the DIMM module, OCZ placed one individual piece of tape on each ram chip. The heatspreaders is a raised surface on the ramsink, and serves to create a more secure application of the ramsink.

There aren't any obvious indications what the memory timings are on the label. The only information you do readily get is the rated speed (433MHz), and the module size. After installation, it seems that the default SPD settings are 433MHz, 2-3-3-7. This isn't bad, but it wasn't as aggressive as the Corsair TWINX we looked at earlier this week. Needless to say, we'll be giving this a close look when we get into the overclocking.

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