Time for the testing phase, all tests are run 3 times and results are then divided by 3 (unless otherwise noted). VL's testing suite includes the following:

(AVI to MPEG2 encoding)

I popped out my 1GB of OCZ PC3200 (non-kit) sticks and popped these in and the first thing you notice is the weight of them. I thought the PC3200s I had were heavy, but the PC3700s could be used as boat anchors if they ever failed (they have a lifetime warranty btw). I booted my system at stock settings. I wasn't looking for any drastic changes from the old memory to the new sticks, as they compare closely at stock settings, none the less, I wanted to see if a dual channel kit bought me anything at stock values.

SiSoft Sandra 2004

Although a synthetic benchmark, it's a popular one, freely available if you wish to make comparison benchmarks. We will be testing the memory speeds at stock 2.4GHz speeds as well 3.0GHz.

Module	Ram Int Buff aEMMX/aSSE	Ram Float Buff aEMMX/aSSE
OCZ PC3700 @ 250FSB	5597	5562
OCZ PC3700	4567	4559
OCZ PC3200 @ 250FSB	4777	4779
OCZ PC3200	4594	4579
TWINX PC3700 @ 250FSB	5602	5571
TWINX PC3700	4542	4539

You can see at stock 2.4GHz, the original OCZ PC3200s actually slightly outperform the new OCZ sticks and the Corsair TwinXs. Is this a sign of things to come? Even if it isn't, it either bodes well for OCZ non-kit dual DDR capabilities or shows that you don't HAVE to "match" them up to get good performance, or I was lucky. Once we get into overclocking it is very clear that the PC3200s do their best at 2.4GHz. The TwinX and OCZ PC3700 sticks perform very well, almost identical all the way to 3.0GHz. At 3.12GHz on the OCZ PC3700s, I had to go to 3:2 FSB timings, which in the long run hurts the benchmark scores. The Corsair Kit could not reach 3.12GHz stably; it would boot there, and then freeze upon the initiation of any test.

PiFast

A good indicator of CPU/Motherboard performance is PiFast version 4.3, by Xavier Gourdon. We used a computation of 10000000 digits of Pi, Chudnovsky method, 1024 K FFT, and no disk memory.

Module	Time (in Seconds & Lower is better)
OCZ PC3700 @ 250FSB	44.67
OCZ PC3700	53.18
OCZ PC3200 @ 250FSB	47.55
OCZ PC3200	53.46
TWINX PC3700 @ 250FSB	44.68
TWINX PC3700	52.76

Now we start to see the advantage of tight timings when overclocking. The OCZ and Corsair memory distance themselves nicely due to being able to run at 1:1 FSB as well as low CL levels all the way into the 3.0GHz range. In my previous review of the ABIT AI7, I compared it to the Asus P4C800-E Deluxe, and there was over a 1 second differential in this test, which I attributed to memory. Now the AI7 performs almost two seconds faster than the P4C800-E Deluxe. Did I mention that choice of memory was important when overclocking? The Corsair memory Kit stays stride for stride with the OCZ in this test as well.

TMPGEnc MPEG Encoding

Video encoding is a taxing chore, both on Memory and Processor, we will be encoding a 150mb AVI file to MPEG2. For the AVI to MPEG2 I used a bitrate of 5000k/Sec, as this is the midrange for a DVD, which is typically between 1000k/Sec to 10,000k/Sec. I used a frame size of 720x480 (DVD Std) and 16:9 NTSC.

Module	Time (in Min:Sec & Lower is better)
OCZ PC3700 @ 250FSB	3:02
OCZ PC3700	7:01
OCZ PC3200 @ 250FSB	4:07
OCZ PC3200	7:06
TWINX PC3700 @ 250FSB	3:03
TWINX PC3700	7:04

At stock speeds, there is again a negligible difference, but crank it up to 3.0GHz, and we almost shave 1 minute off of the encode time from PC3200 memory, and cut the time in half from the original 2.4GHz speed.

Cdex MP3 Encode

This is a new test in the VL suite; I took a CD (Bad Company - 10 from 9), and ripped it to one long 414mb .wav file. I then turned around and encoded that wave file to a 320Kb/s sample rate MP3. I am sure there is a negligible HD performance influence in this test but with the amount of memory we are testing, it shouldn't be more than a fraction of a second.

Module	Time (in Min:Sec & Lower is better)
OCZ PC3700 @ 250FSB	1:10
OCZ PC3700	1:26
OCZ PC3200 @ 250FSB	1:22
OCZ PC3200	1:31
TWINX PC3700 @ 250FSB	1:10
TWINX PC3700	1:28

There wasn't a lot of difference throughout this test with all of the memory modules. The most amazing thing to me, is how fast we can rip a music cd... less than two minutes into a high level MP3.

PCMark 02

Another synthetic benchmark that is freely available if you wish to make comparison benchmarks. We are only going to be looking at the Memory score, as the other results are not what I am reviewing today.

Module	Score
OCZ PC3700 @ 250FSB	9813
OCZ PC3700	8510
OCZ PC3200 @ 250FSB	9247
OCZ PC3200	8512
TWINX PC3700 @ 250FSB	9767
TWINX PC3700	8523

We see the same linear improvement we have seen on most of the tests here, the only thing that stands out is the slight jump the OCZ sticks made at 250FSB over the Corsair Sticks. Interesting.

Final Words

Brook's 0.02$

OCZ is known for their innovative and leading edge technology. Their name has become synonymous with overclocking, and a lot (especially by me) is expected of them in that realm of the marketplace. The OCZ EL DDR PC-3700 Dual Channel Kit has performed very well for the intended market. They easily reach 240FSB (higher than their rating) while not having to loosen timings. They reach 250FSB with a little timing and voltage adjustment while maintaining that needed 1:1 FSB ratio for Pentuim systems.

If you are the proud owner of an Intel i875 or i865 chipset and you want the crazy FSBs like 275+, these are not the sticks for you, but if you want to tweak it up a notch, or maybe even two, the Kit will fit the bill nicely.

Hubert's 0.02$

I think Brook summed it up nicely there. Although 275FSB is out of the question, 240FSB at 2.5-3-3-7 is quite a feat. However, if your hardware struggles at anything beyond 233FSB, you're throwing your money away with this ram. For Athlon owners, or Pentium 4 owners who prefer to stick with stock speeds, you're much better off with PC3200 modules.

Price-wise, the kit we looked at today is for PC3700 kits. It is a bit on the expensive side of things, but it's important to note the lower timings at this speed. I think our tests have demonstrated today that it does make a difference.

My only concern is the same concern I felt with Quasar's review of the TWINX PC3700 kit. PC3700 falls into what I would call "the middle child syndrome". PC4000 kits don't really cost much more, and the clock speed and ability to OC past 250FSB does make up the performance that it loses in latency (most PC4000 kits are rated at 3-4-4-8). We still recommend the OCZ EL PC3700, but take a look at your hardware to see if it's the best choice.

Pros: Solid Performance and Overclock beyond rating well (reach 250 FSB at 1:1), Warranty coverage up to 2.95V, Tight timings for rated speed (466MHz) 2.5-3-3-7, Good Looking Heat Spreaders, Well labeled

Cons: Anything past 250FSB cannot run at 1:1 FSB Ratio. Expensive and not much cheaper than PC4000.

Bottom Line: Good performing kit that will overclock nicely to 250FSB. If you have any further questions or comments, be sure to discuss this review in our Forums.

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