As
I never had OCZ
memory, I've never heard much about their products except
for some of their past history. Today I'll try to present you
OCZ in a different point of view because in spite of their past,
that's what it is, the past.
What
is really hard to do on the market these days is to make your
product distinguish itself from the rest of the competition. The
market is full of different kinds of ram, and they are all fast.
What I am looking for is not your standard ram. Ineed something
that looks different, feels different, and help push the hell
out of my machine. So OCZ will push it to the limit? Let's see...
Specifications
512Mb
kit (2x 256Mb) and 1Gb kit (2x 512Mb) available
ULN Technology
Based on OCZ brand EL DDR IC (4.5 ns)
CL 2-2-3-5 1T
200Mhz FSB / 400 Mhz
Dual Channel Optimised
Rated to handle up to 2.8 volts
Retail packaging
184 pin DIMM
So
what's so special about the Platinum? Here's what they have to
say about it on their site…
As
a result of the increasing demand for high performance dual channel
optimized DDR RAM OCZ have released their Platinum Edition PC3200
Series. The Platinum Edition PC3200 modules are hand tested and
matched across a variety of platforms to achieve highest possible
performance and compatibility.
- Dual Channel Optimized - hand tested in dual channel motherboards
for best possible performance and compatibility - suitable for
Intel i865/i875 and many other dual channel chipsets.
Basically,
they are saying that the ram is compatible with a lot motherboards
under standard Dual Channel usage, at the best performance possible.
Granted, if you have a crap motherboard you'll just crash your
pc by attempting overcooking or doing any unusual stuff, but on
the other hand if you have a decent motherboard you will be entitled
to have hours of fun trying to get the maximum performance of
this ram.
Dual
Channel
What
exactly is Dual Channel? That means that a motherboard, such as
the nForce2, uses Twin Bank mode, and requires two memory modules
plugged into the appointed DIMM slots in order to enable Dual
Channel DDR where each module controlled by a separate channel
of the memory controller. Hubert covered this quite extensively
in past reviews, so let's see what he has to say...
The
nForce2, Intel's 865PE and 875P, as well as 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
EL DDR PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Kit
When
the ram modules arrived they were individually packaged, with
instructions, and arrived in good condition. Here's OCZ's product
description…
OCZ
Enhanced Latency PC-3200 Dual Channel optimized kits memory using
state of the art ULN technology are capable of achieving outrageous
speeds of up to 400 MHz at CL2. These kits are optimized for use
on motherboards using the most popular Dual Channel chipsets like
the Canterwood, Springdale, Nforce2 etc. Each module is hand tested
and matched across a variety of motherboards to insure flawless
performance on any motherboard. Platinum heat spreader to ensure
best possible heat dissipation.
The
futuristic look and the silver color of the ram is really nice,
and it gives you the impression that you have already gained 200
mhz just by looking at it! Kinda like adding a "Type-R"
sticker on a Dodge Neon gives you 10 mental horsepower. Ok, maybe
that's just us.
The
weight even surprise me more with the nice copper heatsinks. At
this point I'm able to say they put a lot of work on this kit
to make it at least look better.
I
am going to admit that these are high quality spreaders, but as
Hubert also says, the jury is still out on these things as being
effective enough to improve your overclocking adventures with
ram. We're 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.
Not
much of indication were found on the memory label just the size
of the module and the rated speed (3200), and the module size.
After installation, it seems that the default SPD settings are
400MHz, 2-4-4-9. This is what was reported in the BIOS of my ABIT
NF7-S, though setting it to 2-2-3-5 wasn't a problem.
Overclocking
Memtest86
was used to test for stability thoughout our overclocking tests.
If it failed, we'll be clocking back until the tests pass.
The
first test was to see if we could run the OCZ DDR PC3200 Dual
Channel at its rated 400MHz, 2-2-3-5 T1 settings. This is always
a good first step just to make sure your ram is working as it
should be. Remember that the specs on the site say 2-2-3-5 and
my SPD settings are 2-4-4-9, but the two settings passed the test.
Everything
was running well so we will go up 1 MHZ at a time until we reached
our maximum overclock. As we approached the higher speeds, we
had freezing issue, and we've had to increase the memory voltage
up 2.7v to maintain stability. At 2-2-3-5, we managed a maximum
over clock of 230MHz (460MHz DDR), but the ram fail the Memtest86
tests. Clocking back down to 22MHz (440MHz DDR) resolved the problem.
I
had trouble with CPU-Z software didn't want to detect my ram.
We downloaded old versions and new versions, but for whatever
reason, no dice. So I have included few charts to show my results...
200MHZ(400)2-2-3-5 (left), 230
MHZ(460) 2-2-3-5 (right)
