Memory
comes in many standards, and the majority of it is in one of two
forms; DDR or DDR II. DDR II is the new kid on the block and hasn't
yet really found its feet. DDR on the other hand has been around
for a while with various speed advances happening over the years.
Now since the aim for any system is to get ram that either matches
or exceeds your current CPU's FSB, it stands to reason that PC3200
would be quite popular. Enthusiasts and/or overclockers will obviously
want to go higher, but increasing the speed is only one aspect
of the equation. Reducing the latencies involved can also have
an effect on the memory's performance, which is the area that
Mushkin's PC3200
L2V2 modules are aiming at with some very low timings at DDR400
speeds.
Specifications
•
2-2-2-6 @ 400MHz
• 3.2GB/s
• Dual Bank
• 64Mx64 Module
• 32Mx8 chip density
• Jet Black 6-Layer PCB
• Gold Contacts
• 184pin
• 2.5V - 2.8v
• Unbuffered
• Heatspreader colors vary
With
timings of 2-2-2-6 we should see some nice scores here.
Mushkin
sent me the 1GB (2x512) PC3200 L2V2 kit in this rather funky
inflatable packaging designed to protect the ram while in transit.
One pull of the tag and I was able to gain access to the antistatic,
vacuum packed sticks inside.
The
sticks inside feature a black on black look; that's to say Mushkin
have used black heatspreaders and a 6 layer black PCB which
is quite fetching, although the Mushkin site does warn that
heatspreader colours may vary. Both sides of the heatspreaders
are the same, with a raised Mushkin logo in the middle. One
side of each stick has an identification sticker which describes
the stick.
On
the sticker we have LII V2 in big letters to the left, memory
specs such as the size and speeds to the top right with the
Mushkin logo below it. The sticker also serves as the warranty
void sticker, since removal of the heatspreaders will void the
warranty. The memory stick contacts are gold plated to enhance
the conductivity and contact between the memory and the motherboard
slots.
Test
Setup
Abit
AN7 (UDP 4.27s), Athlon
XP 2500 (provided by Overclock),
MSI
GeForceFX5950 Ultra 256MB (Forceware Drivers 61.77), 80GB
WD 8MB Cache HD, Windows XP SP2
Overclocking
I
put the Mushkin sticks in my Athlon XP 2500+, Abit AN7 system
and after running the initial tests went ahead and did some overclocking
and tweaking. The first thing I wanted to know is just how tight
could the timings go at DDR400.
The
start point was SPD Timings of 2-2-2-6 which is pretty low anyway.
At 2-2-2-4 the PC wouldn't post although 2-2-2-5 performed flawlessly
all the way up to 207 FSB. Resetting back to SPD timings of 2-2-2-6
I began to increase the FSB once again. 210 came and went quickly
enough and I had no trouble until 217FSB.
For
an AMD system this is pretty high at those timings, which is the
aim of this particular kit. Next I wanted to find out the ceiling
so I relaxed the timings to 3-4-4-11 and began increasing the
FSB once more. I had no troubles at all until 240FSB which is
the limit for my CPU. Dropping to 3-4-4-8 timings the highest
I could reach was 235.
NEXT
