Test software will be

SiSoft Sandra 2004
PiFast
CDex 1.51
TMPGEnc
Unreal Tournament 2004
Quake 3: Arena

All of the test software applications were run 3 times and the results averaged between the 3.

SiSoft Sandra

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, using the 32-bit 2004 version.

PiFast

A good indicator of CPU/Motherboard performance is PiFast version 4.2, by Xavier Gourdon. We used a computation of 10000000 digits of Pi, Chudnovsky method, 1024 K FFT, and no disk memory. Note that lower scores are better, and times are in seconds.

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.

CDEX is more CPU dependent than memory speed dependent, however the memory speed and quantity do play their part in the overall scheme of things. Despite this, once more the lower latencies from the Mushkin win out. The difference may seem marginal but over a greater time period with larger files, then that same differential will apply.

TMPGEnc MPEG Encoding

Video editing is a taxing chore, and we'll be testing the Mushkin using TMPGEnc 2.512 to encode an Animatrix short of 150MB to a DVD quality mpg of 5000kbps. Note that lower scores are better.

TMPGEnc is another application that while the CPU plays a heavy part in the encoding process, having lower timings can serve to decrease the encoding time considerably, especially if you are encoding a larger file then we have here.

Unreal Tournament 2004 - as convoy @ 640x480, Min Details

Running UT2004 at a low resolution and with minimum details should put the load more on the CPU and Memory.

The as-convoy demo shows off a lot of scenery and moving imagery, and can be quite taxing. The lower timings on the Mushkin 2-2-2-6 @ DDR400 certainly give a slight boost to the scores, and while it may not be a huge number difference, every little bit helps when you are tweaking.

Quake III Arena - Demo Four @ 640x480, Min Details

Using a default 640x480 configuration at lowest settings, we have attempted to remove the load from the graphics card and put the emphasis on the CPU, Memory and Subsystem's performance.

Like the UT2004 numbers, having the lower timings once again provides a small boost.

Final Words

This has been for me a first look at a Mushkin product in quite a while, well over a year and it has once again been a positive experience. It can be kind of hard to believe that lower timings, at least on an AMD system, can have as much effect on application performance as they do. While the numbers shown here may only show a slight differential, in the grand scheme of things for those who do tweak, every little bit helps, so combined with other system tweaks the low timings could contribute a lot. This is especially useful for those who are not comfortable overclocking their systems, as they may not get a boost from increasing the FSB and Memory speeds, they can get a slight boost from the lower than average timings.

Of course true enthusiasts will want to overclock, and the samples I have here have shown themselves to be capable of near PC4000 speeds which is quite a jump from PC3200. Timings had to be loosened to reach the higher speeds but the headroom is there. If you are a mild overclocker of P4 systems, or you run an AMD system, then this ram would be suitable for you. If what you are after is 250MHz and up, forget it, this ram was never designed for that and you should be looking elsewhere. If you're not an overclocker, then the slight boost from the lower timings at DDR400 speeds, perhaps combined with some other system tweaks will certainly appeal.

Pros: Low timings of 2-2-2-6, 2-2-2-5 timings were capable on these samples @ DDR400, Fetching black on black heatspreaders and PCB's, Headroom for overclocking to near DDR500 speeds with relaxed timings, gold contacts

Cons: Price - at $320 its around $40-$50 more than the majority of the competition, however once into reseller hands that price will likely even out to around the same.

Bottom Line: Overclocking isn't something that everyone is comfortable doing, but the lower timings from this Mushkin 1GB L2V2 PC3200 Dual Channel Kit will help go towards wringing every last drop of performance from your system.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to use our Forums to discuss this review.

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