A
relative unknown in the enthusiast market space, PDP Systems has
released the XBLK line of memory packaged under the moniker of
Patriot Memory,
with some very nice statistics to back it up. PDP Systems has
been in the memory industry since 1985 and appears to piece together
high end components to meet their consumer's needs. Before
we dive into the current offering, let's take a quick look
at what we will be testing.
Specifications
•
PC-3200 / PC-4200
• CL 2-2-254 / 3-4-4-8 timings
• 2.6V
• Medium Red Heat spreader
• PDP Systems Lifetime Warranty
• Free Technical Support
Although
DDR memory has been around for some time, it is nice to see
another player arrive, especially when they come to market with
some pretty tight timings and the ability to achieve PC-4200
speeds. PDP Systems primarily has been a major player in the
global technology solutions provider space, and this appears
to be among their first forays into the enthusiast's realm
of memory solutions.
Removing
the Maroon Heat Spreader takes more than just a little effort;
I would highly recommend that in fact you don't. I was somewhat
nervous waiting for the system to boot, thinking there was a
chance I damaged the module in some way. Nevertheless I did
manage to get the Heat Spreader off and take a snapshot of the
internals. As you can see these are Samsung TCCD chips, dated
for week 510. Interesting to note that they are now populated
on a red PCB vise the earlier green PCB's, both of which appear
to be mounted on a Brainpower PCB, which should assist in overclocking
above and beyond the reference PCB. PDP Systems has rated these
modules as 2-2-2-5 @ PC3200 as well as 3-4-4-8 @ PC4200.
Seeing
as no respectable overclocking enthusiast runs things at “spec”,
let's install them and see what we can do.
Test
Setup
DFI
LAN Party Ultra-D, Asus N5900 Extreme, WD 80GB 7200RPM SATA, AMD64
3200+ (Venice Core), OCZ PowerStream 420 PSU
Memory
Patriot
Memory (2.7V / 2.85V) (2-2-2-5 / 3-4-4-8)
Kingston HyperX PC4300 (2.8V) (3-4-4-8)
All
though the timings at stock 400MHz speeds seem to favor the Patriot
Modules, you can see they match up when you start Overclocking,
we will see if this plays out through the testing phase of the
review.
Testing
software will consist of the following:
SiSoft
Sandra 2005 Memory - Our standard synthetic test to establish
a baseline.
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. Note
that lower scores are better, and times are in seconds.
TMPGEnc
Plus 2.5 - Video encoding is a taxing chore, both on
the Memory and the Processor. We will be encoding a 150mb AVI
file to MPEG2 on our test system. For the AVI to MPEG2 I used
a bit rate 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. Note that lower scores
are better.
Quake
3 - While it's old and moldy, it still has some value as
a system level benchmark.
SiSoft
Sandra 2005
At
Stock speeds the Patriot Memory takes an initial lead. I attempted
to tweak the HyperX memory modules to the same timings of 2-2-2-5
to no avail (I couldn't tweak them any lower than SPD). Even at
500MHz speeds, where the HyperX and Patriot modules where at the
same timings, the Patriot modules still manage a slight edge (although
the HyperX modules did gain ground).
PiFast
Once
again the Patriot modules outperform the HyperX modules at 400MHz
and again at 500MHz (with the HyperX again gaining ground), could
this be a trend for the newcomer?
TMPGEnc
MPEG Encoding
In
this test scenario the two pair of sticks are very close with
a slight edge going to the Patriot modules.
Quake
III
The
Patriot memory outpaced the HyperX once again, although not by
much. Raising the frequency to 500MHz did little to change this
with exception to bringing the HyperX a little closer.
Overall
results of the benchmarks shows PDP Systems has done their homework
with the +XBLK line and brought a serious contender to the still
thriving DDR market space. I say welcome to the foray, as the
more we as users have to choose from, the more we win.
Overclocking
Overclocking
the DFI and different memory modules takes some getting used to.
One memory set likes this setting, while the other can't even
boot without that one. I managed through a lot of trial and error
to get a very respectable overclock with the 3200+ Venice core
and the Patriot memory modules. They are rated for 533MHz, I was
only able to obtain a maximum POST of 526MHz, and that was with
3.0VDimm, a level I do not like to be at for long with anyone's
memory. I was able to get to 420MHz (210HT) without adjusting
the timings, once I tried 211HT I could not get past POST no matter
what the VDimm was set to. With the Kingston HyperX modules I
was only able to obtain a maximum POST at 514MHz. I was able to
boot into windows and run tests on both modules at 500MHz (obviously
from above results :P), however the Patriot Modules I was able
to increase that to 510MHz. The timings on the Patriot modules
could not be any tighter then 3-4-4-8, what PDP Systems rates
for 533MHz.
Final
Words
PDP
Systems with its introduction of Patriot Memory +XBLK line
takes dead aim at the DDR enthusiasts. They bring to market tight
timings and flexible VDimm requirements to allow you to stretch
the usability of a PC3200 Module to that of a PC4200 Module. A
well done introduction into the market space, giving us yet another
vendor for serious consideration when choosing our memory.
Pros:
Tight timings and flexibility for headroom, Life Time warranty,
Free Technical Support if needed
Cons:
Did not reach the maximum rated speed, Cost, on par with OCZ /
Kingston but without the reputation among enthusiasts.
Bottom
Line: Patriot Memory has started off on the right foot,
tight timings, great overclockability along with things you expect,
such as lifetime warranty. Lets hope they continue this pursuit,
as I enjoy being able to pick from more than one or two vendors
when it comes to performance oriented gear.
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