Overclocking
is quite a popular enthusiast hobby these days and many manufacturers
cater for this area. The reasons to overclock can range from simply
getting more for your money to finding the limits of your hardware.
But whatever your reasons for overclocking, one thing that rings
true across the board is that buying quality components will give
you better results. Sure, sometimes you get lucky, some more than
others, but more often than not your cheap purchase will hold
you back. Bottom line; you get what you pay for.
When
it comes to new companies there are usually two types. The first
company will make a few sacrifices in quality in the hopes that
the product will work well enough to give them some cash to be
able to improve the next time around. The second company will
make every effort to get it right the first time and so make a
name for themselves from the outset. It has been my experience
that the first type are more proliferate, but after seeing Hubert's
review of the Ultra X-Connect PSU I looked forward to seeing more
of Ultra's
products. Lucky me, I got the next few items to look at in the
post, the first of which is Ultra's
1024MB Dual Channel PC4000 Kit. Fingers crossed the X-Connect
is a sign that Ultra is of the second variety of company, in which
case overclocking should prove to be a high point.
Specifications
-Memory
size: 1024MB
-Memory Speed: 500MHz PC4000
-Memory CAS Latency: 3.4.4.8
-Memory Type: DDR
-Pins: 184
Additional
Specifications
-Our
pledge to you that all Ultra Overclocking Memory products sold
will be free from defects in materials and workmanship.
-Compatibility. Reliability. Speed. Ultra Overclocking Memory
can offer all three because it has been rigorously tested to comply
with our discriminating standards. Exhaustive triple testing ensures
a quality product.
-No guessing games, no surprises—Ultra Overclocking Memory
offers 100% compatibility, guaranteed.
-All ULTRA Dual Channel DDR Memory modules ship in a Beautifully
Crated Mahogany Box.
-All ULTRA overclocking memory modules feature integrated aluminum
heat spreaders for optimum thermal dispersion and carry a lifetime
limited warranty.
Ok,
fair enough, as long as the ram arrives safe and sound, does it
really matter to the end product what kind of packaging you get.
Well no, but damn, check this out:
That's
a mahogany wooden box, felt lined and just provides such a classy
presentation. No doubt about it, marks out of Ten, Ultra get
a Twelve for the packaging. I was ready to
find gold and jewels inside! Opening the box reveals the contents;
no jewels, although you can't miss the golden aluminum heatspreaders
on the two sticks carefully inset within the foam inlay inside.
Ultra
have incorporated a hologram effect sticker on one side which
provides the information on the kit, its size and speed etc.
Now whilst it might seem at first a little tacky when surrounded
by the rest of the class presentation, it actually fits in quite
well. The hologram stickers also double up as the "Warranty
Void if Removed" labels. Turning the stick over, we can
see the printed "Ultra" logo. Again the presentation
is good and speaks of high quality and it would seem this high
quality is a theme with Ultra products.
The
memory we have here is Dual Sided (256MB on each side of each
stick) with default memory timings of 3-4-4-8. Now this may seem
a little high but a lot of PC4000 runs at these speeds, and since
chances are you will have bought PC4000 for a P4 system, the latencies
are not as important as they are with an AMD system. PC4000 is
of course good for 500MHz DDR (250MHz) and with Ultra's stringent
testing before sales (3 day burn in as well as extensive compatibility
tests), we should have some nice overclocking ram here. How it
will perform in an AMD system is something we shall test too,
as PC4000 is now more likely to be bought by the AMD overclocking
crowd thanks to the high overclocks available from the Athlon
XP-Ms, extending the market for PC4000 from Intel systems only.
NEXT
