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 products. Lucky me, I got the next few items to look at in the post, the first of which is . 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.
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