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Kingston DDR2-1200 & Crucial DDR2-1000 |
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Written by Milos Stamenkovic
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Monday, 05 March 2007 |
In actual development status of LGA775 platform, it is completely logical situation that in each edition we have an opportunity to test new and primarily faster memory modules. In previous article, we presented Kingston DDR2 1066 modules, this time we have to check even faster DDR2 1200 models which came from same company. In this very moment, respective DDR2 1200 PC2-9600 modules are ultimate Kingston`s offer. Naturally, and if there is more space for increasing nominal voltage up to three and more volts, we could expect even faster models. However, this progression may be questionable, at least when we talk about Kingston.
Namely, the problem is that with these modules we didn’t reach operative rate indicated by the manufacturer. Maximum possible speed for stabile operation is 1150 MHz, which is for about 50 MHz less than factory settings paid by the final user. Default operating voltage should be from 2.3 to 2.35 V, but neither on these, or even higher voltages we could not establish stabile operation on 1200 MHz with nominal CAS5 5-5-15 timings. We tried to loosen timings more, thus even this issue did not bring us desired speed. On the test, we had modules of 512 MB capacity which should easily establish respective speed, so we can assume that with 1 GB modules it surely cannot be much better. At the end of this story, we can state that used FBGA chips are in vicinity of absolute limits of their possibilities, thus some more significant novelty is necessary in making DDR2 memories to give their ultimate performances.
Crucial in its actual offer does not have PC2-9600 module class, thus this company is still faithful to practicable issues. The best samples of Ballistix series of models are still declassed PC2-8000, which means that their nominal speed is 1000 MHz. Default voltage on aforesaid speed is 2.2 V, while timings are within standard of CAS5 5-5-15. The most significant issue is that respective Crucial modules initially and without problems may establish declassed speed. Naturally, we attempted to increase operating voltage and to get over nominal value limits. When operating voltage is increased to 2.35 V, stabile operation is achieved on same timings, but on the speed of 1100 MHz. This speed is real goal of ours in this very moment. Combination of aforesaid memory speed, the best LGA775 motherboards and E6300 processors represent the best choice for maximal total overclocking results and performances of the system. If you are not too demanding overclocker, purchasing of such modules is absolutely pointless for you. Naturally, by decreasing it to lower speeds you can achieve more aggressive memory timings and respectively minimally increased performances, but we claim that in era of LGA775 platform that efforts and investments are simply not payable.
| Results | Kingston DDR2 1200 | Crucial DDR2 1000 | | Frequency | 1066 MHz | 1066 MHz | | Timings | CAS5 5-5-15 | CAS5 5-5-15 | | Sandra 2007 Memory test | 5865 / 5812 | 5867 / 5813 | | 3DMark2001SE (Soft T&L) | 10918 | 10921 | | Quake4 (MediumQ) FPS | 105,11 | 105,16 | | FarCry (MediumQ) FPS | 147,92 | 146,88 | | Cinebench 9.5 (more is better) | 582 | 582 | | WinRAR 3.60 (more is better) | 1123 | 1125 | | Nuclearus 1.0 (more is better) | 6331 | 6333 | | DivX 6.2.5 (more is better) | 102,31 | 102,34 | | Testbed | Intel Core2 Duo 6300, Asus Commando, nVidia 7600GT, WD600, Win XP | | Price | Sample | 120e |
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Due to aforesaid, in recent tests of DDR2 high-end memories we did not pay attention to stretching timings on lower frequencies, simply because momentarily situation is that operating rate is the most significant issue for overclocking, while all other matters are inconceivable. Besides, results in the table are created on maximal standard memory rate which could have been established without processor overclocking. As newest generations of LGA775 motherboards, like Asus Commando type, open possibility of operation on 600 MHz, we hope that memory manufacturers will successfully cross even this barrier. |
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