Overclocking:
Overclocking will vary from machine to machine, as it is very dependant on all components and your skill at changing the variables to reach the ultimate overclock. During my overclock test, I do what I consider a simple overclock. This means that I will only adjust three things; the RAM voltage, FSB, and the CPU multiplier. There are many other adjustments that can be made, however those take a bit more skill than the average consumer may have the patience for.
The Gigabyte P35C-DS3R motherboard used for testing only supports DDR2 memory up to 800MHz. However, I have been successful at overclocking the system with the Patriot DDR2 memory to achieve 1000MHz. That was the most I was able to squeeze out of the Patriot memory, even though it is rated slightly higher.
The OCZ Technology PC2-8000 Platinum 4GB DDR2 kit was able to match the Patriot memory at 1000MHz. However, unlike the Patriot memory I was able to push the OCZ Technology kit a little more to reach 1080MHz, which is above what the Patriot is rated for. This was achieved by adjusting the RAM voltage, increasing the FSB to 360MHz, and setting the CPU multiplier to 8. I attempted to adjust the CPU multiplier to 7 and was able to get the memory to go to 362MHz, however after about an hour of testing I received an error and determined that 1080MHz was the most stable speed possible.
Testing:
Testing was conducted on the system described in the Configuration section of the review and included several benchmarks to test the memory at the base rated speed of 1000MHz and at the maximum overclock of 1080MHz. The benchmarks executed include:
» Lavalys Everest Ultimate Edition (v4.20)
» Futuremark 3DMark06 Pro
» Real World Gaming - STALKER and F.E.A.R.
Everest Ultimate Edition 4.2:
Lavalys Everest Ultimate Edition was used to provide four sets of results: memory read speed (in MB/s), memory write speed (in MB/s), memory copy speed (in MB/s), and memory latency (in ns). Higher values are better for memory read, write, and copy speeds, while lower values are desirable for latency.
At the base rated speeds of 1000MHz, the Patriot kit was unable to match the performance of the OCZ Technology DDR2 kit. Even with the DDR3 kit coming in slightly faster (1066MHz) it was no match for the OCZ Technology DDR2 kit at 1000MHz. Even when the DDR3 kit was running at 1333MHz and the OCZ Technology DDR2 kit running at 1080MHz, the DDR2 kit was able to outperform the DDR3 kit!
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