| OCZ Technology PC2-6400 System Elite 2GB Dual Channel DDR2
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Overclocking and Optimizing:
In general, this section of the review is just called "Overclocking", but that wouldn't be a fair title for this particular memory kit. The first step taken was to try to overclock the memory in 25 MHz increments while at the BIOS reported default timings of 5-5-5-13, so the first bump took it from 200 MHz to 225 MHz, or to a speed of 900 MHz DDR2.
Initially everything looked good, and the system was able to reboot a few times as I conducted a few benchmarks to test the performance. On about the fourth boot at this speed I could no longer get into Windows, and I began tweaking different settings (timings, voltages, +/- a few MHz) to get back in. No luck. I tried a bit higher (920 and 1000 MHz DDR2) to see if perhaps 900 MHz was just an unfriendly location on my journey for more speed. Nothing. I then brought the speed back down to 840 MHz and Windows was once again functional.
So, not much in terms of overclocking came from this kit, so I decided to try to boost the performance at the stock speed of 800 MHz by shooting for more aggressive timings. The OCZ Technology PC2-6400 System Elite 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 kit made up for its weak showing on the overclocking front by being able to run with timings of 4-4-4-13, which are much more aggressive than the published specifications of 5-5-5-15. To confirm that this setup was indeed stable, several hours of Prime95 in Blend mode (maximum RAM stressing) was executed, and I was pleased to see no errors when I finally decided to shut it down.
Every test to be conducted in this review was run at 800 MHz with the BIOS reported default timings of 5-5-5-13, as well as with the enhanced timings of 4-4-4-13. These results will all be charted, and results for the few benchmarks that managed to run at 900 MHz (5-5-5-13) will be reported as foot notes to those particular tests.
Testing:
Testing was conducted on the system described in the "Configuration" section of this review, and included the execution of several benchmarks designed to test memory / system performance. The list below summarizes the benchmarks to be run:
» Everest Ultimate Edition 2006 Memory Benchmark
» SiSoft Sandra Lite XI Memory Benchmark
» Futuremark's 3DMark06
» Super Pi / Mod1.5 XS
For comparison purposes, the OCZ Technology System Elite memory was tested head-to-head with some other PC2-6400 DDR2 in these benchmarks. The list below summarizes the kits to be tested, along with some of the key data on each:
» OCZ Technology PC2-6400 System Elite 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 [5-5-5-13] @ $129 for 2GB Kit
» Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 [4-4-4-12] @ $102 for 2GB Kit
» Transcend PC2-6400 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 [5-5-5-15] @ $110 for 2GB Kit
The list shows that all of the kits have the same speed, roughly the same timings, but that the OCZ kit carries the highest price tag. Checking the reviews on the other kits shows that when they were brand new, the prices were much, much higher, but today they are all relatively inexpensive. The Crucial Ballistix kit not only carries the most enthusiast oriented specifications, but it also happens to carry the lowest price tag. It will be interesting to see what OCZ's somewhat "non-enthusiast kit" can do in order justify the extra money.
Each benchmark will show four sets of results. The three kits tested at their default speed and timings, as well as a second entry for the OCZ System Elite kit with the tighter timings (4-4-4-13) confirmed stable in the "Overclocking and Optimizing" section of the review.
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