Conclusion and thoughts
The
overclocking tests were limited to seeing just how far they would go at
~ 2.7v. We'll give them a more thorough examination in our upcoming
PC3700 face-off. Now that PC3200 has become standard specification for
the very latest x86 processors, it was necessary for prestige memory
manufacturers and distributors to surpass any current JEDEC standard.
PC3500 memory, running at 217MHz, had been around since the autumn of
2002 and it was necessary for a few companies to go further; the
enthusiast positively demanded it.
We remember
stating that 220MHz+ memory was banal, for there weren't many, if any,
chipsets that could handle that speed. Intel's new dual channel darlings
have shattered that belief. An enthusiast running their P4 rig at 250FSB+
is pretty common now. We've even seen the magical 300FSB barrier hit on
a select few i865 / i875 boards. Of course one could run the memory
asynchronously to these high FSBs, that, though, never 'felt' right. The
purists amongst us always preferred synchronous (1:1) running of CPU's
FSB and system RAM. It has to be said that the Canterwood MCH has shown
considerable skill in running asynchronous RAM efficiently.
This review's primary objective was to investigate whether OCZ's impressive claims held true. It's nice when products work just as they were intended to. OCZ's EL DDR PC-3700 Gold memory is about as good as we've seen if high RAM MHz is your thing. The next real performance step, we feel, is to have PC3700 speeds with 2-6-2-2 timings. Is any memory manufacturer brave enough to oblige us ?????.
Highs
- Ran perfectly at DDR466 with 2-7-3-3 timings @ ~ 2.7v
- Their looks better their impressive specifications
- Are warrantied up to 2.9v
- Seem to be excellent partners to enthusiasts who wish to run at 250FSB+ synchronously
Lows
- Will undoubtedly be expensive, but that is the nature of this beast
- They don't like low latencies (this is clearly pointed out by OCZ, so make sure you know what you want)
