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  • DonCornelius - Saturday, January 22, 2005 - link

    Can anyone tell me why we can't get 2-2-2 timings on 1GB size DIMMs? The only DIMMs I see with this timings are 512MB and 256MB. Is this marketing or a limit on the technology?
  • Live - Thursday, January 6, 2005 - link

    If what PrinceGaz is sayimng about memory on the AMD platform is true I think it would warrant some clarification from Anandtech. If money is an object what gives best bang for the buck. Cheap memory and faster CPU or the other way around?
  • PrinceGaz - Wednesday, January 5, 2005 - link

    from #20- "#19 - The $82 PQI Turbo stuff at newegg is 2.5-3-3 timing RAM. The cheapest you can get a 2-2-2 512MB stick of RAM at newegg is the Patriot for $107."

    Given that we've already got a 2.5-3-3 timings with the PQI, and it was the module that at most was 3% slower on memory-bandwidth bound applications with the Athlon 64, I think that answers my question about why budget memory has not been covered.

    You may as well save still more money and get brand-name value-products for an AMD box, unless you are going for a high-end overclocking system with an FX-55 where every component is the best in it's class. Even if overclocking you aren't going to suffer because there is no such thing as an asynchronous memory frequency with an Athlon 64 (there is no Northbridge between the CPU and memory) so just set the budget memory to "DDR333" and you'll be fine for overclocking up to about DDR500.

    Actually when you combine the S939 Athlon 64's lack of dependence on memory bandwidth with it's onboard memory controller that ensures any memory speed is equally efficient; when building a mid-range Athlon 64 box you may as well just get cheap brand-name DDR400 and run it at what ever speed it is happiest with after overclocking your CPU. Which makes all these high-end memory review articles pointless for all except extreme overclockers.
  • eetnoyer - Wednesday, January 5, 2005 - link

    #19 - The $82 PQI Turbo stuff at newegg is 2.5-3-3 timing RAM. The cheapest you can get a 2-2-2 512MB stick of RAM at newegg is the Patriot for $107.
  • kmmatney - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    With NewEgg having PQI turbo 3200 at $82, I thinks that's the best deal, probably worth the extra $10 or so over value RAM. In this review it performed almost as well as the top of the line stuff.
  • Googer - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    Correction:

    the standard JDEC complient ram does not need to be included in the overclocking tests.
  • Googer - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    All memory should be tested agains JDEC Standard Ram
    using JDEC standard Timings For DDR400. Standard ISSUE Crucial (not ballistix) should also be included as a base compairson for all DDR400 Tests.

    When it comes to overclocking the JDEC complient ram
    does not need to be tested becuase that was never the intent of its design.
  • Fricardo - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    #'s 6,12,14,15

    Here here. I couldn't care less about timings...it's not worth the cash to get ever so slightly more performance. I'd just like some decent RAM that'll let me overclock an A64, nothing fancy.
  • miketheidiot - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    Cheap memory review! Enough of this expensive junk.
  • JustAnAverageGuy - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    #13

    I think he was thinking more along the lines of say Kingston\Corsair ValueRAM which runs for around $65-70 for a 512MB stick.

    Zebo did something similar (see CPU & OC forums), but I've been waiting for the AnandTech review.

  • kmmatney - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    The review did have some mid-range memory in the tests. Their value was noted in the last sentence of the review, but it should be highlighted more.

    According to the review, the PQI turbo 3200 performed almost as well, but is almost half the price! The money saved can be spent on a cpu or video upgrade.

    A quick glance at NewEgg shows PQI turbo 4000 memory priced at $95.50, which I think is a good deal.


  • PrinceGaz - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    #6- I've been wondering about the value/mid-range round-up too. Looking at the AMD 533/2.4GHz results page, the largest difference between the best and worst memory types in the real-world applications is just over 3%, and these are applications that were chosen because they are more affected by memory-bandwidth than usual. At the end of every review of premium memory it should say "it doesn't really matter which premium module you get for an AMD system so buy the cheapest as it'll make no real difference in performance, and the money would be better spent on a higher-rated CPU or better cooling". Maybe the worry is that if they test some budget/mid-range memory, they'll find you'd be better off getting that instead of the premium modules because it makes so little difference, and that would annoy the companies that send them premium samples :p

    Intel platforms are more affected by memory bandwidth, but they are moving to DDR2 which makes DDR tests increasingly irrelevant for them.
  • HardwareD00d - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    Wes - Thank you for the clarification.

    I'll trade you my 2 sticks of ShikaXRam for your Corsair sample. ;)
  • Wesley Fink - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    #9 - No conspiracy intended. Our AMD memory test bed was not even set up when we tested the Shikatronics memory in June. We have stated many times that Hynix B, the chipsets used in the Shikatronics, does not generally perform as well on the Athlon 64 platform as it does on Intel. TCCD usually does better on AMD than Intel. Also the timings are 3-4-4 on the Shika which are slower than TCCD at the same memory speed.

    Just to make sure we weren't blowing smoke, I popped the Shikatronics 550 into the AMD test bed. It did it's specified DDR550 on the A64 at 3-4-4-10 2.85V, which is excellent for Hynix B on AMD. However, I could not make it to even DDR560 as the memory topped out at 554 on the AMD platform.

    We are testing new memory on both AMD and Intel, but we have not gone back to past Hynix B dimms for an AMD update, nor do we plan to.
  • HardwareD00d - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    I've got the Shikatronics PC4400 DC kit for my Athlon64, and I'd like to see that compared against the Corsair modules. It IS on the Intel side, and is the clear winner. Seems strange that you wouldn't compare the "priorly fastest" memory (per a previous review) against the new Corsair modules. This omission seems a little fishy to me.
  • erinlegault - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    Maybe other PC4400 rated memory from other companies should be compared, especially the OCZ PC4200 Pt Series ram. All the ram used was PC3200, except for the PC3700 OCZ, and overclocked from the rated 400MHz to near 600MHz. The Corsair PC4400 memory was only overclocked from the rated 550MHz to 636MHz. I would personally like to see if any other PC4000 or higher rated memory could do any better.
  • Wesley Fink - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    #2 - We used 5X HT at stock speeds, 4X HT for 218 and 240, and 3X HT for 267 up. All other settings are in the reviews.

    #4 - With the huge number of memories reviewed at AnandTech, we feel comfortable in talking about relative positioning of tested memory. With 28 memories compared in performance on the Intel charts and seven different DDR400 2-2-2 memories in the AMD charts, there is certainly comparative info to draw conclusions. The Corsair 4400C25 proved to reach the highest FSB, but it was not the best choice in the DDR400 to DDR450 range. We state that clearly in our conclusion.
  • eetnoyer - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    Wow, another elitist memory review. As if TCCD weren't reviewed to death already. By the way, still waiting for that value memory round-up. Any idea when you will be able to get around to reviewing memory products that are useful for the majority of your users?
  • Marlowe - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    Really interesting IMO.. But I would love if you could review the A-Data Vitesta PC4800 ram also. They are based on TCCD and have maby Brainpower PCB. On my P4C800 my 2x512 kit can do 2-2-2-5 at 220MHz and tops out around 275-280 MHz on 2,5-3-3-5, both on 2,85V. Well that's what I could do with my 3,0E and watercooling anyways :P Also they're quite affordable in comparison.
  • arswihart - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    anandtech reviews are more and more praising a product as ultimate, best, etc... all based on in some cases, insufficient testing to say such things. granted all review sites do that to some respect, its just the conclusions pages are getting kind of narrow viewed as if they have a whole picture and are 100% sure of there recommendations, while often they haven't tested enough competing products or taken all of their recommended product's potential drawbacks or limitations into consideration. still, its a really good review site
  • Furen - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

  • Caveman2001 - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    I would like to know the HT setting and what setting the ram was at (133, 166, 200) in the bios. I have a Neo2 and a powerstream 600W and the OCZ pc3200 rev. 2 and I can't get it to work at 230fsb let alone DDR500. I bought this stuff based on the reviews here and I'm starting to feel ripped off.
  • bob661 - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - link

    Wow! No comments. Anyone out there OCing with this stuff?

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