OCZ 3700 GOLD: Building High-Performance Memory
by Wesley Fink on August 7, 2003 8:34 PM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Retail Performance
Both the Samsung stock DIMMs and the Lasered DIMMs were assembled from unbinned chips – chips pulled prior to sorting by performance. The final step is sorting the lasered chips and selecting the best-performing chips for the best-performing memory. Chips that do not meet the highest performance levels are used in lower-speed products.The chips are also only one component in the final performance of the product. The PCB on which the chips are mounted is very important to performance. Six-layer boards are generally lower in noise and the quality of the PCB can significantly impact the performance of the memory DIMM. The programming of the SPD is also very important in determining the final performance of the memory module.
Using the best lasered chips, we finally get to the performance of the completed Retail OCZ 3700 GOLD. In this case, we looked at Maximum Speed at SPD timings, Maximum Speed at CAS2, which is faster than rated SPD CAS of 2.5, and performance at Specifications of DDR466, 2.5-7-3-3.
| OCZ3700 GOLD DS 256Mb Performance Intel 875 Chipset, Dual-Channel, Maximum Overclock |
|||
| DDR Memory Speed | Memory Timings | Memory Voltage (vDIMM) |
UNBuffered Sandra 2003 Memory Test (MB/Second) |
| 466 | Specification 2.5-7-3-3 |
2.65V | 3079 INT 3146 FLT |
| 480 | 2.0-7-3-3 | 2.7V | 3175 INT 3216 FLT |
| 510 | Maximum SPD 2.5-7-3-3 |
2.8V | 3403 INT 3471 FLT |
Speed-sorting of chips yields a retail product that now reaches to a speed of DDR510 at stock SPD timings with a voltage increase to 2.8V. We also see that speed-binning is producing even faster CAS 2.0 settings, up to DDR480. Probably the most significant performance improvement from speed-binning is the memory-bandwidth, as measured by the UNBuffered Sandra 2003 Memory Test.
DDR510 is the highest stable setting that we could achieve at SPD timings, but the memory will reach even higher speeds at more relaxed timings. OCZ 3700 GOLD is one of the many included in our evaluation of high-speed DDR500/DDR466 memory modules. Look for the results in 'Searching for the Memory Holy Grail — Part 2'. Our performance comparison of the fastest memory from Corsair, Kingston, Geil, Adata, and OCZ will be published soon.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
68 Comments
View All Comments
Anonymous User - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link
This coments sections is full of trash, what does any of this have to do with the articleMS - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link
Kristopher,Then that is Corsair, even though they always fervently denied any such practice. Whenever I talked to Robert Pearce, he claimed that it is basically a random choice of module that goes out. I know for a fact that this is how things have been and still are handled at Mushkin, they don't even have the manpower and setup to cherry pick anything.
Anonymous User - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link
All I can understand (& know already) is thatyou guys just have to know where to buy the same
stuff they sell you for at least half the price.
I bought modules using the same chips rated as ddr33 - & at oem ddr33 price.
Laser This :).
Ill Just use 2.8 & skip your lasering & Rebadging.
wixt0r - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link
Geez, such an uproar over this OCZ stuff. The memory works!KristopherKubicki - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link
MS:I can send you some more evidence if you want? That is pretty much Nicole's job at Corsair to make sure reviewers get the best samples for reviews ;)
Kristopher
MS - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link
Kristopher, I can assure you that neither Corsair nor Mushkin cherry pick any of their review samples.Wesley, I don't mean to say that OCZ quality is bad at all. All I say is that the "EL" process serves a purpose that is different from what OCZ claims. [grin]
Anonymous User - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link
After reading the article I was wondering if the el ddr process and lasering was so effective then why don't more people do this? Even why Samsung does explore this route. Then I realized what I missed. they are removing 7mill from the surface of the chip. In the chip world size does matter and when you move from nanometer to millimeter thats HUGE. This approach is very risky. I know to well that some mothboards are finiky with memory and I wonder how well today's boards will work with this aggressive approach.Wesley Fink - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link
Michael - Your review at Lost Circuits and the less stellar performance of the TCB3 modules I had gave me the idea for the article I did here. There is one VERY important piece of info that you do not share here. You bought retail GOLD, and as you stated in your review conclusion, it DID indeed meet specifications and beyond. We can debate the effectiveness of methods all day, but, in the end, performance and reliability is why we buy memory - whatever the brand.Anyone who doubts that MS found the retail memory met spec can check his review of the OCZ3700 GOLD at Lost Circuits.
KristopherKubicki - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link
#29 Someone mentioned it earlier. The memory companies are all "nice" but they all have their misgivings. Do you think Mushkin hands you a stick they found laying on the ground in the fab? Any manufacturer gives you creame of the crop products for a review. Thats just common practice.Kristopher
Anonymous User - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link
#28-that is exactly my problem with this article. Are just supposed to believe that the chips all came out of one pile, and half were lasered and half weren't? I'm sorry, but OCZ hasn't earned any sort of right to be taken at their word. Mushkin or Corsair MAYBE, but certainly not a company with a well established history of buying reviews.