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.
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Anonymous User - Friday, August 8, 2003 - link
MS ,I think the point of the article was to prove that the lasering process works ? I could be wrong but it appears the results confirm it
Anonymous User - Friday, August 8, 2003 - link
Not a word in this review about OCZ having the worst reputation in the industry? Not a word about them never standing behind their products. Not a word about them closing down their parent company every time the claims and fraud investigations start getting big, and then re-opening again somewhere else a couple of months later.Once a criminal enterprise, always a criminal enterprise. OCZ is a fraud, no matter what special review chips they send to sites like this one.
MS - Friday, August 8, 2003 - link
I removed the top layer from some chips and tested the same DIMM before and after and there was no difference whatsoever. Therefore, I am stil sceptic about the entire issue of going topless for better performance.Mday - Friday, August 8, 2003 - link
always good to see a place turn around, but there are always lingering doubts...Evan Lieb - Friday, August 8, 2003 - link
Yeah, they've changed quite a bit Kris. Their product's performance and their customer support today makes them a much more reputable memory contender than they were 1 or 2 years ago.Anonymous User - Friday, August 8, 2003 - link
Why won't you be including Mushkin, this time?You used to be really big on them.
KristopherKubicki - Friday, August 8, 2003 - link
I visted with them a month or two ago, they seem a lot less like the company I visited 18 months ago.AgaBooga - Thursday, August 7, 2003 - link
I think if OCZ continues this kind of introduction of products they may turn the company around from its past. Also, I liked how they co-operated and gave the chips you guys asked for without trouble. Doing that, they show their confidence in their laser process.