Mushkin & Adata: 2 for the Fast-Timings Lane
by Wesley Fink on September 1, 2003 11:18 PM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Performance Test Configuration
INTEL 875P Performance Test Configuration | |
Processor(s): | Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz (800MHz FSB) |
RAM: | 2 x 512MB Mushkin Level II PC3500 (DS) 2 x 256MB Adata DDR450 (SS) 2 x 512MB Adata PC4000 (DS) 2 x 512MB Corsair PC4000 (DS) 2 x 512MB Geil PC4000 (DS) 4 x 256MB Kingston PC4000 (SS) 2 x 256MB Kingston PC4000 (SS) 2 x 512MB OCZ PC4000 (DS) 4 x 256MB OCZ PC3700 GOLD (DS) |
Hard Drives | 2 Western Digital Raptor Serial ATA 36.7GB 10,000 rpm drives in an Intel ICH5R RAID configuration |
PCI/AGP Speed | Fixed at 33/66 |
Bus Master Drivers: | 875P Intel INF Update v5.00.1012, SATA RAID drivers installed, but IAA not installed |
Video Card(s): | ATI 9800 PRO 128MB, 128MB aperture, 1024x768x32 |
Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 3.6 |
Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
Motherboards: | Asus P4C800-E (875) with 1.010 Release BIOS |
The Memory testbed is the same used in “Search for the memory Holy Grail — Part 2” All test conditions were as close as possible to those in our earlier memory review.
While DDR500 is not currently a real option on an AMD board, we have seen recent nForce2 Ultra 400 motherboards performing in the DDR450 range (225 FSB). Thus, really fast DDR400 memory with range to DDR450 or so looks like an ideal match to the nForce2 motherboards and chips that are capable of running the new 200FSB operating speed of top Athlon processors. In addition to Intel 875 tests, we evaluated performance of the Mushkin PC3500 and Adata 450 on nForce 2 Ultra 400 with a Barton 2500+ proven to have a range to 2500 MHz on the better AMD boards.
AMD nForce2 Ultra 400 Performance Test Configuration | |
Processor(s): | AMD Barton 2500+ |
RAM: | 2 x 512MB Mushkin Level II PC3500 (DS) 2 x 256MB Adata DDR450 (SS) |
Hard Drives | Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM ATA133 with 8MB Cache |
PCI/AGP Speed | Fixed at 33/66 |
Bus Master Drivers: | nVidia nForce unified driver 2.45. Release Date 7/29/03 |
Video Card(s): | ATI 9800 PRO 128MB, 128MB aperture, 1024x768x32 |
Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 3.6 |
Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
Motherboards: | Albatron KX18D Pro II nForce 2 Ultra 400 Release BIOS 1.01 |
17 Comments
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Wesley Fink - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
MUSHKIN PC3500 LEVEL II AT FSB1000, 5:4 (DDR400, 2-2-2-5)We ran 1000FSB (500) at 5:4 with Mushkin PC3500 Level II at CAS 2-2-2-5. The testbed and ALL hardware and settings were the same as this review except for FSB/Ratio. Results are:
Sandra UNBuffered - 2964/2959 or avg. 2962
Sandra Buffered (Standard) ? 5470/5468 or avg. 5469
Quake 3 ? 393.7fps
UT2003 ? Flyby: 241.84
Botmatch: 87.66
SuperPI (2M places) ? 105s
Write these numbers down and compare them to DDR400 on page 8&9 and DDR500 in Part 2 Page 14 (500FSB/DDR500) charts. You will see that 5:4 2-2-2-5 is very close to the performance of the DDR500.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
Oops... I have to take my last comment back. :(I have read through the whole article, and I dont see 250 FSB 1:1 3-4-4-8 vs 5:4 2-2-2-5 (200fsb vs. 250fsb ram speed) If they arent both tested together at the same CPU speed and FSB, only with the mem speed and timings change, its not perfect... But still a good review anyhow. :D
Retrospooty
Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
Awesome review Wes,You took user feedback from the last review and tested your ram in a way NO OTHER REVIEWER HAS DONE SO FAR !!!! The right way.
Well done my friend, well done.
Retrospooty
Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
Black is cool!the mushkin PC3500 Level II is the perfect combination with a IC7 Max3.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
Given your propensity (and abuse by others) for OCZ, why did'nt you include OCZ platinum 3500 which is their ultra low latency RAM in this test. I have 2x256Mb OCZ platinum PC3200 (PC3500 wasnt and still isn't available in Australia when I built my system) in an ABIT IC7-G with 2.6C CPU. I get 2-2-2-5 to 190Mhz, 2-2-3-5 to 218 MHz and up to 230MHz on looser settings. I am moderately satisfied with this but I was offered CORSAIR XMS 3200 at time of purchase and, given your comments about Rev 1.1, I perhaps regret the path I took!wicktron - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
I think you need to change the titles of the graphs on this page: http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.html?i=185...to DDR400 rather than DDR500.
wicktron - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
Great review Wes.