OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 2: The Universal Soldier

Final Words

The OCZ PC3700 Gold Revision 2 looks like a worthy successor to the original 3700 Gold. The change from lasered Samsung to ProMOS memory chips appears to be well-executed, with no loss in performance in Revision 2. In addition, there is the significant advantage that 512MB DIMMs are now available in 3700 Gold R2. 512Mb kits are also available, but please keep in mind that the new Rev. 2 256MB modules are single-sided and you must use 4 SS DIMMs for best performance on an Intel 865/875 board. If you only want 2 - 256MB DIMMs, it would be worthwhile to search for a pair of original Gold DIMMs, which are Double-Bank in the 256MB configuration. For more information on the performance of Single-Sided vs. Double-Sided modules on an Intel 865/875 board, please refer to our Searching for the Memory Holy Grail: Part 1 and Searching for the Memory Holy Grail - Part 2.

With so many recent introductions of DDR500 and faster memory by the major memory suppliers, you might be asking where OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 2 would work best. The answer may surprise you because PC3700 Gold Rev. 2 is one of these Universal memories that will work well in almost any DDR400 and up system. The most recent Corsair PC4000 Pro, Mushkin 4000 High Performance and OCZ 4200EL also belong to this "Universal" family. What we mean by this is that these memories perform very well at aggressive timings at DDR400, as well as perform at DDR500+ at competitive memory timings.

With the 3 DDR500/533 memories, you can achieve best timings of about 2/2.5-3-3-6 at DDR400. These are only a little slower than the best timings available with any DDR400 memory and provide good performance at DDR400. These 3 brands also provide very good performance to DDR500 and well beyond, giving you the best 1:1 memory performance that you can find. Universal is used here only to describe the fact that these 3 brands, based on Hynix Rev. B memory chips, cover a very wide and useful memory range.

OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 2 should be considered an even faster option for the DDR400 to DDR466 range. At DDR400, the 2-2-3-5 timings that we achieved with Rev. 2 are as good as you will find on any recent DDR400 memory, so you give up nothing at DDR400. Only 3 modules that we have tested - Corsair's older 3200LL 1.1, Mushkin 3500 Level II, and OCZ 3500 Platinum Ltd - provide faster 2-2-2-5 or 2-2-2-6 timings. These 3 modules are all based on the discontinued Winbond BH5 chips, so when current stockpiles are gone, so will 2-2-2-5 memory timings. The best of the new modules do 2-2-3-5 or 2-2-3-6 timings with the requirement that Ras-to-Cas be limited to a 3-setting. The new Rev. 2 performs as well as any of these newer modules at DDR400 to DDR433 - so you really give up nothing.

With OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 2, you do gain something though - the ability to run to DDR500 and better, something that none of the newer or older DDR400 modules can accomplish. This alone makes PC3700 Gold Rev. 2 a good choice if you are considering DDR400 or DDR433 memory. The liability of PC3700 Gold Rev. 2 is that it cannot achieve the very highest overclocks available with the best DDR500+ modules. We have reached DDR560 with some of the best DDR533 DIMMs, but the PC3700 Gold R2 will not go beyond the DDR520 range. If you want more than this, PC3700 Gold R2 is not what you should buy.

The great majority of users will find the broad DDR400 to DDR500 range of OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev.2 at the best timings available exactly what they are looking for. With the highest end memory pushing prices down, PC3700 will likely be a very good buy that can do whatever most people want to do in overclocking high-performance memory. OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 2 is a worthy successor to the original memory that started it all with DDR500+.