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Introduction:
First, a little about the company,
Golden Emperor
International Ltd. They are best known as GeIL.
This next blurb is from their website on their company
structure:
“GeIL's
production philosophy puts integration above component
distribution. Top-down single company, no-fault operation:
from DRAM design commencement, packaging, testing, memory
application products design, development, compatibility
testing, and finally to production. Customers enjoy the
only high performance DRAM module provider that emphasizes
the overall end-user experience. From developing our award
winning memory testing program to innovative fabrication
process, each of our final modules offers the same superior
quality output which has made GeIL the fastest-growing DRAM
manufacturer in Asia: growing at twice the rate as the
average DRAM company in the mist of a stalling economy.
GeIL is among the drivers in making Double Data Rate (DDR)
DRAMs the fastest-growing DRAM architecture on the computing
market today. With un-surpassed speed yield of our advanced
process technology, GeIL has also been instrumental in
establishing new speed categories for DRAMs, e.g. DDR366 and
the fastest speed DRAMs on the market today, the
400MHz-clock Enhanced Latency DRAM, staying ahead of
standardization committees defining the architectures and
performance features for tomorrow's DRAMs - and beyond.
GeIL is one of the most professional memory module houses in
Taiwan that has been concentrating in memory modules design
and manufacturing. Our heritage in memory module design and
manufacturing began in 1997 and succeeded creating high-end
brand modules of GL2000 and Golden GeIL in 1999 which are
now a vogue of the time in Mainland China. Currently, our
manufacturing facilities employ over 200 people and produce
a wide variety of modules with distribution in over 50
countries. Our diverse product line includes the memory
modules of desktop, laptop, server system, and workstation.
In order to produce this wide range of performance products,
GeIL has implemented a stringent, company-wide, quality
control standard of excellence. Only after a module meets or
exceeds the company’s rigid requirements for quality and
performance, is it then entered into production. At GeIL,
our management philosophy is designed to ensure customer
satisfaction and to maintain our long-lasting commitment to
excellence. We understand the needs of our customers and the
importance of delivering high-quality memory modules you can
trust. By combining our strict quality standards with the
use of state-of-the-art technology, we are able to produce
some of the most advanced designs and modules available.
This in turn allows us to ensure that every GeIL customer
receives all of the quality, performance and dependability
they deserve.” ~
more info
I've
reviewed countless memory products from GeIL over the years.
The first product I reviewed in 2002 was the GeIL
PC3500 433MHz DDR Platinum Series Memory (512MB). GeIL has
come a long way since then. They are best known for their
highly overclockable ONE series memory. There's no disputing
that GeIL has some of the fastest memory on the market. They
also have a Video Player (iBall) and Dual Channel USB Flash
Drive.
The demands that are put on current memory are great. With
image/video editing packages and games requiring more and
more memory, 1GB of memory is hardly enough anymore. Games
like F.E.A.R. and Battlefield 2 require a minimum of 2GBs to
play at high resolution. Upcoming games being released in
2006 will further benefit from having a 2GB kit installed.
Also, most new memory has tight timing and can be pushed to
very fast speeds. So, let's see what this memory can do!
Packaging:
This product was shipped in a cardboard box that was
filled with Styrofoam snow.
The memory itself comes in a plastic protective casing. This
is not the standard memory casing that most memory manufacturers
use though. It's more a clear acrylic case with a
slide off top. It works well because while holding memory modules into
place, it's also simple to open.
Each module is also shrink wrapped in an anti-static bag for
added protection and security. If this bag is opened please
contact the reseller or GeIL directly before attempting installation.
Specifications:
The speed on
this memory is 500MHz DDR or PC-4000; it has a CAS of 2.5, and
a memory timing of 2.5-4-4-7 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS).
Now what does DDR and CAS mean?
DDR
stands for Double Date Rate, and that means it doubles the
bandwidth of the memory by transferring data twice as fast
on both the rising and falling of the clock cycle.
CAS
stands for Column Access Select or Column Access Strobe, and
that essentially means the number of cycles for the memory
to get information and then process that information. Also
keep in mind that a lower CAS is much better than a higher
CAS, so try and keep CAS as low as possible when
overclocking.
This memory is also Dual Channel which means better overall
memory bandwidth resulting in superior performance. In order
to benefit from this technology, you will need to have a dual
channel motherboard. Non-dual channel motherboards do not
have two fully independent 64-bit memory controllers, but
dual channel boards do, which means they have a 128-bit
memory interface. Now they can be installed singly, but
obviously performance will be much less at the same MHz.
Detailed Specifications:
- Available in 512MB (2X256MB) & 1GB (2X512MB)
Dual Channel DDR Kits
- 184pin, Non-ECC, Un-buffered, high performance DDR memory
modules
- GeIL 3.5ns 32x8 Density DDR Chip
- 6 Layers Ultra Low Noises Shielded PCB with Gold 30u"
Plating
- Optimized SPD for Intel 875/865 chipset Dual Channel DDR
motherboards
- Platinum Copper Heat Spreader
- Lifetime Warranty
- CAS 2.5 4-4-7 @ DDR500MHz PC4000
- 2.6V-3.1V
A closer look:
All memory must have some sort of memory heat spreader.
This memory has a thin sheet of copper to dissipate the
heat.
There's something a little different on these heat spreaders
though, and that's the
temperature thermometers. A thermometer is simply a
device that measures (meter) heat (thermo). This feature allows
users to monitor the temperature of their memory modules.
There are four temperature readouts: 45, 50, 55, and 60
Celsius. While this kind of thermometer can be found on the
side of a fish tank, it's a nifty and ingenious addition to a memory heat
spreader! With a quick glance, the temperature can be read.
If it's a high reading, the user knows the memory
requires additional cooling. Keep in mind though that these
liquid-crystal stick-on thermometers are only accurate to
±5 degrees.
Testing:
For testing this product I used the following test setup:
Motherboard: DFI UT nForce4 SLI DR Motherboard
CPU: AMD Athlon™ 64 3000+ @ 2.5GHz
Processor
PSU:
SilverStone ST60F Modular SLI Power Supply
Video Cards:
ATI All-In-Wonder X1900
256MB PCIE Video Card
Hard Drives: 2 x WD Raptor 74GB HDDs in RAID0
Drive: Plextor PX-712A
DVD±R/RW Drive
Memory:
GeIL Ultra Platinum PC4000 Dual Channel Memory
Sound Card: Creative Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card
Below are the results at the default speed 500MHz DDR
(250MHz).
Overclocking:
Please note that in order to find the maximum stable
overclock, I increased the memory voltage to 3.1 using a
timing of 2-4-4-7.
Please also note that I used a faster CAS of 2, rather than the
default 2.5. I started at the default speed of 250MHz (500MHz DDR) and
slowly increased the MHz until I hit 255MHz. I found 255MHz (510MHz
DDR) to be stable when both running Prime95 and games. While
there isn't a lot more you can get out of this memory at a timing of 2-4-4-6 (default is 2.5-4-4-7), it's darn fast. If
the memory timings are relaxed this memory will probably go a little
further. Please keep in mind that these overclocking
results will vary from module to module and system to
system.
Conclusion:
The GeIL Ultra Platinum PC4000 Dual Channel Memory's
performance at its default speed is blistering fast. This
is possible because of the excellent 2.5-4-4-7 memory
timing. While that's commendable, I was able to use a timing
of 2-4-4-6 at 500MHz DDR. This results in better performance, which is
always good thing. As for overlooking. Well, at it's default
memory timing it wasn't successful. I was only able to push
another 5MHz out of the memory. Relaxing the timing though
would probably yield much higher overclocking results. Keep
in mind that lowering the timing is not always the smart
thing to do, and the reason being behind this is that what
you would gain on one end, you
lose on the other. Also, this memory currently doesn't come
in a 2GB kit, only 512MB or 1GB. If you are in the market
for PC4000 memory this would be an excellent choice.
Pros:
- Stable, Reliable, & Affordable
- Blistering fast memory timing at 500MHz DDR
- Handy Temperature Thermometer
Cons:
- Not available in a 2GB Kit
- Not much overclocking headroom at the default memory
timing
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