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Introduction:
First a little about the company,
OCZ Technology, Inc.
Everyone refers to them as OCZ though. This next blurb is from
their website:
“Entering the memory market in August 2000, OCZ Technology
was built around the determination to manufacture the best
high speed DDR and RDRAM. OCZ was founded by enthusiasts,
for enthusiasts, and our commitment to the end-user has not
digressed. OCZ Technology has been an innovator in many
areas. We were the first manufacturer to make Dual Channel
optimized memory available to the public, which originally
took advantage of nVidia's Twinbank or Dual DDR
architecture, found in their nForce chipset. We have now
taken that technology and tailored it for the Canterwood,
and Granite Bay chipset's. OCZ developed and was the first
to implement ULN technology, which has been a critical
element in our manufacturing process for some time. We at
OCZ diligently work to improve communication with CPU and
motherboard chipset manufacturers prior to the release of
their products. Only in this manner can we fine-tune our
memory's SPD settings, ensuring a synergistic relationship
between the memory module, memory controller, and
microprocessor. In today’s rapidly evolving semiconductor
industry, such communication is not simply research, but a
necessary component of our manufacturing process.” ~
more
info
I've reviewed countless memory products from OCZ over the
years. The first product I reviewed way back in 2001
was the OCZ Titan 3 (Geforce 3). OCZ has come a long way
since then. While they stopped manufacturing Video Cards,
they are manufacturing other products like power supplies.
They are best known though for their highly overclockable
memory. OCZ is truly a company that caters to the hardcore
computer user, and people who want to push every last drop
of performance they can out of their system.
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. Let's see what this
memory can do.
Packaging:
This product was shipped in a cardboard courier
(FedEx/UPS) box. The memory itself comes in a plastic
protective casing. This is the standard memory casing that
most memory manufacturers use. It works well because while
holding memory modules into place, it also is relatively
easy to open. On the
back of the casing there are a number of review awards and
comments on a paper insert.
Specifications:
The speed on
this memory is 533MHz DDR or PC-4200; it has a CAS of 4, and
a memory timing of 4-4-4-12 (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.
Please remember that this memory is DDR2 and it does differ
from DDR memory in a number of ways. The following
explanation below goes over the general difference. It does not take into
account some of
the fast DDR/DDR2 memory on the market, but is designed to
help you distinguish between the two:
To
begin, the maximum Data Rate is different (400MHz for DDR vs.
667MHz for DDR2), Bus Frequency (200MHz vs. 333MHz), DRAM
Frequency (200MHz vs. 166MHz), Package Type (TSOP-II vs.
FBGA), Voltage (~2.5 vs. 1.8), Prefetch Size (2 bits vs. 4
bits) and a CAS Latency (which varies quite a bit but in
general 2.5 for DDR vs. 4 for DDR2 memory). The on-die
termination is different as well. To eliminate signal noise,
DDR uses transistors that are on the motherboard whereas
for DDR2 it’s on each memory chip. The Off Chip Driver
Calibration on DDR2 memory also increases signal integrity.
While 240-pin DDR2, 184-pin DDR and the older style 168-pin
DIMM memory are all
approximately the same size, the 240-pin DIMMs and 184-pin
DIMMs have only one notch within the row of pins. The notch
in a 240-pin DDR2 DIMM is slightly more toward the center of
the module. Please keep in mind that DD2 memory is not
backward compatible and will only fit motherboards
specifically designed for it.
Now, what’s the bottom line on this new DDR2 memory? Is it
faster than DDR at the same speed? The short answer is,
currently, not really. However, remember DDR2 is fairly new to the
market so it will take some time for hardware and software
companies to fully utilize its overclockability, superior
performance and bandwidth. One notable improvement in DDR2
memory
is the tighter memory timing. That's crucial for better
performance.
Details Specifications:
Speed: PC2 4200 or 533 DDR2 (267MHz)
Size: 512MB Module (PN: OCZ2533512ELGEGXT) and
1GB Module (PN: OCZ25331024ELGEGXT)
Configuration: 64MB x 8 / 128MB x 8
Chips: X42A120840C-37
IC
Latency: 4-4-4-12 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS)
Package Type: 240 DIMM
Heat Spreader: Gold Layered XTC Heatspreader
Voltage: 1.9
A closer look:
All memory must have some sort of memory heat spreader.
This memory has the latest and greatest OCZ Gold Layered XTC Heatspreader
design.
XTC (Xtreme Thermal Convection) heatspreaders optimize the
thermal management of memory modules by promoting greater
airflow by means of micro-convection throughout what is
usually the dead air space inside conventional heatspreader
designs. In this manner, build-up of heat is avoided and
thermal dissipation of the memory components is offloaded
more efficiently through the honeycomb design. At the same
time, mechanical stability is maintained.
This design works
a little better than the previous design of simply a thin
sheet of copper or aluminum because there are no more hot
air pockets.
These heat spreaders do an excellent job at
keeping the modules cool and look amazing. Each module has
a "Z" (short for OCZ, not Zorro) embossed at the center and memory
information on a sticker at the left.
 
Testing:
For testing the OCZ EL DDR2 PC2-4200 Gold Gamer eXtreme XTC
Edition Memory I
used the following test setup:
Motherboard: ASUS P5WD2 Premium Motherboard
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 520J (2.8GHz)
PSU:
SilverStone ST60F Modular SLI Power Supply
Video Cards: BFG 7800 GT Video Card
Hard Drives: Seagate 80GB HDD
Memory: OCZ EL
DDR2 PC2-4200 Gold Gamer eXtreme XTC Edition Memory
Sound Card: Creative Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card
Below are the results at the default speed 533MHz
DDR2
(267MHz).
Overclocking:
Please note that in order to find the maximum stable
overclock, I increased the memory voltage to 2.2 using a timing of
5-5-5-12.
I started at the default speed of 267MHz (533MHz
DDR2)
and slowly increased until I hit 275MHz. I found 275MHz
(550MHz
DDR2)
to be stable when both running Prime95 and games. I should
also mention that OCZ has an Extended Voltage Protection
feature that allows performance enthusiasts to use a VDIMM
of 2.2V ± 5% without invalidating their OCZ Lifetime
Warranty. This is quite the warranty :)! Please
keep in mind that these overclocking results will vary from
module to module and system to system.
Conclusion:
DDR2 Memory has been on the market now for some time now
and manufacturers like OCZ are tightening the memory
timings. With a memory timing of 4-4-4-12
at 533MHz DDR2 it does perform very well. It even has some
headroom in the overclocking department if you lower the
memory timings and increase memory voltage. Remember though,
there is much faster but pricy memory on the market. For
example, OCZ has this XTC DDR2 series memory in
PC2-5400 Gold GX XTC Edition. They also have
PC2-8000 memory. To sum it up. This memory looks
amazing, performs very well, and has an industry-leading
warranty. Oh, OCZ also has a toll-free technical support
number to call in case there's trouble so you are really
covered!
Pros:
- Looks amazing
- Compatible, reliable and stable
- Lifetime warranty
Cons:
- Slower then other DDR2 memory
- Memory timing is still high (not tight!)
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