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Introduction
OCZ Tech is a
company your hear about a lot. There's one
reason why that is, they produce some of the
finest ram existent. Though OCZ don't just make ram they
make power supplies and flash memory, not to
mention they
take performance to the Extreme. You may have
heard about OCZ before, but do you know who they
really are?
OCZ gave birth to
their great manufacturing company back in August
of 2000. Back then DDR was the craze, and though
it wasn't fast compared to today, OCZ still had
the chance to put out some extremely fast modules for
different setups. OCZ was founded by
enthusiasts and they make the top gear for enthusiasts. They later became the ram
manufactures we know as OCZ, they have their
extreme warranties and high speed modules which
just show off their knowledge.
In this review
I will be looking at some of the newest modules
OCZ has to offer. The OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 1024MB Gold Edition Dual Channel
(2GB). (if you have peaked below you will have to be
patient for the upcoming sections)
Packaging
These nice modules
came in the usual package OCZ ships there ram
in. Though it was surrounded by bubble wrap,
about 3 layer deep the bubbles were about 1cm
tall.
Click to enlarge picture.
Specification
- 500MHz DDR
- CL 3-4-4-8 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS)
- Unbuffered
- Gold Layered Copper
Heat spreader
- Lifetime Warranty
- 2.8 Volts
- 184 Pin DIMM
Special Features
- EVP® (Extended Voltage Protection, 2.9v
± 5%)
- ULN (Ultra Low Noise)
ULN stands for (U)ltra (L)ow (N)oise. This is
a technology that uses various printed circuit
board (PCB) techniques to reduce the amount of
electrical noise that is present in all
high-speed ICs. This results in faster and more
stable memory.
What
you get
Well I got what you would pay for, the
two gold plated ram modules. Did I mention
they were gold plated? now these modules
don't exactly have the bling bling effect of
LED's like on the Corsair modules. But they
sure do look very expensive. Its all that
gold.
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Click to enlarge picture.
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Test Setup
Click to enlarge picture.
Test Procedure
- Test will be done inside a Case.Ram will not exceed 2.9 volts.Lowest timings and Highest Speed will be
recorded.Memtest86 will be used for testing
Memory Stability
- Tests will be run in a number of
Programs including games and Benchmarking
software.
Neat Freebies
OCZ chucked in some nice little freebies,
some stickers and a cool looking poster (which
has ram for magazines).
Click to enlarge picture.
Click to enlarge picture.
SiSoft Sandra 2005
Professional
CPU Arthithetic Benchmark - Dhrystone ALU
(measured in "mips", higher is better)
As you can see
the timings really give the processor the added
performance. The OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 swipes in the top spot with
not very tight timings of 2.5-3-3-8
CPU Arthithetic Benchmark - Whetstone FPU
(measured in "mflops", higher is better)
CPU Arthithetic Benchmark - Whetstone iSSE2
(measured in "mflops", higher is better)
CPU Multi-Media Benchmark
(measured in "it/s", higher is better)
As you can see
here over clocking the ram to its specified
speed of 500mhz DDR, really doesn't help its
every day multi media performance, it would be best to keep
the tight timings at 400mhz DDR.
Memory Bandwidth Benchmark
(measured in "MB/s", higher is better)
Heres where the dual kit really shows off.
Nearly doubling the speed of a single stick
setup, though a single stick of OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 over clocked at 500mhz DDR
really increases single stick speed.
Future Mark - 3D Mark 05
Graphics: 1024x768
3D Marks
(measured in
"3D Marks", higher is better) 
Hardly much
graphic performance is increased when using these
high performance modules.
Mem Performance
This is a
simple program which sets a array of 20,000,000
long sizes numbers. Each number is set to its
array index. Speed is measured in seconds (Lower is better).
You can see the OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 really doesn't change as it
is over clocked.
Half Life 2 : Counter-Strike
Source
Map: de_dust
Graphics: Game Picked (800x600)
Tested in the
map "de_dust" with another bot, each session was
run for 10 minutes.
Half Life 2 : Counter-Strike Source
- de_dust
(measured in "fps", higher is better)
This is just a game test,
performance will vary as the same scene is not
repeated. The Mushkin did seem to take a lead
possibly because of its low timings.
Battle Field 1942
Map:
Operation Battleaxe
Graphics: High Quality (800x600x32)
Battle Field 1942 -
Operation Battleaxe
(measured in "fps", higher is better)
All the modules produced pretty
similar results.
The speed of the map load was
also recorded.
Battle Field 1942 -
Operation Battleaxe (Load Time)
(measured in "seconds", lower is better)
The OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 takes no time to load the map
here.
Battle Field 2
Map: Zatar
Wetlands
Graphics: Game Picked (800x600)
Battle Field 2 - Zatar Wetlands
(measured in "fps", higher is better) 
Battle Field 2 - Zatar Wetlands (Load
Time)
(measured in "seconds", lower is better) 
As you can see the OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 loves this
game, it will keep it loading quick and keep up
the frame rate. The 2GB really helps here.
(the Mushkin module is not a good performer
in this game, it took over 2 minutes to load the
map)
Overclocking
Over clocking is not really over clocking unless the end result
is stable, and by stable I mean multiple passes of memtest86. I
was able to get these modules running 275mhz @ 2.8 volts,
anything higher wasn't possible to reach, not even going past 3
volts would make this ram go any higher. At 275mhz the ram was
running on timings of 3-4-4-8. Some people have managed to clock
these modules at 250mhz with timings of 3-4-3-8.
| Timings |
2.5-3-3-8 (lowest
timings) |
3-4-4-8 |
3-4-4-8 (highest OC) |
| Mhz |
200mhz |
250mhz @ 2.7volts (for
stability) |
275mhz @ 2.8volts |
Conclusion
Memory is a ever changing field, so one day we might see low
latency sticks of 512mb, the next day 2gb ram. What might puzzle
people is that how large memory modules can keep low timings.
Well if you really want to know, that's a question you can ask OCZ.
One way might be the increase of voltage, but not with these
modules, they
can run on a stock voltage of 2.6 at high speeds of 250mhz and
not to mention store 2gb. OCZ really have out done themselves
here.
Some people might be saying right now, well they cant perform as
responsive as other modules, do take into consideration that
these modules weren't built for stability with low timings for
servers, they were built for gamers and overlockers wanting both
a fast machine and a over lockable machines.
Value ram really has left the market these days. Its good to see
some Large fast modules coming out with a good price. My DFI had
no problems running these, even with an older bios revision.
I would like to quote, "..is the perfect memory upgrade for
memory-hungry Battlefield 2 gaming rigs." - OCZ Technologies.
They really didn't lye when they said memory hungry BF 2 gaming
rigs.
Also one last thing to mention before I give these modules the
award they deserve. These Modules come with the OCZ Lifetime
warranty, which is very very hard to void (unless you just take
it past 2.9 volts for no reason).
OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 1024MB Gold Edition Dual Channel (2GB)
takes home the 100% pure beefiness award, there's only one
reason why! they are extremely beefy!!!
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_el_ddr_pc_4000_1024mb_gold_edition_dual_channel-2gb_
Pros ( + )
-
Low Voltage requirements
-
Reasonable Over clocks with
low timings.
-
Can reach Specified speed
with no problems
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Gold Heat Spreaders
-
Lifetime Manufactures
Warranty
-
Kit of Dual Channel Modules
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2 Gig!!!!
Cons ( - )
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