OCZ DDR2-1000 Platinum XTC EL

Performance:

For carrying out the DDR2 memory benchmarks, we turned to our usual i955X candidate -- the Abit AW8. Below is the rundown of system components used during the benchmarking process.

For benchmarking the modules, the Linux slab of programs consisted of Enemy Territory, Doom 3, LAME, FreeBench, and RAMspeed. This article also serves as our first Fedora Core 5 memory review. As always, the memory stability was largely answered through running memtest86+ v1.65. Below is the rundown of CPU and memory settings at which the OCZ Technology PC2-8000 Platinum XTC EL was tested, as well as a comparison GeIL 2 x 512 MB DDR2-800 kit.

2800MHz (200MHz x 14) - DDR2-667MHz @ 5-5-5-15 - 1.90V
2800MHz (200MHz x 14) - DDR2-800MHz @ 5-5-5-15 - 2.00V
3220MHz (230MHz x 14) - DDR2-920MHz @ 5-5-5-15 - 2.20V
Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800: 2800MHz (200MHz x 14) - DDR2-800MHz @ 5-5-5-15 - 2.00V

While the OCZ2P10002GK part is rated for DDR2-1000MHz at 5-5-5-15, using the Abit AW8 we were unable to attain these frequencies using the Abit AW8, for which is the basis of a majority of our current and past DDR2 memory tests. However, we had also installed the OCZ memory inside of an Abit AW8-MAX, which is similar to the AW8 vanilla with the exception of a few alternations and extra ASICs. With the AW8-MAX setup, we had no problems reaching DDR2-1000MHz with 5-5-5 timings and a Pentium D 820 running at 3.50GHz. Even on air-cooling, we were able to push this memory a bit past 1.00GHz, but not by far.