GeIL 2 x 512MB Ultra PC2-5300 DDR2-667
Performance:
For the GeIL Ultra PC2-5300 2 x 512MB to test it at stock speeds as well as pushing the memory to its limits, we used an ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe motherboard. This motherboard comes with the overclocking power of the P5WD2 Premium while utilizing the i945P Chipset rather than the Intel flagship i955X. Even on air-cooling, we have been able to push the Pentium 4 530 past 4.0GHz so this setup should prove to be quite viable for stressing the GeIL memory. Below is all of the hardware used in the open-air setup as well as the software configuration.
| Hardware Components | |
| Processor: | Intel Pentium 4 530 (3.0GHz) |
| Motherboard: | ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe (i945P) |
| Graphics Card: | Sapphire X300 128MB |
| Hard Drives: | Seagate 7200.8 SATA 200GB |
| Optical Drives: | Lite-On CD-RW |
| Cooling: | Thermaltake Silent775 |
| Power Supply: | Ultra X-Connect 500W |
| Software Components | |
| Operating System: | OpenSuSE 10.0 |
| Linux Kernel: | 2.6.13-15-default |
| GCC (GNU Compiler): | 4.0.2 |
| Graphics Driver: | ATI v8.19.10 |
| Xorg: | 6.8.2 |
Hitting the bench today, we have LAME Compilation, LAME Encoding, FreeBench, and RAMspeed tests. Our traditional gaming benchmarks (Enemy Territory, Doom 3, and Quake 4) were left out of the equation for this review due to the graphics card used in the test setup today would have bounded the performance. Below are the specifications at which we tested the RAM. Memtest86+ v1.60 as well as our usual in-house Linux testing determined memory stability. While running the GeIL Ultra PC2-5300 at DDR2-800 speeds we had no troubles running the system memory at 4-4-4-12 timings but tightening the values any greater would result in errors. When it came time to push the memory as far as possible, we were able to boot the system with a FSB of 266MHz but running at these speeds would result in Memtest86+ v1.60 failing. We were forced to drop our FSB to 253MHz, which was the point where Memtest86+ would pass and we could boot into Linux and run all of the benchmarks while not facing any stability issues. Overall, we were satisfied being able to run the GeIL DDR2-667 at DDR2-843MHz speeds. For comparison purposes, we also re-benchmarked 2 x 512MB of Kingmax Mars DDR2-667 modules, which use Elpida ICs that are rated for 5-5-5. To give a straight up comparison between the two sets of memory, we ran the RAM at 2.30V so we could allow the memory to run at identical 3-4-4-8 timings.
GeIL Ultra PC2-5300: 200 x 15 = 3000MHz 3:5 DDR2-667 - 3-4-4-8 - 1.90V
GeIL Ultra PC2-5300: 240 x 15 = 3600MHz 3:5 DDR2-800 - 4-4-4-12 - 2.10V
GeIL Ultra PC2-5300: 253 x 15 = 3795MHz 3:5 DDR2-843 - 5-5-5-15 - 2.30V
Kingmax Mars DDR2: 200 x 15 = 3000MHz 3:5 DDR2-667 - 3-4-4-8 - 2.30V