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Date: August 15, 2006
Author(s): Rob Williams
Editor: Mark Ozimek

OCZ has been launching some amazing kits lately, and this one is no exception. In our tests, we have managed to bring this modest DDR2-900 up to DDR2-1140 speeds and still retain some great stability.

Overclocking Ability

These modules are dual-spec'd, in the sense that the EPP SPD is slightly different. If you are not using the 'SLI Enhanced' setting in your AM2 BIOS, the timings will be 4-4-4-15. If you are relying solely on the SLI Enhanced feature, the tRP will be altered to 3, for 4-4-3-15. Not a huge difference, but a difference nonetheless. It would be nice to see tRCD be 3 at these speeds, since that's one of the pickiest timings out there.

I am unsure what chips are used in these, but I assume they are similar to the VX2 and use D9GMH, a 333MHz (3ns) binned chip. We've seen these chips in numerous other modules on the market, and they have proved to be a great value when it comes to $/performance.

Successful Overclocks

• DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 1.9v 1T (2.40GHz 1.25v)
• DDR2-900 4-4-3-12 2.1v 2T (2.70GHZ, 1.45v)
• DDR2-1000 4-4-4-12 2.3v 2T (2.500GHZ, 1.4v)
• DDR2-1100 5-5-5-15 2.45v 2T (2.75GHz, 1.45v)
• DDR2-1140 5-5-5-15 2.4v 2T (2.85GHz, 1.45v)

As you can see, I didn't go all over the board, because I didn't feel there was a need. Going in intervals of 50MHz seemed to work quite well. With slightly loose timings, these DDR2-900 modules worked seamlessly at DDR2-1100 speeds. We'll have to see in the benchmarking reports if there is a performance gain despite the more loose timings.

Throughout all of our benchmarks regardless of what we are reviewing, testing is done in a clean and stand-alone version of Windows XP Professional with SP2. Prior to testing, these conditions are met:

• Desktop and scrap files are cleaned up, including emptying of recycle bin.
• No virus scanner or firewall is installed in the stand-alone installation.
• The stand-alone installation drive is completely defragged using Diskeeper 10 Pro Premier.
• All unnecessary programs are closed, so that Windows should have no more than 15 active processes running.
• Computer has proper airflow.

If you are interested in using the same benchmarks as us, feel free to visit the developers website:

• 3D Mark 2001
• Everest Ultimate 3.0
• PC Mark 2005
• Sandra 2007
• Super Pi 1.5 Mod

The testing rig used for today's benchmarking is as follows:

• CPU: AMD Windsor 4600+ EE @ 2.4GHz - 2.85GHz
• Motherboard: ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe (701 BIOS)
• Memory: OCZ 2GB PC2-7200 EPP
• Video: BFG 6800GT OC 256MB PCI-E
• Sound: Onboard HD Audio
• Storage: Seagate 7200.9 320GB
• Etcetera: Windows XP Professional w/ SP2, NVIDIA 81.98 Drivers
• Cooling: Corsair Nautilus 500

I will be comparing the 7200 EPP kit to the recently reviewed VX2, which use similar chips.

First up we have some Sandra Buffered... by far one of my favorite memory tests. As expected, the results scaled very nicely with the increased frequency, and we just -barely- hit the 11K mark. Compared to the VX2, the performance is virtually the same.

The theme continues in the unbuffered scores. I am starting to love the AM2 platform, especially here. High overclocked unbuffered scores are close to what I have been seeing buffered on the Intel netburst. At the top, we broke through 6,000!

We use different Unbuffered settings than is the norm, and you can check them out here. The settings help to cut down on the support of the CPU as much as possible.