Date: August 16, 2006 - Author: Rob Williams - Editor: Mark Ozimek
If you are in the market for a memory kit that offers great overclocking ability along with an ideal price, then G. Skill may have you covered. Equipped with the amazing Micron GMH chips, these modules have some pushing power.
The memory market right now is fierce. There is so much competition and desire to be at the top, that it's the end users who are benefiting. If you simply hit up an e-tailer, you will find so much choice when it comes to DDR2 memory, it can really be overwhelming. To help things become more complicated, there are near 10 different frequencies to choose from, from a huge array of manufacturers. That's why we here at Techgage try to sort through the good and the bad. Fortunately, we have not run into a -bad- kit for a while, which is great to see. We seem to be at a time where it's hard to get a real poor kit, unless you are striving for value memory.
This is the first G. Skill kit we have tested out here, so I was looking forward to seeing how much performance I could squeeze out. Currently, the PHU2-2GBHZ are some of the best overclocking modules around, especially considering the price. I knew this prior to this review simply because of watching other overclockers take their kits for a ride.
But, I am getting ahead of myself. Let's take a look at what the modules and packaging looks like, before we get into the specifics.
The standard plastic blister packs that we are used to are G. Skills choice. Unlike some other companies though, we here have a picture of a racecar. That just tells me right there how good these are ;-)
The modules themselves are equipped with some of the best looking heatspreaders around. Pure black, and army-esque. These are hardcore. They are so dark colored, that the cheap camera I was using at the time couldn't capture it's greatness. I have to hand it to G. Skill... their heatspreaders are some of the best looking out there.
The sticker includes information such as model, timings and frequency. Unlike many other manufacturers on the market, G. Skill includes the default voltage option, which is a huge help, and saves time hopping onto their website to find it out. You don't want to be pushing more juice into them than necessary, really.
The modules also include a lifetime warranty, although I am unsure if they will be covered if overclocking is performed. I am awaiting an answer on the matter, and will update the article accordingly once I am told.
Enough about the modules, I know you are here for performance, so let's go.
Like many other performance modules out there today, the 2GBHZ use Micron D9GMH chips, which are binned for 333MHz 3ns. These chips are favored by numerous memory companies, due to the fact that they are much cheaper than it's big brother, the D9GKX, but still offer insane clocking potential. We first saw these chips being widely used in Corsairs 1GB PC2-8500 kit, so it was evident that these chips were gold.
These modules are on par with other PC2-6400 performance kits out there, thanks to it's 4-4-4 timing set. Some companies recently have been throwing a tRP 3 in there, but that doesn't make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. What's also nice to see is the stock voltage... 2.0v/2.1v is not a bad requirement at all. No doubt most out there will have no issues with 2.0v though, or even 1.9v for that matter.
Because of the chips being used, I somewhat had an idea of what to expect in terms of overclocking potential. I was thrown off though, as I wasn't able to push them as far as I had originally hoped. I will get more into this shortly though. Here are my overclocks:
To test for stability, I used MemTest for Windows, which does an awesome job of detecting errors quickly. I find that it's far more accurate then the standard DOS version most people use. That aside though, you will notice that I declared the final two overclocks not as 100% stable. I determined 96% and 98% because after a 500% run on MemTest for Windows, that was the average I was left with. Personally, I would be completely comfortable at either setting, but some may not be.
As I mentioned, I expected a wee bit more out of these, but I am still pleased with the results. For the average $240US price, being able to hit DDR2-1100 as such is impressive. $40 less and you usually get stuck with a value kit that barely inches away from stock. This is what I like to see. I had wanted to hit the theoretical 'max' overclock with these modules, which is 570MHz (can't go higher due to CPU), but was unable. At that point, they were more like 5% stable, even with 2.5v.
Some people around the interweb are doing better than I am with their kits, so it could be I got a less than ideal set. Chances are your may be better, or even worse. Hard to tell. But with GMH chips, you have a far better chance of a success rate. Yes, I love these chips if you can't tell. In the words of Depeche Mode... "I just can't get enough". Ok, you've had enough, I can tell. Let's move onto our benchmarking methodology and then our reports!
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:
If you are interested in using the same benchmarks as us, feel free to visit the developers website:
The testing rig used for today's benchmarking is as follows:
For comparison, I will be pairing the PHU2-2GBHZ against the recently reviewed OCZ VX2, a kit that retails for $200 more. This is going to be fun :-)
Sandra is by far my favorite memory benchmark, so I always begin with it first. Not only does it offer a standard bandwidth test, it also allows you to get the CPU out of the picture and receive unbuffered results also. For those of you interested, you can see our specific unbuffered settings here.
Interestingly enough, G. Skills kit won almost every round here. Even more noteworthy, is that while the lower speeds had a wider degree of separation, as we got higher they results got closer.
We have the same results here, although the VX2 did overtake the G. Skill in the end. It goes to show the potential this kit has to take on and even surpass the VX2 in some cases!
From the smack dab center of Canada, we have the creation of Everest. This is a great benchmarking tool for stressing both your memory CPU. The only downside is that the results can sometimes change drastically in between new versions. We are using version 3.01.652 for our testing.
While the differences between these two kits of memory were evident in our Sandra runs, they are even tighter results here.
Even comparing the latencies is rather useless... they are both so close and exactly what we would expect for the given speeds.
Sciencemark has proven to be one of my favorite benchmarking tools in recent memory, because it's very, very in-depth. PC Mark is rather useless, but I like to use it to see how the memory overclocks benefit over one another. 3D Mark is a great tool for testing out the benefits of CPU and memory overclocks, which is why it's being used.
My angst against PC Mark is easily described here. Note the scores for the middle overclock... G. Skills proved near 1,000 points lower, even though it was 100% stable. This was after two runs, to assure there wasn't a hitch. Again, at the top overclock, the G. Skill proved 400 points higher than the VX2. Seems odd to me. Regardless, each set of modules one some rounds, while the other won the rest. Tough competition!
My favorite kind of Pi, aside from one that contains apple. The VX2 took the crown in all but the first test. As it should for it's premium price.
Whew, what a ride! I have to say, after getting to play with these modules I am left satisfied. Though I wasn't able to overclock them as far as the VX2, or OCZ 7200 EPP kit, these still had a great bit of pushing power. A DDR2-800 kit that overclocks to DDR2-1100 is great in my books. I admit, it was only 98% stable at the highest overclock, but to me that's a reliable enough setting to be considered stable.
As mentioned, your results will vary, for better or for worse. Others seem to be getting better overclocks than I am, which is a sign that I may have gotten a less than ideal kit. Maybe that shows G. Skill doesn't cherry pick kits to send to reviewers? Would be a reassuring thought. Personally, if I was looking into purchasing a new kit of memory and only had $250~ to spend, I would be taking a good hard look at the modules we reviewed today. To my knowledge, these are some of the best, if not the best modules you can get your hands on for this price.
The price I am quoting for is NewEggs current price, which resides at $240 for two sticks. It's originally $280, but has a $40 instant rebate. Our affiliate ads at the bottom of each page links straight to the modules at that site. Now, I am unsure why they are on sale or for how long they will be. As it stands, they have been the same price for over a month, so I don't expect it to change anytime soon.
Simply put. If you are looking for a kit of memory that will treat you well, and offers a good deal of overclocking potential, I recommend taking a look at this kit. I am awarding G. Skills PHU2-2GBHZ kit an 8 out of 10.
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