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“Take your system to a new extreme” is Mushkin’s message on its corporate website, where the Ascent memory line is presented. But this is only the top-notch product. The enthusiast memory line consists of several choices, including the EM series (basic overclocking memory), the HP series (high performance) and the XP series (extreme performance). The latter supports highest memory clock speeds and lowest latencies. The Red Line series, which was is based on DDR2 memory, is not available in a DDR3 version.
Vapor Chamber Interface for Cooling
We didn’t receive just an ordinary memory kit. Rather, we got the new Ascent XP2-8500 series, which is an extreme performance product. This series utilizes Mushkin’s eVCI technology, which stands for enhanced vapor chamber interface. Basically, Mushkin replaces aluminum or copper as the main material for conducting heat with a vapor chamber. The chamber is filled with a coolant that evaporates once the memory chips heat it up sufficiently. Once the aluminum surface conducts the heat away from the memory, the gas cools down and return to its liquid state. Be aware that your DIMM sockets need to be more than 2 mm away from each other if you intend to install two DIMMs per memory channel, as the eVCI cooler requires more space than a standard heat sink. However, this is generally the case on most motherboards.
Specifications, Packaging, Cost
The kit consists of two 2 GB DDR2-1066 DIMMs, which are rated at CL5-5-5-15 timings at 2.0 V to 2.1 V. The modules do not come with additional features such as Nvidia’s Enhanced Performance Profiles (EPP), but we found them to be inexpensive despite the sophisticated cooling solution. Unfortunately, the modules did not even come with a product sticker, which makes it really difficult to tell Mushkin Ascent DIMMs apart.
You need a Microsoft Passport account to purchase online on Mushkin’s Web site, which is something not everybody likes, but we agree that Passport, OpenID or similar solutions are a good attempt to facilitate authentication on the Internet. Once you are logged in you’ll be able to purchase this product at the current web price of $152.26, which sounds like a good deal for an enthusiast.
Overclocking
Once again, we started our overclocking attempts at the default voltage of 2.0 V, which did not allow us to reach significantly more clock speed. Then we increased the memory supply voltage to 2.3 V and tried again, but the maximum we reached wasn’t really far above the stock speed. We had to abandon our hopes at DDR2-1115, as the next step, DDR2-1124, was already unstable. More voltage didn’t help us reach higher clock speeds, either.
Although the Mushkin Ascent XP2-8500 isn’t a spectacular overclocker, it requires a low supply voltage and provides a great bang for the buck at its attractive price tag. Therefore it receives our Recommended Buy Award, along with Kingston’s product.
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Hmm, then this is a really good deal then:
kingston hyperx for $75 with shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820104060
But even then, prices in the article seem rather high don't they? Just wait for a rebate on the RAM and get it then, hell OCZ has had a new rebate continually for the last 3 months.
I don't know about this...
What with Nehalem, the X58 and DDR3, upgrading DDR2 seems like a cheap and temporary thrill.
What about this memory kit; I have it and love it...
http://www.patriotmem.com/products [...] 576&type=1
Runs rock stable on my 780G based board and this kit can be had for as little as $90. Was there some reason this memory was not included in the tests?
I use the Kingston mem on 1.066MHz with 4-4-4-12 timings on 2.2V and it is running stable for eight months now. Deffo a go.
SenseR.
lol I love how DDR2-667 performs within .2% of DDR3-1066
For me, DDR2-800 seems like a decent way to go. It can be found online for $60 for a 2x2GB set. I'm just rolling with a basic set of 2x2GB DDR2-800 XMS2 from Corsair. It runs fairly fast and cool; haven't tried overclocking them yet, though.
They are all overclocked 800mhz ics amnyway so it doesn't matter. You can but pc6400 modules that do 1066 - 1200 with ease these days. Tom should have picked specific ram ic's like micron d9's , promos, and a few other good ones and compared the overclocking that way.
Good Day
Wow that could have actually been a useful article if only you had done the test on an AMD system as well...
Wow that could have actually been a useful article if only you had done the test on an AMD system as well...
I was thinking the exact same thing. I think it's pretty well known, at least here, that you see little difference between DDR frequencies when they're above the Bus speed (for those processors still using the north bridge as a memory controller).
I would really like to see comparisons between DDR2 memory with a Phenom. I was looking for this the other day and turned up with little direct comparisons of DDR2-800 vs 1066. It'd be a really good article to read, and one that I think Tom's should jump on. It'd also give people a chance to see what an IMC can do and maybe help some people out when they're picking out DDR3 for their Core i7's.
I think writers @ Toms has to learn what Overclocking percentage means...
100% overclock is running it twice as fast as spec.
so running at 106% overclock is more then twice as fast?
I think their concept of overclocking percentages is mixed up.
bleh, these are the best high clock ddr2s on the market. guess they don't qualify since they are 1100mhz lolz.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231194
Hmm, then this is a really good deal then:kingston hyperx for $75 with shippinghttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820104060But even then, prices in the article seem rather high don't they? Just wait for a rebate on the RAM and get it then, hell OCZ has had a new rebate continually for the last 3 months.
That isn't the same Kingston ram featured in this article. The timing for that RAM is 7-7-7-20, although it is very affordable. I'm thinking of picking up a set of it myself.
According to OCZ's own website:
Important Note: Due to the width of the heatsink, Flex II memory kits cannot be installed on motherboards that require the modules to be inserted in sockets side by side. A maximum of one Flex II dual channel kit will fit on any motherboard with dual sockets.
I guess it's a good thing this review was done on an Asus board with staggered memory channels (A->B->A->B). If your motherboard groups your memory channels (like my old Gigabyte and Asus boards, i.e. A->A->B->B) then these modules will be worthless as they will be running in single-channel (cause you couldn't put two modules on the same memory channel). I think this fact alone means they are worthless as performance memory. You'd get better performance out of 667-dual channel if you have a mother board with grouped memory channels.
there's nothing interesting with memory technologies since before DDR2 came out. now, the FSB and RAMs had catch up with the CPU not like before.
but there's an interesting comment i've read above. Why not test a quad core with a heavily threaded application, i'm sure there will be big differences in memory/ram speeds.
ddr2-800 is as fast as it gets with sane fsb400. overclocking higher than fsb 400, ddr2-800 is only usefull untill ddr2-1066, fsb 533.
And like said before, most ddr2-800 kits go to 1066 with relative ease.
EVERYTHING above fsb 533/ ddr1066 is useless. Face it, acknowledge it, learn it.
Daredevils that push their system to 600+fsb do so for a very short of time just to prove that they can. Not many of those and usefulness of these test is debatable.
Where the heck is G.Skill... Would beat all of these in clean..
Heppy customer of G.Skill for several years..
Ummm... Am I the only one that knows about PAE???
Besides the fact that you didn't do all your homework the article was very well written and informative. Thanks
~Cheers
P.S. Next article idea... PAE and how it home users can benefit from it. BTW i do not recommend PAE if you use non-standard devices as it can have issues with drivers.
What is PAE? I dont know about it. Please share
What is PAE? I dont know about it. Please share
PAE stands for Physical Address Extension or something like that
so... its useless. ok
I really cant think of a single reason one shouldn't use win xp x64 instead of win xp 32bit- save for 16bit app support (think old dos games, that can be run on dosbox anyway..)
so... its useless. ok
No for some programs it is probably really cool