The SiS, VIA and Intel Showdown at the Performance Chipset Corral

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RAM: Low-latency DDR400 Put To The Test

We only looked at the top DIMM in the comparison test since it can be run with the lowest-possible timings.

Various memory modules from Corsair, GeIL and OCZ Technologies were made available to us for the test. Our nod once again went to the TwinX duo from Corsair, as it supports the best timings by far : 5-2-2 and CL 2.0.

By comparison, the timings supported by both the Gold Series from OCZ (DDR500) and the DDR533 modules were downright leisurely : 8-4-4 and CL 3.0. But this isn’t really significant for their intended purpose - namely clock speeds that are as fast as possible - since the speeds achieved compensate for the less-than-exemplary timings.

Processor : Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz HT

Once again we used our 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 processor with HyperThreading. The system speed is 200 MHz using the quad-data-rate method, corresponding to a real 800 MHz. Nowadays, a 512 kB L2 cache is basically standard technology ; only the wickedly expensive Pentium 4 Extreme Edition is based on the Xeon and comes with an impressive 2 MB cache.

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