W1zzard
11-14-2005, 02:31 PM
[page=Introduction & Packaging]
Introduction
From the Manufacturer OCZ Technology (http://www.ocztechnology.com):
400MHz DDR
CL 2-2-2-5 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS)
Also available in a 512MB module
Unbuffered
Gold Layered XTC Heatspreader*
Lifetime Warranty
2.8 Volts
184 Pin DIMM
Ultra Low Noise Technology - uses various printed circuit board (PCB) techniques to reduce the amount of electrical noise that is present in all high-speed ICs. This results in faster and more stable memory.
EVP - OCZ's unique Extended Voltage Protection feature that allows performance enthusiasts to use a VDIMM of 3.0V ± 5% without invalidating their OCZ Lifetime Warranty.
This memory is very similar in performance and pricing to the OCZ Gold Gamer Extreme series with the "old" golden heatspreader.
The big innovation with this memory is that OCZ has spent a lot of time optimizing the heatspeaders for optimum temory temperature.
XTC (Xtreme Thermal Convection) heatspreaders optimize the thermal management of memory modules by promoting greater airflow by means of micro-convection throughout what is usually the dead air space inside conventional heatspreader designs. In this manner, build-up of heat is avoided and thermal dissipation of the memory components is offloaded more efficiently through the honeycomb design. At the same time, mechanical stability is maintained.
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/package1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/package2.jpg)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/memory_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/memory.jpg)
Given the name, it is not hard to guess that OCZ uses gold-colored heatspreaders for the "Gold" series. In contrast to the earlier photos posted on some forums, the heatspreaders are now the same on both sides with a big Z in the middle.
[page=A closer look]
A closer look
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/sticker_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/sticker.jpg)
Each module has a sticker on it, which gives the rated speed and the stock timings. Timings of 2-2-2-5 are pretty much the best you can get. Most motherboards do not have options going lower than these timings, anyway.
OCZ has done a great job with the heatspreaders, not only do they look gorgeous they also lower your memory temperature considerably and so increase the overclocking potential. Catching their beauty on photos is quite hard, I really like how you can see the memory chips shine through the XTC's mesh.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs4.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs2.jpg)
I assume between heatspreader and memory chips is a thin thermal tape which keeps the heatspreaders in place, but is so thin (read: good heat transfer) that it is translucent.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/pcb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/pcb.jpg)
The PCB is made by Brainpower, known for being one of the best memory PCB manufacturers.
[page=Performance & Overclocking]
Test Setup
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="systable">
<tr><th colspan="2" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System</th></tr>
<tr>
<th width="100">CPU:</th>
<td>AMD Athlon64 3000+ Venice</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Motherboard:</th>
<td>DFI LanParty NF4, Bios 5.10-2 Fix</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Memory:</th>
<td>2x 512 MB OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Gold GX XTC</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Video Card:</th>
<td>ATI Radeon X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Harddisk:</th>
<td>Maxtor Diamondmax 160GB</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Power Supply:</th>
<td>HEC PurePower 475</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Software:</th>
<td>Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.11</td>
</tr>
</table>
Performance
The first test we did was test how the memory performs at a stock frequency of 200 FSB with the default timings recommended by OCZ. We used 2.8V here as specified by OCZ.
Next, we wanted to know if the memory can run at 2.6V. With 200 MHz it worked fine. We increased the memory clock step by step, to find out what the maximum clocks were when running at the DDR specification default voltage of 2.6V. At 214 MHz the system got instable.
Our next test uses 2.7V DDR voltage. Here the memory takes 215 MHz which is only a small improvement over the results at 2.6V.
Further increasing voltage to 2.8V and 2.9V gave us the expected overclocking and performance gains. The memory maxxed out at 3.0V with an impressive 238 MHz - remember it is advertised as 200 MHz.
We did try to increase voltage even further, but the overclocks were actually a little bit less.
Relaxing the memory timings to 2.5-X-X-X or even 3-X-X-X did only yield a few more MHz, definitely not worth it if you take the performance loss into account.
For comparison, the test "JEDEC DDR400A" shows a generic DDR module running at JEDEC standard timings.
<table width="640" border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable">
<tr>
<th colspan="9" style="font-size:larger"><strong>OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Gold GX XTC </strong></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap">CPU Clock &<br />
Memory Ratio</th>
<th>Memory<br />
Speed</th>
<th>Memory<br />
Timings</th>
<th>Everest<br />
Read</th>
<th>Everest<br />
Write</th>
<th>Everest<br />
Latency</th>
<th>Quake 3<br />
Timedemo</th>
<th>3DMark<br />
2001SE</th>
<th>SuperPi<br />
Mod 1M</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 200 1:1</th>
<td>200 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.8V</td>
<td>5692 MB/s </td>
<td>1946 MB/s </td>
<td>49.1 ns </td>
<td>229.9 fps </td>
<td>20802</td>
<td>46.33 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 214 1:1 </th>
<td>214 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.6V</td>
<td>6079 MB/s </td>
<td>2084 MB/s </td>
<td>46.0 ns </td>
<td>243.3 fps </td>
<td>21816</td>
<td>43.33 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 215 1:1 </th>
<td>215 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.7V</td>
<td>6100 MB/s </td>
<td>2085 MB/s </td>
<td>45.7 ns </td>
<td>246.3 fps </td>
<td>21952</td>
<td>43.20 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 224 1:1 </th>
<td>224 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.8V</td>
<td>6363 MB/S </td>
<td>2176 MB/s </td>
<td>43.9 ns </td>
<td>256.8 fps </td>
<td>22622</td>
<td>41.45 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 227 1:1 </th>
<td>227 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.9V</td>
<td>6451 MB/s </td>
<td>2203 MB/s </td>
<td>43.3 ns </td>
<td>260.2 fps </td>
<td>22834</td>
<td>40.92 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 238 1:1 </th>
<td>238 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 3.0V</td>
<td>6739 MB/s </td>
<td>2340 MB/s </td>
<td>41.8 ns </td>
<td>272.2 fps </td>
<td>23760</td>
<td>39.20 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>JEDEC DDR400A </th>
<td>200 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-3-3-8 2.6V</td>
<td>5639 MB/s </td>
<td>1890 MB/s </td>
<td>51.9 ns </td>
<td>226.8 fps </td>
<td>20264</td>
<td>46.95 s </td>
</tr>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/everestread.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/everestwrite.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/everestlatency.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/quake3.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/3dmark2001.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/superpi.gif
For an easier comparison with other modules, we set a maximum voltage of 3.0V and tested until we found the highest clock frequency and fastest timings for this memory. The benchmarks Everest Read, Everest Write and Quake 3 were run. We then calculated the performance increase in percent compared to some standard DDR400 memory running at JEDEC DDR400A (2.5-3-3-8). The average percentage of the three benchmarks is listed in following table:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/vsjedec.gif
[page=Value and Conclusion]
Value and Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
One gig of OCZ PC-3200 Gold XTC can be yours for about $170. This is $5 more than the non-XTC PC-3200 VX memory. In my opinion sure worth it for an improved heatspreader.
</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Extremely low latencies
Stunningly looking heatspreaders
Excellent performance
Solid overclocking
Warranty for higher voltage
Good price
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Does not scale beyond 3.0V
No higher overclocking with relaxed latencies
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8.7</th>
<td>If you are a fan of low-latency memory, you will definitely have to consider the OCZ 3200 Gold GX XTC. Almost every motherboard today can supply 3.0V to the memory, and that's where this memory's sweet spot is. Getting DDR476 out of a memory which is advertised as DDR400 is quite a bargain, especially at this price. The latencies of 2-2-2-5 at 1T are top-notch as well.<br />
While it is hard to quantify how much the heatspreaders improve things, they are sure really nice to look at and give your setup an individual note.</td>
</tr>
<tr><th></hd><td>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/recommended.gif</td></tr>
</table>
Introduction
From the Manufacturer OCZ Technology (http://www.ocztechnology.com):
400MHz DDR
CL 2-2-2-5 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS)
Also available in a 512MB module
Unbuffered
Gold Layered XTC Heatspreader*
Lifetime Warranty
2.8 Volts
184 Pin DIMM
Ultra Low Noise Technology - uses various printed circuit board (PCB) techniques to reduce the amount of electrical noise that is present in all high-speed ICs. This results in faster and more stable memory.
EVP - OCZ's unique Extended Voltage Protection feature that allows performance enthusiasts to use a VDIMM of 3.0V ± 5% without invalidating their OCZ Lifetime Warranty.
This memory is very similar in performance and pricing to the OCZ Gold Gamer Extreme series with the "old" golden heatspreader.
The big innovation with this memory is that OCZ has spent a lot of time optimizing the heatspeaders for optimum temory temperature.
XTC (Xtreme Thermal Convection) heatspreaders optimize the thermal management of memory modules by promoting greater airflow by means of micro-convection throughout what is usually the dead air space inside conventional heatspreader designs. In this manner, build-up of heat is avoided and thermal dissipation of the memory components is offloaded more efficiently through the honeycomb design. At the same time, mechanical stability is maintained.
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/package1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/package2.jpg)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/memory_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/memory.jpg)
Given the name, it is not hard to guess that OCZ uses gold-colored heatspreaders for the "Gold" series. In contrast to the earlier photos posted on some forums, the heatspreaders are now the same on both sides with a big Z in the middle.
[page=A closer look]
A closer look
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/sticker_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/sticker.jpg)
Each module has a sticker on it, which gives the rated speed and the stock timings. Timings of 2-2-2-5 are pretty much the best you can get. Most motherboards do not have options going lower than these timings, anyway.
OCZ has done a great job with the heatspreaders, not only do they look gorgeous they also lower your memory temperature considerably and so increase the overclocking potential. Catching their beauty on photos is quite hard, I really like how you can see the memory chips shine through the XTC's mesh.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs4.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/hs2.jpg)
I assume between heatspreader and memory chips is a thin thermal tape which keeps the heatspreaders in place, but is so thin (read: good heat transfer) that it is translucent.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/pcb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/pcb.jpg)
The PCB is made by Brainpower, known for being one of the best memory PCB manufacturers.
[page=Performance & Overclocking]
Test Setup
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="systable">
<tr><th colspan="2" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System</th></tr>
<tr>
<th width="100">CPU:</th>
<td>AMD Athlon64 3000+ Venice</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Motherboard:</th>
<td>DFI LanParty NF4, Bios 5.10-2 Fix</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Memory:</th>
<td>2x 512 MB OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Gold GX XTC</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Video Card:</th>
<td>ATI Radeon X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Harddisk:</th>
<td>Maxtor Diamondmax 160GB</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Power Supply:</th>
<td>HEC PurePower 475</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Software:</th>
<td>Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.11</td>
</tr>
</table>
Performance
The first test we did was test how the memory performs at a stock frequency of 200 FSB with the default timings recommended by OCZ. We used 2.8V here as specified by OCZ.
Next, we wanted to know if the memory can run at 2.6V. With 200 MHz it worked fine. We increased the memory clock step by step, to find out what the maximum clocks were when running at the DDR specification default voltage of 2.6V. At 214 MHz the system got instable.
Our next test uses 2.7V DDR voltage. Here the memory takes 215 MHz which is only a small improvement over the results at 2.6V.
Further increasing voltage to 2.8V and 2.9V gave us the expected overclocking and performance gains. The memory maxxed out at 3.0V with an impressive 238 MHz - remember it is advertised as 200 MHz.
We did try to increase voltage even further, but the overclocks were actually a little bit less.
Relaxing the memory timings to 2.5-X-X-X or even 3-X-X-X did only yield a few more MHz, definitely not worth it if you take the performance loss into account.
For comparison, the test "JEDEC DDR400A" shows a generic DDR module running at JEDEC standard timings.
<table width="640" border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable">
<tr>
<th colspan="9" style="font-size:larger"><strong>OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Gold GX XTC </strong></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap">CPU Clock &<br />
Memory Ratio</th>
<th>Memory<br />
Speed</th>
<th>Memory<br />
Timings</th>
<th>Everest<br />
Read</th>
<th>Everest<br />
Write</th>
<th>Everest<br />
Latency</th>
<th>Quake 3<br />
Timedemo</th>
<th>3DMark<br />
2001SE</th>
<th>SuperPi<br />
Mod 1M</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 200 1:1</th>
<td>200 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.8V</td>
<td>5692 MB/s </td>
<td>1946 MB/s </td>
<td>49.1 ns </td>
<td>229.9 fps </td>
<td>20802</td>
<td>46.33 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 214 1:1 </th>
<td>214 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.6V</td>
<td>6079 MB/s </td>
<td>2084 MB/s </td>
<td>46.0 ns </td>
<td>243.3 fps </td>
<td>21816</td>
<td>43.33 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 215 1:1 </th>
<td>215 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.7V</td>
<td>6100 MB/s </td>
<td>2085 MB/s </td>
<td>45.7 ns </td>
<td>246.3 fps </td>
<td>21952</td>
<td>43.20 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 224 1:1 </th>
<td>224 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.8V</td>
<td>6363 MB/S </td>
<td>2176 MB/s </td>
<td>43.9 ns </td>
<td>256.8 fps </td>
<td>22622</td>
<td>41.45 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 227 1:1 </th>
<td>227 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.9V</td>
<td>6451 MB/s </td>
<td>2203 MB/s </td>
<td>43.3 ns </td>
<td>260.2 fps </td>
<td>22834</td>
<td>40.92 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 238 1:1 </th>
<td>238 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 3.0V</td>
<td>6739 MB/s </td>
<td>2340 MB/s </td>
<td>41.8 ns </td>
<td>272.2 fps </td>
<td>23760</td>
<td>39.20 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>JEDEC DDR400A </th>
<td>200 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-3-3-8 2.6V</td>
<td>5639 MB/s </td>
<td>1890 MB/s </td>
<td>51.9 ns </td>
<td>226.8 fps </td>
<td>20264</td>
<td>46.95 s </td>
</tr>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/everestread.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/everestwrite.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/everestlatency.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/quake3.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/3dmark2001.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/superpi.gif
For an easier comparison with other modules, we set a maximum voltage of 3.0V and tested until we found the highest clock frequency and fastest timings for this memory. The benchmarks Everest Read, Everest Write and Quake 3 were run. We then calculated the performance increase in percent compared to some standard DDR400 memory running at JEDEC DDR400A (2.5-3-3-8). The average percentage of the three benchmarks is listed in following table:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3200GoldXTC/images/vsjedec.gif
[page=Value and Conclusion]
Value and Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
One gig of OCZ PC-3200 Gold XTC can be yours for about $170. This is $5 more than the non-XTC PC-3200 VX memory. In my opinion sure worth it for an improved heatspreader.
</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Extremely low latencies
Stunningly looking heatspreaders
Excellent performance
Solid overclocking
Warranty for higher voltage
Good price
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Does not scale beyond 3.0V
No higher overclocking with relaxed latencies
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8.7</th>
<td>If you are a fan of low-latency memory, you will definitely have to consider the OCZ 3200 Gold GX XTC. Almost every motherboard today can supply 3.0V to the memory, and that's where this memory's sweet spot is. Getting DDR476 out of a memory which is advertised as DDR400 is quite a bargain, especially at this price. The latencies of 2-2-2-5 at 1T are top-notch as well.<br />
While it is hard to quantify how much the heatspreaders improve things, they are sure really nice to look at and give your setup an individual note.</td>
</tr>
<tr><th></hd><td>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/recommended.gif</td></tr>
</table>