W1zzard
Jul 18, 2005, 06:53 PM
[page=Introduction & Packaging]
Introduction
If you ask an overclocker "Best memory chips ever?" you will most probably get the reply "Winbond BH5".
These chips from Winbond were THE overclocker memory around 2002/2003. They are known for running very tight timings and high clock speeds, if the voltage is right. Winbond BH5 really loves voltage, the fun starts at around 3.1V with extreme overclockers giving them up to 3.8V.
Unfortunately Winbond stopped production some time in 2003 and supply of these chips was running dry pretty fast.
Now Winbond is back with their BH5 UTT. Those chips are produced and then directly sold to the module maker without any testing/binning. Obviously this results in a much lower price.
Manufacturers like OCZ buy tons of these chips and test them in their own facilities. Based on which speed the chips make, they end up on different memory products.
From the Manufacturer OCZ Technology (http://www.ocztechnology.com):
433MHz DDR
CL 2-2-2-5 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS)
Also available in a 512MB module
Unbuffered
Gold Layered Copper 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 3.1V ± 5% without invalidating their OCZ Lifetime Warranty.
OCZ recommends a default voltage of 2.8V. This is 0.2V higher than the DDR standard of 2.6V. We had no problems running the memory at DDR400 2.6V with the specced timings. This, however, is something you may want to consider if you have a motherboard which offers no or very little memory overvoltage options.
GX means "Gamer eXtreme". With this line of memory products, OCZ tries to lower the timings as much as possible to give the best performing results.
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/package1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/package2.jpg)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/sticker_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/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.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/memory_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/memory.jpg)
Given the name, it is not hard to guess that OCZ uses gold-colored heatspreaders for the "Gold" series.
During operation the memory gets quite warm - hot if you give it more juice. So the heatspreaders help keeping it cool.
[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-3500 Gold GX</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 5.7</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 207 MHz the system got instable, it couldn't do the advertised 219 MHz.
The next test uses 2.8V DDR voltage. Here the memory takes 216 MHz which is still not impressive.
Once we got into the 3V territory, overclocks became better. At 3.1V, which is the maximum for many motherboards and also the suggested limit of OCZ's voltage protection we got 229 MHz.
The last test at 3.3V, which is a good maximum for all-day usage, reached 241 MHz at the very aggressive timings of 2-2-2-5.
While you might be able to get a few extra MHz out of the memory by relaxing timings to 2.5-3-3-x, this is not worth it, if you consider the performance hit. If you want high clocks with less aggressive timings, you should get Samsung TCCD.
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-3500 Gold Gamer eXtreme</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>4844 MB/s </td>
<td>2148 MB/s </td>
<td>50.0 ns </td>
<td>225.2 fps </td>
<td>19056</td>
<td>50.43 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 207 1:1 </th>
<td>207 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.6V</td>
<td>4959 MB/s</td>
<td>2209 MB/s </td>
<td>48.9 ns </td>
<td>231.0 fps </td>
<td>19574</td>
<td>49.08 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 216 1:1 </th>
<td>216 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.8V</td>
<td>5189 MB/s</td>
<td>2308 MB/s </td>
<td>46.6 ns </td>
<td>241.2 fps </td>
<td>20234</td>
<td>46.98 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 229 1:1 </th>
<td>229 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 3.1V</td>
<td>5625 MB/s </td>
<td>2447 MB/s </td>
<td>43.2 ns </td>
<td>257.4 fps </td>
<td>21604</td>
<td>43.31 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 241 1:1 </th>
<td>241 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 3.3V</td>
<td>5795 MB/s </td>
<td>2575 MB/s </td>
<td>41.8 ns </td>
<td>268.1 fps </td>
<td>21884</td>
<td>42.20 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>JEDEC DDR400A </th>
<td>200 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-3-3-8 2.6V</td>
<td>3952 MB/s</td>
<td>1939 MB/s</td>
<td>53.5 ns</td>
<td>213.3 fps</td>
<td>18548</td>
<td>51.97 s</td>
</tr>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/everestread.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/everestwrite.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/everestlatency.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/quake3.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/3dmark2001.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/superpi.gif
Its aggressive timings make the 3500 Gold GX a great performer at standard clocks. With a good motherboard, that can deliver a lot of memory voltage, overclocking will be very solid as well.
Performance gains scale consistent through all benchmarks.
For an easier comparison with other modules, we set a maximum voltage of 3.1V 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-3500Gold/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>
Two 512MB OCZ PC-3500 Gold modules set you back about $200. The price is good if you consider the insane amounts people used to pay for BH-5 memory.
</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Extremely low latencies
Excellent performance
Solid overclocking
Warranty for higher voltage
Good price
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Needs high voltage
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8.5</th>
<td>If your motherboard can supply 3.0+ Volts to the memory, what every modern enthusiast board should be able to do, you will love this memory. Its aggressive timings make it a great performer, no matter at which clock speed. If you dare to pump 3.4V through your memory you should be able to hit 250 MHz at timings of 2-2-2-5.<br />
Some people might complain that these overclocks are rather low, BH5 can do better. The overclock is directly related to OCZ's binning process. Faster chips go on faster, more expensive modules.</td>
</tr>
<tr><th></th></tr>
</table>
Introduction
If you ask an overclocker "Best memory chips ever?" you will most probably get the reply "Winbond BH5".
These chips from Winbond were THE overclocker memory around 2002/2003. They are known for running very tight timings and high clock speeds, if the voltage is right. Winbond BH5 really loves voltage, the fun starts at around 3.1V with extreme overclockers giving them up to 3.8V.
Unfortunately Winbond stopped production some time in 2003 and supply of these chips was running dry pretty fast.
Now Winbond is back with their BH5 UTT. Those chips are produced and then directly sold to the module maker without any testing/binning. Obviously this results in a much lower price.
Manufacturers like OCZ buy tons of these chips and test them in their own facilities. Based on which speed the chips make, they end up on different memory products.
From the Manufacturer OCZ Technology (http://www.ocztechnology.com):
433MHz DDR
CL 2-2-2-5 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS)
Also available in a 512MB module
Unbuffered
Gold Layered Copper 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 3.1V ± 5% without invalidating their OCZ Lifetime Warranty.
OCZ recommends a default voltage of 2.8V. This is 0.2V higher than the DDR standard of 2.6V. We had no problems running the memory at DDR400 2.6V with the specced timings. This, however, is something you may want to consider if you have a motherboard which offers no or very little memory overvoltage options.
GX means "Gamer eXtreme". With this line of memory products, OCZ tries to lower the timings as much as possible to give the best performing results.
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/package1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/package2.jpg)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/sticker_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/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.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/memory_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/memory.jpg)
Given the name, it is not hard to guess that OCZ uses gold-colored heatspreaders for the "Gold" series.
During operation the memory gets quite warm - hot if you give it more juice. So the heatspreaders help keeping it cool.
[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-3500 Gold GX</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 5.7</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 207 MHz the system got instable, it couldn't do the advertised 219 MHz.
The next test uses 2.8V DDR voltage. Here the memory takes 216 MHz which is still not impressive.
Once we got into the 3V territory, overclocks became better. At 3.1V, which is the maximum for many motherboards and also the suggested limit of OCZ's voltage protection we got 229 MHz.
The last test at 3.3V, which is a good maximum for all-day usage, reached 241 MHz at the very aggressive timings of 2-2-2-5.
While you might be able to get a few extra MHz out of the memory by relaxing timings to 2.5-3-3-x, this is not worth it, if you consider the performance hit. If you want high clocks with less aggressive timings, you should get Samsung TCCD.
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-3500 Gold Gamer eXtreme</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>4844 MB/s </td>
<td>2148 MB/s </td>
<td>50.0 ns </td>
<td>225.2 fps </td>
<td>19056</td>
<td>50.43 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 207 1:1 </th>
<td>207 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.6V</td>
<td>4959 MB/s</td>
<td>2209 MB/s </td>
<td>48.9 ns </td>
<td>231.0 fps </td>
<td>19574</td>
<td>49.08 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 216 1:1 </th>
<td>216 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.8V</td>
<td>5189 MB/s</td>
<td>2308 MB/s </td>
<td>46.6 ns </td>
<td>241.2 fps </td>
<td>20234</td>
<td>46.98 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 229 1:1 </th>
<td>229 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 3.1V</td>
<td>5625 MB/s </td>
<td>2447 MB/s </td>
<td>43.2 ns </td>
<td>257.4 fps </td>
<td>21604</td>
<td>43.31 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8 x 241 1:1 </th>
<td>241 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 3.3V</td>
<td>5795 MB/s </td>
<td>2575 MB/s </td>
<td>41.8 ns </td>
<td>268.1 fps </td>
<td>21884</td>
<td>42.20 s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>JEDEC DDR400A </th>
<td>200 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-3-3-8 2.6V</td>
<td>3952 MB/s</td>
<td>1939 MB/s</td>
<td>53.5 ns</td>
<td>213.3 fps</td>
<td>18548</td>
<td>51.97 s</td>
</tr>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/everestread.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/everestwrite.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/everestlatency.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/quake3.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/3dmark2001.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/images/superpi.gif
Its aggressive timings make the 3500 Gold GX a great performer at standard clocks. With a good motherboard, that can deliver a lot of memory voltage, overclocking will be very solid as well.
Performance gains scale consistent through all benchmarks.
For an easier comparison with other modules, we set a maximum voltage of 3.1V 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-3500Gold/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>
Two 512MB OCZ PC-3500 Gold modules set you back about $200. The price is good if you consider the insane amounts people used to pay for BH-5 memory.
</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Extremely low latencies
Excellent performance
Solid overclocking
Warranty for higher voltage
Good price
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Needs high voltage
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>8.5</th>
<td>If your motherboard can supply 3.0+ Volts to the memory, what every modern enthusiast board should be able to do, you will love this memory. Its aggressive timings make it a great performer, no matter at which clock speed. If you dare to pump 3.4V through your memory you should be able to hit 250 MHz at timings of 2-2-2-5.<br />
Some people might complain that these overclocks are rather low, BH5 can do better. The overclock is directly related to OCZ's binning process. Faster chips go on faster, more expensive modules.</td>
</tr>
<tr><th></th></tr>
</table>