TwinMOS Twister PC3200 BH-5 Review

Name: TwinMOS Twister PC3200 BH-5
Brand: TwinMOS

//mAr

on Apr 28th, 2005,

in Memory.

Manufacturer: TwinMOS

(8 Comments) »

Testing

TwinMOS Twister PC3200 BH-5
CPU Clock & Memory Ratio	Memory Speed	Memory Timings	Everest Read	Everest Write	Everest Latency	Quake 3 Timedemo	3DMark 2001SE	SuperPi Mod 1M
10 x 200 1:1	200 MHz	2-2-2-7 2.6V	5637 MB/s	2317 MB/s	45.7 ns	326.9 FPS	25450	41.8s
10 x 224 1:1	224 MHz	2-2-2-7 2.8V	6247 MB/s	2552 MB/s	40.8 ns	362.1 FPS	27714	37.8s
10 x 243 1:1	243 MHz	2-2-2-7 3.1V	6767 MB/s	2768 MB/s	37.6 ns	393.3 FPS	29410	34.9s
10 x 252 1:1	252 MHz	2-2-2-7 3.3V	7069 MB/s	2890 MB/s	37.2 ns	406.2 FPS	30314	33.9s

Very good results, but a motherboard with enough VDIMM is required.
Reduced latencies did not give much overclocking headroom. This shows, that this memory is designed for low latencies. Faster than DDR500 with tight timings is very fast, compared to 2.5-3-3-7. In the factory, the SPD Timings were set to the correct values of 2-2-2-5 (we changed Tras to 7).

SuperPi - 252MHz @ 2-2-2-7 - 2520MHz

Benchmarks

For easier comparison with other modules, we set a maximum voltage of 3.1V und 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:

Conclusion

Two 512 MB modules are sold for $160 to $200, which results in a very good price/performance ratio.

Tight latencies
Very good performance
Nice design, beautiful heatspreaders
Great overclockability

Wants lot of voltage
Overclocking not increased with reduced latencies

The TwinMOS Twister BH-5 are THE performance memory. Great latencies at speeds of over DDR500, where other memories barely run 2.5-3-3-7, together with a great price, help the memory get our Editor's Choice Award. Only drawback is that you need a motherboard which can supply a high memory voltage, which not all boards offer. But there are voltmods for most of them.