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Patriot DDR400 2-2-2/DDR533 3-4-4: Performance AND Value

 by Wesley Fink on April 8, 2005 12:05 AM EST
23 Comments | Add A Comment
23 Comments

Final Words

While Patriot may be a new name in the Enthusiast memory market, PDP Systems has produced a solid memory product based on Samsung TCCD memory chips that performs as well as any top TCCD that we have tested. Significantly, Patriot TCCD is also the most reasonable quality TCCD memory on the market today. All of this adds up to Top Performance and Top Value, which is high praise for this Patriot memory.

As a buyer, you get a memory that is tested at both DDR400 2-2-2-5 and DDR533 3-4-4-8 during production. Our test modules actually performed much better than these base settings, reaching a stable DDR630 at 2.5-4-3-7 timings at 2.9V on the AMD Athlon 64 platform. This performance was virtually identical to the outstanding OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 that is our reference memory and one of the top memories available for the AMD platform.

PDP Systems used top components in their Patriot PC3200+XBLK, starting with a Brainpower PCB, and continuing with what appears to be effective binning of production TCCD chips. You will either love or hate the flame-red aluminum heatspreaders and the red PCB, but no one will ever accuse Patriot of not standing out in the crowd. All-in-all, Patriot PC3200+XBLK is an outstanding performer at a very good price. Other memory makers tell me that they have also recently reduced prices on TCCD memory. So, if you're shopping for the great extended performance range of TCCD-based memory, you should check the latest prices before buying. Just make sure that the TCCD you choose is based on the Brainpower PCB and is actually tested during production at higher memory speeds.

We are happy to recommend Patriot PC3200+XBLK to anyone looking for TCCD-based memory or a top memory for their AMD Athlon 64 system. The Patriot provides solid performance to DDR630 in our benchmarks at the voltages available on most performance motherboards. It is not as fast as OCZ VX at the same memory speed, but it can reach similar performance levels at top speed by performing at higher speeds than VX. If your board cannot do the very high voltages required by VX, or if you prefer to run lower voltages for safety, then Patriot PC3200+XBLK is an excellent memory choice.

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  • sphinx - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link

    Great article. But, how well does it perform against Kingston.

  • overclockingoodness - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link

    #10: While I understand how that may be useful in certain articles, I think it would only delay the time of the article. I bet it already takes AnandTech quite a bit of time to produce each article and when they start to add this "Dual-Core" section, I don't think it will really work out.

    Besides, it would start to get pretty annoying after a while. They might as well do a short piece on memory and how it effects dual-core. A seperate article may be cool, but I don't think I would want a dual-core section in memory reviews or anything else.

  • mariush - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link

    Something is wrong here ( page 4 )

    While maintaining a constant CPU Speed of 2.4GHz, we measured the impact of increasing the Memory Speed from 200 to 300, a 50% increase. Memory Write performance increased about 29% with this 50% speed increase, while Memory Write performance improved by just 17%.

  • Determinant - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link

    Hey guys (AnandTech staff),

    Just want to say that I've recently been really impressed with the quality and thought that goes into your articles.

    I have a suggestion; Now that dual cores are upon us, I think that it would be a really good idea to have a new section in each article. The new section would show how the current product being tested allows for more functionality.

    I'll explain: For example, a lot of people have been complaining about the dual core benchmarks saying that it isn't how they use their computer but that's because they have adapted to a single core environment. Alot of people (me included) turn off antivirus & spyware checkers etc when playing a game not because they want to but because it affects their gaming experience.

    So, for example, in memmory reviews, I don't know if memmory affects the functionality on a dual core system (eg. does this faster memmory also allow me to listen to mp3's while gaming)

    Me personally, I will purchase a dual core cpu not because it improves the performance of my current application but only because it allows me to have increased funcionality, less hassle, and a more enjoyable experience (I won't have to worry about stopping my antivirus when going into a game). Of course, more speed is always welcome.

    If interested, I can provide examples of functionality that I would be interested in (eg. things that I would like to be able to accomplish with my computer).


    Cheers.

  • mongoosesRawesome - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link

    Considering how depending memory performance is on the actual speed of the CPU for Athlon64 systems, it would seem to me that people should be buying relatively cheap PC3200 Cas 2 ram and running with a divider. You can easily reach 90 percent of the performance without having to use 1:1 divider, as long as your divider and multiplier allow you to reach the same CPU speeds.

    Currently at newegg.com PC3200 CAS 2-3-2-5 T1 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc...

    Also - "As you can see in the photo, there are just 8 small components in a row just above the gold connectors. Other boards for TCCD memory have many more components in this row. " Maybe its just me, but I can't see what you are trying to point out in the small picture. Maybe if you linked to the full size pic?

  • Wesley Fink - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link

    #1 - Supposedly the memory controller runs at the same voltage as the CPU, since it is part of the CPU on the Athlon 64. The memory itself is what runs at 3.3V with VX, and it warranted to 3.5V by OCZ. The fate of the memory controller would therfore be dependent on the voltage used for the CPU. We rarely use more than 1.55V with a CPU with a default of 1.5V.

    #4 - The testing is complete for a Value RAM roundup which will appear next week.

    #6 - Corrected.

    #7 - We have not tested the TwinMOS with the same chips used in OCZ VX, but we have included OCZ Value VX in our upcoming Value RAM Rounup. It costs about $115 for a Gigabyte (2x512) and is made from Winbond UTT chips that have not been binned - like the TwinMOS. You will see how it performs in our Value RAM Roundup.

  • n yusef - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link

    Great article. You guys need to do an article on the new TwinMOS value RAM with the (is Bh-5 or UTT, I forget) Winbond chips though.

  • JustAnAverageGuy - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link

    Page 3:

    The website is http://www.lavalys.com/ not http://www.lavasys.com/

  • Shinei - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link

    Man, DDR630 at reasonable timings... Looks like another nail in DDR2's coffin. I wonder if the RAM could be coerced to tighten up its timings if one was to feed it 3.0 or 3.1 volts instead of 2.9v...

  • JustAnAverageGuy - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link

    Still waiting for a comparison against value memory :P
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