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

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.