Value RAM Roundup: Computing On a Budget
by Wesley Fink on April 11, 2005 4:26 PM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Transcend JM366D643A-50
Transcend will be best known to some of our readers as a manufacturer of flash memory. While flash memory is an important product line for Transcend, they also manufacture storage products and system memory. You will not find Transcend for sale at a huge number of US websites, but Transcend also sells directly to end-users at their website. Transcend has US sites in both Spanish and English, as well as several European language sites, and Taiwan, Japan and China websites.
Specifications
Transcend rates JM366D643A-50 at DDR400 CAS 2.5 and we found the "auto" or SPD timings to be 2.5-3-3-8.| Transcend JM366D643A-50 (DDR400) Memory Specifications | |
| Number of DIMMs & Banks | 2 DS |
| DIMM Size Total Memory |
512 MB 1GB |
| Rated Timings | 2.5-3-3 |
| SPD (Auto) Timings | 2.5-3-3-8 |
| Rated Voltage | 2.6V |
Transcend shows both DDR400 CAS 2.5 and DDR400 CAS 3 in their product list, so it is clear that the DIMM products from Transcend are aimed at the Value end of the memory market.
Test Results
| Transcend JM366D643A-50 - 2 x 512Mb Double-Bank | |||||||
| CPU Ratio at 2.4GHz | Memory Speed |
Memory Timings & Voltage |
Quake3 fps |
Sandra UNBuffered | Sandra Standard Buffered |
Super PI 2M places (time in sec) |
Wolfenstein - Radar - Enemy Territory fps |
| 12x200 | 400 DDR | 2.5-3-3-6 2.6V 1T |
532.0 | INT 2420 FLT 2593 |
INT 6050 FLT 6036 |
82 | 111.9 |
| 11x218 | 436 DDR | 3-3-3-6 2.8V 1T |
529.2 | INT 2593 FLT 2735 |
INT 6393 FLT 6309 |
82 | 111.7 |
| 12x223 (2.68GHz) |
Highest CPU/Mem Performance | 3-3-3-7 2.8V 1T |
575.5 | INT 2668 FLT 2835 |
INT 6650 FLT 5516 |
75 | 122.5 |
Transcend is another memory that costs just $100 for a Gigabyte and yet manages to nearly reach DDR450 in overclocking. The cost and performance are very similar to the Kingston CAS 3 rated Value RAM except that Transcend rates its Value RAM at CAS 2.5. While the rated timings differ, both Kingston and Transcend both are stable at CAS 2.5 at DDR400. The Transcend RAM is an excellent value and provides the overclocking capabilities to reach a 12% CPU overclock at 1:1 memory ratio.
We have looked at Aida 32 results in the past, and found them to be very useful in examining read/write performance and memory latency. Aida 32 is now available as Everest Home Edition, a free download from www.lavalys.com.
| Transcend JM366D643A-50 (DDR400) 2x512Mb Double-Bank Everest 1.51 |
|||||
| CPU Ratio at 2.4GHz | Memory Speed | Memory Timings & Voltage |
Everest READ MB/s |
Everest WRITE MB/s |
Everest Latency ns |
| 12x200 | 400 DDR | 2.5-3-3-6 2.6V 1T |
5801 | 1861 | 47.7 |
| 11x218 | 436 DDR | 3-3-3-6 2.8V 1T |
6028 | 1906 | 48.8 |
| 12x223 (2.68GHz) |
Highest CPU/Mem Performance 446 DDR |
3-3-3-7 2.8V 1T |
6306 | 1989 | 47.9 |
It is easy to see in the Everest results that dropping CAS just from 2.5 to 3 in moving from DDR400 to DDR436 offsets virtually all of the performance improvements that you get from higher memory speed. The $100 Transcend reaches on to DDR446 to give you most of the headroom that you need for air-cooled 1:1 overclocking at stock multipliers.
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wfn - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link
err, what dvinnen said, i dont see atacom selling the value vx. they dont mention the actual part # anywhere on that page and the pics show 3-4-4-8 modules.wfn - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link
Wesley Fink - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link
#28 - Corsair delined our request for Value RAM samples. We talk about this on page 2.'All the manufacturers supplied one or more samples for testing except Corsair. Corsair emailed us, stating that "Our policy is not to send Value Select parts for review for a variety of reasons. After a quick discussion here we decided to stick with that policy and sit this one out." '
Wesley Fink - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link
Answering several emails: Value BH5 (OCZ PC3200 Gold) is available at Atacom for $194.95.http://www.atacom.com/program/print_html_new.cgi?c...
dannybin1742 - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link
how come no corsair valueram was done? thats stuff is really cheap too, i use the pc3200 with my a64, runs like a champ and i got it for $92 from new egg (2 512 sticks)Avalon - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link
Value VX for the win, if you have the voltage and like overclocking...ViRGE - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link
It was a good article, but can I put in a request? 1GB modules are starting to get popular, even if they're not very OC-friendly at this point, enough so that it makes more sense at this point to pick up a pair of 1GB DIMMs than to fill a board with 512MB DIMMs. As such, can we get a roundup of the different major 1GB modules some time in the future?bobsmith1492 - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link
Well, it's not that big a deal getting the voltages on the DFI board; they're not that expensive.Anyway, is there any chance of a follow-up article, possibly with more ram types and maybe a few retail models?
xsilver - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link
Wesley, This "review" was pretty bad due to a number of reasons1) you let the memory makers choose what ram you were going to review
2) You tested memory at voltages that are way above most motherboard's capabilities 3.4 volts? only the DFI can do that .... This is a VALUE roundup.... WTF are you doing with a DFI and 6800 Ultra's?
after what Anand said about the intergrity of anandtech I feel sorry for anand if he is reading this.....
how about you actually get some of your own memory from corsair and stop letting them push you around? what about geil? kingmax? and others?
and test memory at a SANE level of 2.7-2.8v
Teetu - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link
I wish they would have done benchmarks with more modern games. I don't think quake 3 is the most practical bench anymore...At DDR400, you aren't going to see much difference between value and performance. I think if they did use doom 3, hl2, etc as benchmarks a lot of people would just get value ram (single digit fps increase with performance ram).