Value RAM Roundup: Computing On a Budget

OCZ PC3200 Gold: "Value BH5"

When OCZ submitted three different memories for this Value RAM roundup, we first thought it was overkill and an attempt to hijack the roundup. However, as we looked closer at the three memories and the benchmark results with all 3, it is clear that these are memories aimed at 3 different market segments. While all three meet our requirement of costing less than $200 for a Gigabyte, the PC3200 Premier is the more traditional Value RAM that will work on almost any motherboard. The second OCZ memory, PC3200 Gold, will appeal to the enthusiast - particularly those enthusiasts who foam at the mouth over OCZ VX at 3.6V.

OCZ PC3200 Gold is sold as a 1 GB kit with two 512MB DIMMs at a price of about $195. That is where the Value designation ends because this value memory is rated at 2-2-2-5 timings and uses BH5 memory chips that have miraculously risen from their memory grave. OCZ referred to PC3200 Gold as Value BH5 and tells us that they are built with currently available BH5 chips from Winbond, which are manufactured on the old BH5 dies. Those of you who may wonder why BH5 is a memory legend have only to look at our test results to see why this is the case.

Fitting the Gold name, OCZ uses gold-colored heatspreaders on the 3200 Gold. Memory chips are Winbond BH5 based on old memory dies.

Specifications

OCZ PC3200 Gold is the only memory in the Value RAM roundup to be rated at 2-2-2-5 timings.

OCZ PC3200 Gold (DDR400) Memory Specifications
Number of DIMMs & Banks	2 DS
DIMM Size Total Memory	512 MB 1GB
Rated Timings	2-2-2-5 at DDR400
SPD (Auto) Timings	2-3-2-5
Rated Voltage	2.6V

The SPD is set for "auto" timings to 2-3-2-5. To achieve full 2-2-2 timings, you need to adjust memory timings in BIOS. This is the first opportunity that we have had to test BH5 with high memory voltages. The DFI nForce4 SLI has adjustments to 4.0V in BIOS, so we were able to see for ourselves if the BH5 legends were really true.

Test Results

3.4V is hardly the kind of voltages available on most motherboards - particularly those boards that might use Value RAM. To get this kind of voltage, you need a production DFI nForce4 board - Ultra at about $133 or SLI for $184 to $215. You can also achieve these voltages on many motherboards with an OCZ DDR Booster at about $40. What you can do with voltage and BH5, however, is amazing.

OCZ PC3200 Gold (DDR400) - 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	2-2-2-6 2.6V 1T	568.9	INT 2984 FLT 2960	INT 6100 FLT 6095	81	120.0
11x218	436 DDR	2-2-2-6 2.8V 1T	580.0	INT 3053 FLT 3132	INT 6486 FLT 6413	81	122.3
10x240	480 DDR	2-2-2-6 3.1V 1T	596.7	INT 3234 FLT 3241	INT 6731 FLT 6769	80	124.6
11x255 (2.8GHz)	Highest CPU/Mem Performance 510 DDR	2-2-2-7 3.4V 1T	636.5	INT 3359 FLT 3517	INT 7575 FLT 7493	69	133.5

To be considered stable for test purposes, Quake3 benchmark, UT2003 Demo, Super PI, Aquamark 3, and Comanche 4 had to complete without incident. Any of these, and in particular Super PI, will crash a less-than stable memory configuration.

The original BH5 was great up to about DDR450 at decent timings. Above that, it quickly gave out of range - or at least we thought it did in those days. It appears that BH5 with voltage allows 2-2-2 timings to be maintained to levels over DDR500. Frankly, for most users searching for Value RAM, this OCZ PC3200 Gold should be considered as very good and useful to about DDR450 to DDR460, at voltages of 2.9V and lower with very good 2-2-2 to 2.5-3-2 timings. Mad overclockers can consider this an incredible bargain. Feed this value BH5 the voltage and it will deliver at 2-2-2 timings. If you have one of the DFI nForce4 boards, this is one of the memories that can show off what high memory voltage can do.

We have found Aida benchmarks 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.

OCZ PC3200 Gold (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	2-2-2-6 2.6V 1T	5892	2027	45.8
11x218	436 DDR	2-2-2-6 2.8V 1T	6275	2135	43.4
10x240	480 DDR	2-2-2-6 3.1V 1T	6803	2323	39.5
11x255 (2.8GHz)	Highest CPU/Mem Performance 510 DDR	2-2-2-7 3.4V 1T	7268	2460	37.0

Maintaining a constant CPU Speed of 2.4GHz and constant memory timings of 2-2-2, we measured the impact of increasing the Memory Speed from 200 to 240, a 20% increase. Both Memory Read and Memory Write performance increased by about 15%, while Latency improved by a similar 14%. This translated into improvement in game FPS from 4% to 5% at a constant CPU speed.