OCZ EL DDR PC-4200 Dual Channel Preview

Introduction:

Today we have a look at a "Beta" product from OCZ Technologies; the dual channel kit of 4200EL DDR. OCZ Technologies has begun to ship Beta samples for us to test! This dual-channel kit contains two 256mb sticks, rated at a speed of 533MHz DDR with timings of 3-4-4-8.They are packaged that way because they are "optimized" to work together on a dual channel board, and are especially designed for the Intel 865/875 chipsets. Let’s take a look…

Features:

• ULN Technology: (U)ltra (L)ow (N)oise shielded PCB
• Copper Heat Spreaders
• Lifetime Warranty
• 512MB ( 256MB x 2 modules) or 1GB (512MB x 2 modules) kits
• Based on OCZ brand IC’s
• CL 3-4-4-8
• 266(533) Mhz
• Optimized for dual channel operation
• 2.8 Volts
• 184 Pin Dimm
• Unbuffered

Performance:

Our Test System:

• Intel Pentium 4 2.4C 800fsb CPU (Retail Purchased)
• Asus p4c800e Motherboard
• Zalman 7000A Al-CU HSF
• 2 x 256mb OCZ 4200EL DDR
• ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb
• 2 x 120GB Western Digital SATA Drives In Raid 0
• Antec True Control 550 Power Supply
• Coolermaster ATC 201-SXK Case

One thing that we have not had with most high speed DDR is the ability to run tight timings when running high speed ram at more conventional speeds. Most of the high speed stuff we have tested thus far has a hard time running at cas 2.5 let alone 2. WIth this OCZ 4200 Performance though, we had something that was very welcome… fairly tight timings at lower speeds. Below are the tightest possible stable timings that were able to be achieved at different speeds. All of these timings were achieved using a 2.85 vdimm.

• 200fsb – 2-3-3-6
• 217fsb – 2-3-3-6
• 233fsb – 2.5-4-3-7
• 250fsb – 2.5-4-3-7
• 267fsb – 2.5-4-3-7
• 275fsb – 2.5-4-4-7
• 280fsb – 3-4-4-8

As you can see, this makes for a little more versatility when using different settings for different processor/memory combinations. It should also be mentioned this particular kit contained dimms that were single-sided. This makes for a HUGE difference in certain scores as we tested (compared to our 4000EL review that we did – those were double-sided dimms). Though it should also be noted that the biggest difference was in Sandra’s Unbuffered mem test, which is hardly a real world representative. Nevertheless, we though this important to note.

We tested the ram at stock speeds (533MHz DDR) and found no errors in Memtest. We considered the ram stable enough for testing if we were able to run through 3dMark 2001, Super Pi 2 Mb test and UT 2003 demo without crashing.

Now on to our benchmarks.