Conroe Buying Guide: Feeding the Monster
by Gary Key & Wesley Fink on July 19, 2006 6:20 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
High-Performance DDR2
The availability of high-performance DDR2 memory has dramatically increased in the last couple of months. That is understandable when you consider the introduction of AMD AM2 and Intel Core 2 Duo.
We have recently reviewed the Buffalo, Crucial, and OCZ DDR2 on the 955EE Net-Burst processor. Conroe compatibility was validated with those modules and tests were also performed on the Corsair, Kingston, and Mushkin High-Performance DDR2 which were in the lab for review.
To be considered High-Performance, a memory had to be rated at DDR2-1000 or above, and the memory had to be completely stable at DDR2-1067, which will be the next official DDR2 memory speed. These 2GB kits represent the best-performing DDR2 memory you can currently buy for the Core 2 Duo or AM2 platforms.
Each 2GB kit was evaluated for the fastest memory timings that could be achieved at each standard DDR2 memory speed - DDR2-400, DDR2-533, DDR2-667, DDR2-800, DDR2-1067, and the highest 1:2 (DDR2-1067 base) memory speed that could be achieved.
Buffalo Firestix PC2-8000
It is hard to miss the bright red heat spreaders of Buffalo Firestix. Buffalo also reaches DDR2-1100 at the 2:1 (DDR2-1067) ratio, delivering performance that is on par with others in this stratospheric club.
Corsair CM2X1024-8500C5
Corsair DDR2-1066 2GB kits have been our standard for high-performance memory since the launch of the AM2 platform. You can clearly see why we like the performance of this Corsair 2GB kit. It generally reaches the same timings as other top DDR2 in this roundup, but voltages required at each step are generally slightly lower than the average for the group. Corsair also reaches to DDR2-1104 form the 1067 ratio, which is one of the highest results we have seen from DDR2 memory.
Crucial Ballistix CL1116N.LW
The Crucial heatspreaders may be the ugliest color you have ever seen, but the performance of Crucial's Ballistix line is generally pure gold. As the retail arm of Micron, you would expect the Ballistix to be the best-of-the-best, but performance is generally toward the bottom of this top-performing group. All of the other high-performance 2GB kits made it to DDR2-1100 or higher, where the Crucial topped out around 1084. The results, in the end, are all very close, and you will never be disappointed if you do choose the Crucial - particularly if you get some of the special pricing Crucial is famous for providing at their web site.
The availability of high-performance DDR2 memory has dramatically increased in the last couple of months. That is understandable when you consider the introduction of AMD AM2 and Intel Core 2 Duo.
| High Performance DDR2 Specifications | |||||
| Manufacturer | Description (Memory Chips) |
Rated Speed |
Rated Timings |
Rated Voltage |
Cost (2x1GB) |
| Buffalo FireStix |
FireStix PC2-8000 (Micron) |
DDR2-1000 | 5-5-5-15 | 2.1V | $432 |
| Corsair XMS2 |
CM2X1024-8500C5 (Micron) |
DDR2-1067 | 5-5-5-15 | 2.2V | $453 |
| Crucial Ballistix |
CL1116N.LW (Micron) |
DDR2-1000 | 5-5-5-15 | 2.2V | $455 |
| Kingston HyperX |
KHX8500D2K2/1G (Micron) |
DDR2-1067 | 5-5-5-15 | 2.2V | $226 (2x512MB) |
| Mushkin Redline |
2GB XP2-8000 Redline (Micron) |
DDR2-1000 | 4-5-4-11 | 2.2V | $430 |
| OCZ PC2-8000 EL |
PC2-8000 EL Platinum (Micron) |
DDR2-1000 | 4-5-4-15 | 2.2V | $445 |
We have recently reviewed the Buffalo, Crucial, and OCZ DDR2 on the 955EE Net-Burst processor. Conroe compatibility was validated with those modules and tests were also performed on the Corsair, Kingston, and Mushkin High-Performance DDR2 which were in the lab for review.
To be considered High-Performance, a memory had to be rated at DDR2-1000 or above, and the memory had to be completely stable at DDR2-1067, which will be the next official DDR2 memory speed. These 2GB kits represent the best-performing DDR2 memory you can currently buy for the Core 2 Duo or AM2 platforms.
Each 2GB kit was evaluated for the fastest memory timings that could be achieved at each standard DDR2 memory speed - DDR2-400, DDR2-533, DDR2-667, DDR2-800, DDR2-1067, and the highest 1:2 (DDR2-1067 base) memory speed that could be achieved.
Buffalo Firestix PC2-8000
It is hard to miss the bright red heat spreaders of Buffalo Firestix. Buffalo also reaches DDR2-1100 at the 2:1 (DDR2-1067) ratio, delivering performance that is on par with others in this stratospheric club.
| Buffalo Firestix - 2x1GB DDR2-1000 |
||
| CPU Ratio | Memory Speed |
Best Memory Timings (Voltage) |
| (4:3) | 400 DDR2 | 3-2-2-5 1.8V |
| (1:1) | 533 DDR2 | 3-2-3-8 2.1V |
| (4:5) | 667 DDR2 | 3-3-3-9 2.1V |
| (2:3) | 800 DDR2 | 3-3-4-10 2.1V |
| (1:2) | 1067 DDR2 | 4-4-5-14 2.3V |
| Highest Mem Speed (1:2) |
1100 DDR2 | 5-5-5-15 2.35V |
Corsair CM2X1024-8500C5
Corsair DDR2-1066 2GB kits have been our standard for high-performance memory since the launch of the AM2 platform. You can clearly see why we like the performance of this Corsair 2GB kit. It generally reaches the same timings as other top DDR2 in this roundup, but voltages required at each step are generally slightly lower than the average for the group. Corsair also reaches to DDR2-1104 form the 1067 ratio, which is one of the highest results we have seen from DDR2 memory.
| Corsair XMS8505v1.2 - 2x1GB DDR2-1000 |
||
| CPU Ratio | Memory Speed |
Best Memory Timings (Voltage) |
| (4:3) | 400 DDR2 | 3-2-2-5 1.8V |
| (1:1) | 533 DDR2 | 3-2-2-8 2.1V |
| (4:5) | 667 DDR2 | 3-2-3-3-9 2.1V |
| (2:3) | 800 DDR2 | 3-3-3-11 2.15V |
| (1:2) | 1067 DDR2 | 4-4-4-14 2.2V |
| Highest Mem Speed (1:2) |
1104 DDR2 | 5-5-5-15 2.35V |
Crucial Ballistix CL1116N.LW
The Crucial heatspreaders may be the ugliest color you have ever seen, but the performance of Crucial's Ballistix line is generally pure gold. As the retail arm of Micron, you would expect the Ballistix to be the best-of-the-best, but performance is generally toward the bottom of this top-performing group. All of the other high-performance 2GB kits made it to DDR2-1100 or higher, where the Crucial topped out around 1084. The results, in the end, are all very close, and you will never be disappointed if you do choose the Crucial - particularly if you get some of the special pricing Crucial is famous for providing at their web site.
| Crucial Ballistix - 2x1GB DDR2-1000 |
||
| CPU Ratio | Memory Speed |
Best Memory Timings (Voltage) |
| (4:3) | 400 DDR2 | 3-2-2-5 1.8V |
| (1:1) | 533 DDR2 | 3-2-3-8 2.0V |
| (4:5) | 667 DDR2 | 3-3-3-10 2.1V |
| (2:3) | 800 DDR2 | 4-3-4-11 2.1V |
| (1:2) | 1067 DDR2 | 4-4-5-14 2.35V |
| Highest Mem Speed (1:2) |
1084 DDR2 | 5-4-5-15 2.35V |
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Gary Key - Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - link
I am surprised I did not see this posted on a news site somewhere announcing Intel has a X6600. ;-) The line was corrected this morning to (X6800, E6700, E6600) although late last night my mind was probably thinking unlocked E6600 equals X6600 for some reason. Thanks for the notice! :)
drarant - Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - link
In recent months the memory market has moved from a 1GB kit to a 2BG kit being the common memory configuration.2GB*
Excellent article, I'm assuming the OCing results were default voltages on the chipsets and/or the cpu?
drarant - Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - link
page 11, 2nd to last sentence*Patsoe - Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - link
To be honest, I would say it's quite different!
The storage controllers have been changed a lot... there is now a port-multiplier type of SiI chip that connects to one of the ICH7 ports, which provides driverless (!) RAID. Also, the previous board had a Marvell SATA/PATA controller instead of the JMicron controller.
For another difference: the new board is missing the PCIe 4x slot, too.
Anyway, thanks for the great overview! And it's amazing how fast after launch you got this up.
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - link
Thanks for your comment. We added information to the P5W-DH page with a little more info on the differences from the earlier board.nicolasb - Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - link
...is what is the actual impact on system performance of different memory speeds and timings? Possibly you guys actually derive a direct erotic thrill simply from knowing that your memory timings are 4-3-3-9 ;-) but what the rest of us care about is whether any given timings actually provide a tangible improvement to running applications. If I spend an extra £200 on memory, am I going to get an extra 10fs in a certain game, or just an extra 1fps if I'm lucky? That's what I want to know.Conroe is a new chip and it is by no means obvious (to me, anyway) whether the speed/latency of the memory will have a greater or lesser impact on the performance of the system than is the case for Netburst or A64 chips.
So, how about re-running some of your benchmarks on one particular board and producing results for different memory speeds and latencies?
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - link
The original plan was to publish a Conroe memory article prior to this huge motherboard and memory roundup. The move forward of the Conroe launch by two weeks shifted our schedule quite a bit, as we discussed in the Buying Guide. we have found the timings DDR2 memory can achieve give a rough idea of the performance hierarchy on Conroe. That is 1067 at 4-4-4 is a bit faster than 800 at 3-3-3 is faster than 667 3-2-3. 667 is generally faster than nything slower regardless of timings.With 13 DDR2 kits it was impossible to do proper and complete performance testing on all the memory on Conroe and still deliver an article when you want to read it. There will definitely be followup reviews of memory on Conroe anwsering your questions in detail. We knew there would be complaints from some, but we also hoped you could understnad the roundup is posting 4 days after an early Conroe launch - and you can't even buy Core 2 Duo until 7/27 or later.
We wanted to provide solid info as soon as possible for those planning a Conroe purchase. We thought our finding that almost any Elpida value DDR2 will do DDR2-800 4-3-3 at about 2.2v was big news you would want to know, we will fill in the rest of the performance data as soon as we can.
As it is the roundup is over 15,000 words and one of the largest articles ever published at AT - in word length - and we really tried to be brief in each review. We really like giving our readers exactly what they want, but sometimes the realities of time and volume shift our priorities.
Tanclearas - Thursday, July 20, 2006 - link
Although I can understand what you're saying, maybe the following should not have been included in the introductory page.I guess the only surprise was that the comparison wasn't there. :P
Honestly, I tried to jump right to that section only to find rather useless comparisons of ridiculously expensive memory (which I won't buy) and "value" (read cheap) memory (which I won't buy). Also, can you really tell me that it was much of a surprise that the expensive memory all topped out at roughly the same speed (~1100, 5-5/4-5-15)? Nor am I particularly surprised the value memory could overclock reasonably well, but how about tests of the memory that I think most of your readers are likely to buy? I've been looking at DDR2, and you can get memory rated at DDR2-800 for a little more than the DDR2-667/533 variety, and still a lot less than the DDR2-1000 modules.
I know that you were pressed for time, especially with the launch being pushed forward. I just think (and it is only an opinion) that other tests should have been given priority over the ones you've completed.
kmmatney - Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - link
Also, what motherboard was used for the DDR tests? Often, value RAM is paired with a "value" motherboard. Value RAM may not look so well when paired with a value motherboard. I'm wondering how cheap we can go for reasonable peformance :)Gary Key - Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - link
We stated at the end of page 18 that we will be publishing performance results of the value memory roundup shortly. The amount of time required to test these seven modules at four different settings in several different applications was incredible and warrants a separate article update.