OCZ EL PC2-8000 XTC: Low Latency PLUS DDR2-1100
by Wesley Fink on April 3, 2006 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Product Specifications and Information
OCZ confirmed the use of Micron memory chips for their PC2-8000 EL memory. This new Micron chip is also a variant of the D die provided in 64x8 chips for the 2GB memory kits. OCZ provides this memory as the 1GB DIMMs we are testing in P/N OCZ2P10001GEE. The PC2-8000 EL is also available as 512MB DIMMs - P/N OCZ2P1000512EE. Both the 512MB and the 1GB DIMMs are available as matched pair kits of 1GB and 2GB.
The XTC heatspreaders are certainly a great deal lighter than any non-perforated designs. They also appear to work well in dissipating heat, though to be honest we have found in the past that heat-spreaders provide very little improvement in heat dissipation compared to bare DIMMs. The larger surface area ought to benefit from active cooling and the DIMMs also have a unique look that some might find appealing. However, the bottom line is whether or not this memory lives up to performance expectations, and that's what we're here to find out.
OCZ confirmed the use of Micron memory chips for their PC2-8000 EL memory. This new Micron chip is also a variant of the D die provided in 64x8 chips for the 2GB memory kits. OCZ provides this memory as the 1GB DIMMs we are testing in P/N OCZ2P10001GEE. The PC2-8000 EL is also available as 512MB DIMMs - P/N OCZ2P1000512EE. Both the 512MB and the 1GB DIMMs are available as matched pair kits of 1GB and 2GB.
The XTC heatspreaders are certainly a great deal lighter than any non-perforated designs. They also appear to work well in dissipating heat, though to be honest we have found in the past that heat-spreaders provide very little improvement in heat dissipation compared to bare DIMMs. The larger surface area ought to benefit from active cooling and the DIMMs also have a unique look that some might find appealing. However, the bottom line is whether or not this memory lives up to performance expectations, and that's what we're here to find out.
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DoctorBooze - Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - link
I'm a bit mystified why there's any better performance at any speed over dual-channel DDR2-533 - is it just because the CPU ended up overclocked?Am I right in thinking that CAS 2 for DDR2-533 is the same amount of time as CAS 4 for DDR2-1066?
Also, what's performance like with a single-channel setup using DDR2-1066 since that would also theoretically be a 1:1 configuration, wouldn't it?
Calin - Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - link
The improved performance is based on the fact that RAM is no longer random access memory - it is faster to bring several kilobytes of data forming a single block than to bring several kilobytes of data from separated areas of the memory. And, while the speed to bring 1024 bytes, each 4 bytes from a different area of the memory means that each access is made with delay of (CAS2 + RAS2 + ... + tRAS) multiplied by memory clock is the same as CAS4 + RAS4 + ... + tRAS for a memory that has twice the speed, if you bring a single block, you only need CAS and RAS once, and the rest comes at memory clock, one block at a clock. So, if you make long transfers, you can almost forget about CAS and RAS, and only use the memory speed.So, faster memory with higher CAS (Column Address Select) and RAS (Row Adress Select) timings will still move loads of data faster, even if single bytes will go as fast as with slower memory with lower CAS and RAS
What is CAS and RAS?
A memory is a huge space of addresses. However, you can not access all those addresses at the same time - memory is accessed in blocks formed by rows and columns. In order to access data from memory, you must be in the correct block (row and column). Once in a block, the data from memory can be read by simple commands (selection of address). If the row, column or both changes, the memory must change the block it shows - so, here are the CAS and RAS timings needed for the memory to select a different block.
Visual - Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - link
... or amasingly complexim just standing here and boggling at the complexity of overclocking intel systems. well, it turns out just as simple as amd when i think about it, but the mem ratios that allow the ram to run faster than the cpu fsb (as opposed to only slower like on the athlons) kinda make it too weird to assimilate :p
and with ratios,fsb/cpu/mem frequencies,timings and whatnot to consider at once it does get messy for someone unexperienced like me.
its interesting to see the significant performance differences that the proper settings can bring. in particular, it looks like with a fast memory like this and a proper oc one can get a good 20-30% above stock in gaming performance, and so can match amd systems even with the netburst cpus. who made me think netburst was dead?
also it makes me think if the conroe benches weren't ran with something like this - very fast memory, low latencies, overclocked fsb. cant be bothered to look for your old article on it though, i'll just wait for the next benches to come up.
Calin - Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - link
My ECS K7S5A (built somewhere in 2002 probably) could run my Duron 600 processor at 100 or 133 FSB, and the memory at 100 or 133 FSB for SDR or 200 and 266 for DDR, independent on each other.This is not something new. I remember older systems having the same possibilities.
The Athlons (Socket A Athlons) were able to run memory faster than the FSB, however, there was an important performance loss because of the increased latency. In some cases, an Athlon on 100MHz FSB was slower with 133MHz memory than with 100MHz memory, as the increased bandwidth advantage was negated by increase in latency
Jjoshua2 - Monday, April 3, 2006 - link
On page three HL2 is reported as over 850 fps on 1:2.Wesley Fink - Monday, April 3, 2006 - link
We reran and updated the Half life 2 - Lost Coast results after the article was published. The enthusiastic typing error is now corrected.Barbarossa - Monday, April 3, 2006 - link
Wow, looks fast. I have to wonder if it's available anywhere though. I followed all your links at the top of the article, but those take me to different parts than the one you reviewed, and a quick search at Newegg, ZipZoomFly, and TigerDirect shows that nobody has it in stock.Does this part actually exist or is this just a cherry-picked press release part?
Wesley Fink - Monday, April 3, 2006 - link
This memory is currently available at Atacom.com and possibly other sites. More info is at http://www.atacom.com/program/print_html_new.cgi?c...">http://www.atacom.com/program/print_htm...m_code=M....It is incredibly expensive at $560 for the 2GB kit.
JarredWalton - Monday, April 3, 2006 - link
It's a brand new part, and it's not yet in our pricing engine. The links at the top are generated by key words from our pricing engine and do not always bring up the appropriate parts. The part numbers you'll want are:1x512: OCZ2P1000512EE
2x512: OCZ2P10001GEEK
1x1024: OCZ2P10001GEE
2x1024: OCZ2P10002GEEK
Availability should commence shortly.
Missing Ghost - Monday, April 3, 2006 - link
lmao