PCSTATS     
[X]   Directory of
Guides & Reviews

Beginners Guides
Motherboards by Brand
Weekly Newsletter
Archived Newsletters

+70 MORE Beginner GUIDES....
Buffalo Firestix FSX5000V DDR Memory Review
Buffalo Firestix FSX5000V DDR Memory Review - PCSTATS
Buffalo Technology is gearing up for some tough competition in the high-end memory market, and their secret weapons are the Firestix.
 78% Rating:   
Filed under: Memory Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Buffalo Technology Aug 05 2004   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > Memory > Buffalo Technology Firestix FSX5000V

Buffalo Firestix FSX5000V DDR Memory Review

Even with all the changes occuring on the Intel platform this summer (PCI-Express, DDR2 RAM, socket 775 CPUs, etc.) DDR memory's future is still very bright. After all AMD systems from the AthlonXP through to the Athlon64 use DDR, as do all socket 478 Intel-based motherboards. With this in mind, there are still plenty of enthusiasts hungry for fast DDR that overclocks even faster still!

Buffalo Technology is gearing up for some tough competition in the high-end memory market, and their secret weapons are the new dual channel DDR Buffalo Firestix modules.

Buffalo's new series of DDR RAM comes with a snazzy new name, some bright red heatspreaders, and modules like the ones we are testing today which are rated to run at 250 MHz, while maintaining 3-4-4-8 memory timings, at a voltage of 2.7V. For this review PCstats is testing a pair of 512MB PC4000 CL3 DDR modules Buffalo call the FSX5000V-512M.

Consider the bright red heatspreaders as nice protection for the electrical components on the PCB. Heatspreaders really do very little for memory that runs at stock speeds.

With the heatspreaders carefully removed, we find that Buffalo are using Hynix D43 memory DRAM on these Firestix PC4000 DIMM's. Most other memory makers are also using this particular DRAM because it is pretty fast. This means that for the Buffalo Firestix to pull ahead of the pack, the PCB these memory DRAMs are soldered onto better be something special!

According to Hynix, the HY5DU568228T-D43 DRAM is only rated to run at 200 MHz with 3-3-3-8 memory timings, at 2.5V. Again, most manufacturers have figured out that raising the voltages just a bit, they can drastically increase the clock rate! It looks like manufacturers are now employing overclockers tricks to get higher speeds. ;-)

Those who read PCStats regularly know that all current high speed DDR memory is built specifically for Pentium 4 systems. Knowing that, weren't anticipating anything out of the ordinary on the Athlon64 3200+ (socket 754) test system. However, that didn't stop us from trying, so the first thing we did was to run the memory with aggressive timings at 200 MHz, and that was a bad move. Even tightening the Firestix up to 2.5-3-3-7 caused the system fail POST. After lowering the timings back to default, the Athlon64 system came back to life. The Firestix were benchmarked with 3-4-4-8 timings for all tests on the Athlon64 system... now onto the overclocking!

Overclocking with Buffalo's Firestix DDR

Lowering the multiplier to 8x, we began to raise the motherboard clock speed slowly to 212 MHz. Next, the memory voltage was increased to 2.7V in order to stabilize things, and on we went.... but the Athlon64 overclocking adventure came to an abrupt halt at 214 MHz. Even raising the voltage to 2.8V didn't help the situation, the memory had simply hit the wall.

With the knowledge that the Buffalo Firestix are specifically built to excel on an Intel Pentium 4 system, we had higher expectations for the Firestix FSX5000V DDR in the next round of tests. Just for fun I again tried to tighten the timings, but the best the Firestix could handle was 3-3-3-8 at 200 MHz. With virtually no performance difference between 3-3-3-8 and 3-4-4-8, we left the memory at stock timings and started to overclock.

The Buffalo Firestix showed some instability at 205 MHz FSB, but jacking up the memory voltage to 2.7V solved that issue. After that little bump, the overclocking went by pretty smoothly, and we were able to reach the Firestix 250 MHz rating quite easily. At 255 MHz the voltage was increased to 2.8V, and after that the Firestix were pushed all the way to 261 MHz! Next up, the benchmarks!

© 2023 PCSTATS.com Next Page >

 

Contents of Article: Buffalo Technology Firestix FSX5000V
 Pg 1.  — Buffalo Firestix FSX5000V DDR Memory Review
 Pg 2.  System Spec's and Benchmarks
 Pg 3.  Benchmarks: PCMark2002, PCMark04
 Pg 4.  Benchmarks: 3DMark2001, X2: The Threat
 Pg 5.  Benchmarks: UT2003, Memory comparison, Conclusion
 Pg 6.  Maximum DDR Overclocking Tests

 
Hardware Sections 


 
PCSTATS Network Features Information About Us Contact
FrostyTech
PCSTATS Newsletter
Tech Glossary
Technology WebSite Listings
News Archives
(Review RSS Feed)
Site Map
PCstats Wallpaper
About Us
Privacy Policy
Advertise on PCSTATS

How's Our Driving?
© Copyright 1999-2023 www.pcstats.com All rights reserved. Privacy policy and Terms of Use.