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TwinMOS Speed Premium PC3200 DDR Review
TwinMOS Speed Premium PC3200 DDR Review - PCSTATS
Twinmos Speed Premium PC3200 modules are rated to run 200 MHz with 2.5-3-3-8 memory timings.
 75% Rating:   
Filed under: Memory Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Twinmos Feb 06 2005   M. Dowler  
Home > Reviews > Memory > Twinmos Speed Premium PC3200

Overclocking and Benchmark Setup

PCSTATS tests DDR memory on two major CPU platforms - the AMD Athlon64 and the Intel Pentium 4 - because RAM behaves differently with each processor architecture. For instance, Intel users tend to run their memory at high speeds with high latency settings, and in general that works quite well for Intel-based computers. It would be detrimental to system performance if you were to run the same DDR memory settings on an AMD Athlon64 system, since latency plays a much larger role in system performance.

Because much of our audience is made up of enthusiasts, PCSTATS also runs overclocking tests so you can get an idea on how far the memory will go.

On both Intel and AMD test PCs, we're only interested in seeing how high we can go with the memory running 1:1, as running with other dividers puts the overclocking bottleneck elsewhere, and not with the system memory. On the Pentium 4 test system we sometimes use higher latencies in our tests, as latencies are not as important. With the AMD Athlon64 test system, the DDR RAM latency must run at 2-2-2-5, or the memory's tightest possible timings, as quick access is more important to the CPU design.

Overclocking on a Budget

TwinMOS memory has been pretty good to us in the past on occasion, but we're really not sure what to anticipate here. By default, these Twinmos Speed Premium PC3200 modules are rated to run 200 MHz with 2.5-3-3-8 memory timings; we thought we'd try and see if we could tighten things up a bit...

As usual, we first plugged the memory into the Athlon64 test system and tightened the timings to 2-2-2-5, which proved to be a mistake. The system refused to POST no matter what voltage we fed the DDR. The TwinMOS modules only functioned when we lowered the memory timings to the default SPD of 2.5-3-3-8, which is somewhat disappointing.

Starting at 200 MHz we slowly raised the clock speed of the motherboard and at 209 MHz ran into a few problems. Raising the memory voltage to 2.8V stabilized the system. In the end we were able to run the memory all the way up to 223 MHz with the default 2.5-3-3-8 memory timings. Not the greatest overclocking results we've seen, but not bad for 'value' level memory.

Considering the mild overclocking results from the AMD test system, we didn't have high expectations from the memory on the Intel test rig. As we saw before, we were not able to run the memory at the most aggressive 2-2-2-5 timings; only default SPD timings would allow our Intel test system to boot.

Raising the FSB of the motherboard in 2-3 MHz intervals, we were able to hit a top speed of 245 MHz at 2.8V. Again, it's not the highest overclock we've ever seen, but it's certainly not bad for mainstream memory.

Test system specs

PCStats Test System Specs:
Athlon64 test system Pentium 4 test system
Processor:

AMD Athlon64 3200+

Intel Pentium 4 2.4C

Clock Speed:

10 x 200 MHz = 2 GHz
9 x 223 MHz = 2.01 GHz

12 x 200 MHz = 2.4 GHz
12 x 245 MHz = 2.94 GHz

Motherboards:

Asus K8V DLX, K8T800

ABIT IC7-MAX3, i875P

Videocard:

Asus Radeon X800XT PE

Asus Radeon X800XT PE

Memory:

2x 512MB PDP Systems Patriot PDC1G3200+XBLK
2x 512MB Corsair TwinX3200XL PRO
2x 512MB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Limited Ed.
2x 512MB Corsair TwinX1024-4400C25PT
2x 512MB TwinMOS Speed Premium PC3200

Hard Drive: 40GB WD Special Ed 20GB WD HDD
CDROM: MSI X48 CD-RW/DVD-ROM NEC 52x CD-ROM
PowerSupply: Vantec Stealth 470W PC Power & Cooling 510W
Software Setup

WindowsXP Build 2600
VIA 4in1 4.55V
Catalyst 4.11

WindowsXP Build 2600
Intel INF 5.02.1012
Catalyst 4.11

Benchmarks

Winstone 2004
SiSoft Sandra 2004
PCMark04
3DMark2001SE
X2: The Threat
UT2003

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Contents of Article: Twinmos Speed Premium PC3200
 Pg 1.  TwinMOS Speed Premium PC3200 DDR Review
 Pg 2.  — Overclocking and Benchmark Setup
 Pg 3.  Benchmarks: Winstone 2004 and Sandra
 Pg 4.  Benchmarks: PCMark04 and 3DMark2001SE
 Pg 5.  Benchmarks: X2, UT2003
 Pg 6.  Overclocking Comparison and Conclusions

 
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