OCZ PC3200 Premier

In the past two years, OCZ has moved from relative obscurity to becoming one of the most widely recognized names in enthusiast products. Today, OCZ markets power supplies, heat sinks, memory voltage boosters, and thermal compounds, but OCZ is still best known for their enthusiast memory. Recently, OCZ has also been quite innovative in new product introductions, including products like our current RAM Speed champ, OCZ VX, which requires a very non-standard 3.5 to 3.6V to really shine.

What many forget is that like Corsair, Kingston, Mushkin, and other full-line memory companies, OCZ has a very large line of value products. The Premier Series is a Value line, and the PC3200 Premier is a typical Value product, with a web selling price as low as $121 at mWave.

OCZ uses cheaper packaging for their Premier line than their high-end products, but that fits the target, which is low cost. Like Mushkin, OCZ chose to include heatspreaders on their Value product; in this case, copper-colored heatspreaders. The Premier test DIMMs came as a matched pair of 512MB DIMMs in a 1GB kit.

PC3200 Premier is built with PSC memory chips, a Taiwan company that provides chips for value products from several memory manufacturers.

Specifications

OCZ rates their PC3200 Premier at the more aggressive CAS 2.5 timings at DDR400 and stock voltage.

 OCZ PC3200 Premier (DDR400) Memory Specifications
Number of DIMMs & Banks 2 DS
DIMM Size
Total Memory
512 MB
1GB
Rated Timings 2.5-3-3-7 at DDR400
SPD (Auto) Timings 2.5-3-3-7
Rated Voltage 2.6V

Test Results

The OCZ PC3200 Premier is the first Value RAM we have tested that reaches DDR480, our next test point on the 2.4GHz ratios. Our samples actually booted as high as DDR500, but memtest86, Super Pi and games were not stable beyond DDR480, regardless of voltage.

OCZ PC3200 Premier (DDR400) - 2 x 512Mb Double-Bank
CPU Ratio at 2.4GHz Memory
Speed
Memory Timings
& Voltage
Quake3
fps
Sandra UNBuffered Sandra Standard
Buffered
Super PI 2M places
(time in sec)
Wolfenstein - Radar - Enemy Territory fps
12x200 400 DDR 2.5-3-2-6
2.6V 1T
535.0 INT 2637
FLT 2826
INT 6072
FLT 6025
83 112.4
11x218 436 DDR 2.5-3-3-6
2.7V 1T
538.5 INT 2803
FLT 2969
INT 6481
FLT 6410
82 113.0
10x240 480 DDR 2.5-3-3-6
2.9V 1T
546.6 INT 2901
FLT 3136
INT 6708
FLT 6626
81 114.7
11x240
(2.64GHz)
Highest CPU/Mem Performance 2.5-3-3-6
2.9V 1T
586.0 INT 2976
FLT 3214
INT 7083
FLT 7007
75 124.1
To be considered stable for test purposes, Quake3 benchmark, UT2003 Demo, Super PI, Aquamark 3, and Comanche 4 had to complete without incident. Any of these, and in particular Super PI, will crash a less-than stable memory configuration.

The Premier actually did a bit better than specified at DDR400 with stable 2.5-3-2-6 timings. It is also worth noting that Premier was stable with CAS 2.5 timings all the way to the memory speed limit of DDR480. This is particularly outstanding performance for a memory that actually sells for $121.

Aida 32 is now available as Everest Home Edition, a free download from www.lavalys.com. Everest has been very useful in measuring read/write performance and memory latency.

OCZ PC3200 Premier (DDR400) 2x512Mb Double-Bank
Everest 1.51
CPU Ratio at 2.4GHz Memory Speed Memory Timings
& Voltage
Everest READ
MB/s
Everest WRITE
MB/s
Everest Latency
ns
12x200 400 DDR 2.5-3-2-6
2.6V 1T
5795 1948 47.1
11x218 436 DDR 2.5-3-3-6
2.7V 1T
6122 1998 44.6
10x240 480 DDR 2.5-3-3-6
2.9V 1T
6661 2217 44.3
11x240
(2.64GHz)
Highest CPU/Mem Performance 2.5-3-3-6
2.9V 1T
6668 2710 40.3

With OCZ Premier covering a broader range of memory speeds from 400 to 480, there is more potential to see the true impact of memory speed on performance. With memory timings at a consistent 2.5-3-3 and CPU speed at a constant 2.4GHz, any performance deltas are the result of true performance differences. As we move from 400 to 480 - a 20% speed increase - memory read improves by 15%, write improves by almost 40%, and latency drops by about 17%.

However, these improvements in synthetic memory benchmarks are not reflected by similar improvements in benchmarks with real games. Improving memory speed by 20% - from 400 to 480 - at the same CPU speed improves gaming performance by just 2% to 3%. Clearly, we are getting a better performance increase than this in real-world performance with faster CPU speed. You can see this in the 10% CPU speed increase from 10x240 to 11x240 at the same memory timings. This 10% CPU Speed increase improves gaming FPS by about 8%.

Mushkin EM Series PC3200 OCZ PC3200 Value Series: "Value VX"
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  • dvinnen - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link

    Anandtech seems to be reading my mind. My XP rig died on me so I'm looking to make a cheap A64 system now. That OCZ value looks hot and fits nicly in my price range. Thanks for the artical.
  • MarkHark - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link

    I would like to know how far you could push the "Value VX" on 2.8 to 2.9 Volts. They seem a very nice buy at a very nice price, but I don't feel comfortable with the idea of working at voltages way beyond spec, and I don't think I'd be willing to do so even if I opted for a DFI mobo.
  • MAME - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link

    how would these compare?

    http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc...
  • Phlargo - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link

    http://www.atacom.com/program/atacom.cgi?SEARCH=SE...

    Deal forums, my friend.
  • RockSolid - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link

    Where can I buy the VX Value, I haven't been able to find it anywhere?
  • StuckMojo - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link

    doh!

    s/my clock/me clock/
  • StuckMojo - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link

    Odd. My Mushkin value 3200 runs at FSB 222MHz no problem, letting my clock my 90nm a64 3000+ to 2.4 without issue.
  • Pollock - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link

    I was starting to think this article would never appear.
  • Phlargo - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link

    Wow - this is a fabulous article! I've been looking for something exactly like this.

    I must be honest though, I ordered my gig of OCZ PC3200 Value VX last Thursday, so this is always nice to read.. especially when it gets to try my new DFI Nf4 mobo. Now where's that Venice CPU I've been waiting for?
  • acejj26 - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link

    Does anyone proofread these articles?? I found no less than 6 silly errors (i.e. 12x450). Please reread your articles before submitting them...the errors take away from the otherwise quality writeup.

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