Athlon 64 Memory: Rewriting the Rules
by Wesley Fink on October 1, 2004 12:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
OCZ 3700 Gold Rev 3
The 3700 Gold Rev. 3, based on Hynix DT-D5 chips, was recently reviewed in OCZ 3700 Gold Rev. 3: DDR500 Value for Athlon 64 & Intel 478. Gold Rev. 3 is the representative for the latest Hynix memory chips, which carry higher speed ratings than Samsung TCCD, but with slower timings in the DDR400 to DDR450 range. Gold Rev. 3 is being marketed as a value RAM by OCZ with very high speed capabilities.3700 Gold has been a very well-known memory product for OCZ, as you can see in our earlier reviews of the original 3700 Gold and 3700 Gold Rev 2. The first two generations of 3700 Gold earned quite a reputation for outstanding overclocked performance, but they were also premium-priced DIMMs. This latest Revision 3 is the first 3700 Gold to be marketed by OCZ as a value DIMM.
Test DIMMs were a pair of PC3700 Gold Rev. 3 in a 1GB kit (2x512MB modules). PC3700 Gold Rev.3 is available as a 512MB kit (2x256MB DIMMs), a 1GB kit (2x512MB), and as individual 256MB and 512MB DIMMs. The 3700 Gold Rev 3 is shipped in the new Orange OCZ package.
OCZ 3700 Gold Rev 3 Specifications
OCZ 3700 Gold Rev 3 Memory Specifications | |
Number of DIMMs & Banks | 2 DS |
DIMM Size Total Memory |
512 MB 1 GB |
Rated Timings | 2.5-3-3-8 at DDR466 |
SPD (Auto) Timings | 2.5-3-3-8 |
Rated Voltage | 2.8V (3.15V Maximum) |
Voltage is specified as 2.8V at the rated DDR466. We found lower voltages worked fine at lower memory speeds. OCZ specifies the highest recommended voltage as 3.15V, which certainly allows for even higher overclocking on the few boards that support this memory voltage. This also provides some headroom if you choose to use the OCZ DDR Booster.
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Bugler - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
I ordered from Newegg today. I did not see a place on their site for just a 512mb stick. I ordered the 1gb kit.http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc...
Bugler - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
saechaka - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
hey bugler where are you ordering your ocz platinum rev. 2 from? is there any way to find a place where you can order 1 512mb stick only?darkwaffle - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
I'm curious, for a socket754 user, is there really any reason why we couldn't (generally) follow these results? I realize that some of the overclocks may not be able to be achieved, but is it safe to say that the modules that perform highly on s939 will also perform highly also on s754 (In comparison to the other modules)?Wesley Fink - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
#32 -Corsair and Kingston DDR400 2-2-2 were both included in our recent 2-2-2 roundup. Frankly we did test both Kingston and Corsair in the early going for these tests and both did quite poorly on the Athlon 64 test bed compared to other recent TCCD modules.
However, the Kingston and Corsair were early TCCD dimms and we are confident more recent dimms from these two major manufacturers would perform more like the OCZ, Geil, and G. Skill. Unfortunately we didn't have those more recent dimms to test, and we felt reporting what we had found would have been very unfair to Corsair and Kingston, who both produce excellent memory products.
ImJacksAmygdala - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
I'm sure OCZ and Geil are great memory for A64, but all I got out of that article was buy OCZ memory, buy Geil Memory, o ya and buy a top of the line OCZ power supply....What about Corsair and Kingston? How do they compete?
This site is smothered with advertisement. Why make it so obvious in the articles? Thanks for the article though...
einsig - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
And re: the robust +12v rails. They are most crucial for A64 overlocking. I have an Enermax with 31A on two +12v rails and it makes the world of difference.einsig - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
One thing that really needs to be stated is that Clawhammer cores automatically set a command rate of 2T at speeds from DDR400 and up. you need to use A64 Tweaker to make the change (can be loaded at startup). I have a Clawhammer 3400+ that has been run on an ASUS K8V Deluxe and MSI K8N Neo Platinum. I was running XMS 2x512 3200LL Corsair, but it didn't want to OC even on the K8N (nothing OCs on the K8V because of the chipset). I now run Crucial ballistix PC4000 and it is incredible, however (as the article states) the command rate of 1T is really ideal. They should just tell people how to set that if they have a Clawhammer.Shinei - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
What's really exciting is that the two DDR600 overclockers are board-limited before they top out in speed (K8N Neo2s go to 300MHz on the RAM). I'd like to see what the RAM could do on a more extreme overclocking board, since it seems like these new RAM chips are capable of pushing on to DDR667 or even higher...With that said, I agree that the prices for this stuff is getting ridonculous. Cheaper RAM means more sales and increased usage of that 8 exobyte storage capacity the Athlon 64 has. ;)
Bugler - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
Thank you AnandTech. I have been waiting for greater clarification since you last recommended OCZ 3700 enhanced bandwidth ram and none could be found. I was balancing between that and ballistix. After today's review, I ordered OCZ Plat, rev 2 for the system I am putting together.Now if we could get some reviews and testing of the newer 90 speed AMD processors, hint, hint...
I appreciate this site very much.