Microsoft would lead you to believe that
happily one 1GB of memory, but anyone that’s actually used it will tell you
that you need double that.
What about a power user though? After you’ve loaded in the
OS, Firewall, Anti-virus, email, IM, and the rest of the applications, you’re
not left with a huge amount for the application you do want to run, especially
if it is a memory hungry one like photo or video editing.
For those memory-hungry users, memory manufacturers have
started releasing 4GB Non-ECC memory kits. We’re looking at one of these today,
the Crucial CT2KIT25664AA53E.
{mospagebreak title= Packaging, looks and specs}
Review: Crucial 4GB CT2KIT25664AA53E memory review
Reviewer: Jon “Bob The Junkie” Aubrey
Reviewed on: 18th April 2007
Product cost: $467.99 (€414.07, £281.99)
Product provided by: Crucial
(http://www.crucial.com/uk)
Edited by: Jason Hambly
Packaging and looks (4.3 / 5.0):
The CT2KIT25664AA53E came in Crucial’s standard cardboard
box. The memory itself is encased inside static proof bags. Although it’s not
the prettiest packaging it should withstand fairly rough treatment in shipping.
Crucial have decided not to add heat spreaders to the
CT2KIT25664AA53E (more about this later) so they look just like any other type
of memory. On each stick of memory there are several stickers with information
about the module on them.
Specifications:
- Module
Type: DD2 - Module
Size: 4GB kit (2 x 2GB) - Package:
240-pin DIMM - Speed:
DDR2 PC2-4200 533MHz - CAS
Latencies: 4-4-4-12 - Specifications:
Non-ECC, Unbuffered, 1.8V, 256MB x 64
{mospagebreak title=Overclocking}
Over-clocking ( 4.8 / 5.0):
As the CT2KIT25664AA53E kit is designed to run at the same
speed as a stock 1066 FSB processor and does not feature heat spreaders, we
were not expecting a huge amount of over-clocking potential with this kit.
Oh how wrong we were.
We started off by raising the FSB on the processor, keeping
the memory on a 1:1 ratio, using stock 1.8 voltage on the memory. We managed to
get an over-clock of 580MHz (from the stock 533MHz) before getting memory
errors in Memtestx86. As the modules were still cool to the touch, we upped the
memory voltage to 1.92 volts, which stabilised the modules. Using 1.92 volts,
we then managed to push the modules to 660MHz before getting memory errors. At
this point the modules were getting quite hot to the touch, so we didn’t try
upping the voltage anymore. With some after market heat spreaders and some more
voltage, we’re sure these modules could be pushed even higher.
We did not adjust the latencies on the memory to try to get
a higher over-clock. There are plenty of higher-latency modules that will allow
a high over-clock at their default speeds out on the market. We were simply
interested in how far we could push these modules at their default latencies.
To test if the memory was stable after an over-clock, we ran
memtestx86 for 8 hours looking for errors. For the final test, we ran
memtestx86 for 22 hours against the memory to prove it was stable.
{mospagebreak title=Performance}
Performance (4.6 / 5.0):
Test System:
Intel E6300 processor running at 1.86GHz / 2.3GHz
Intel ‘Bad Axe 2’ motherboard
Crucial 4GB CT2KIT25664AA53E memory (4-4-4-12)
Leadtek Nvidia 7800GTX 256MB graphics card
Maxtor SATA 80GB 7200RPM hard drive
Enermax ELT500AWT power supply
Microsoft Vista Ultimate edition x64
CPU-Z – version 1.39
SiSoftware Sandra XI – version 2007.4.11.22 x64
ScienceMark – version 2.0 build 171102
Lavalys Everest – version 4.00.976
Memtach – version 0.39 Alpha
CPU-Z
The first port of call for testing any memory is CPU-Z to
verify that they are being run at the speeds advertised. As you can see, at
stock speeds they were running at 533MHz, but when over-clocked we pushed them
to 660MHz! Please note that CPU-Z shows the memory frequency before the memory
speed is doubled, so the below figures have to be doubled to get their DDR
speeds.
SiSoftware Sandra
memory bandwidth
Over-clocking the CT2KIT25664AA53E increases Sandra’s memory
bandwidth score by roughly 30% – corresponding to the 30% over-clock on the
processor.
SiSoftware Sandra
memory latency
Over-clocking sees the random access time drop by about 23%,
although you can’t really see this on the graph.
ScienceMark memory
test
Strangely, our ScienceMark screenshot did not want to
display the text correctly from
information is shown though, over-clocking increased the bandwidth from
4614.82MB/s to 5932.44MB/s, an increase of 29%.
Lavalys Everest
Everest’s results were a mixed bag. Although memory read
speeds increased by over-clocking by about 30%, the write and copy speeds only
increased by 23-24%. Memory latency was definitely an interesting result, as it
only improved by 8% over the stock speed.
|
Test |
Stock (533Mhz) |
Over-clock (660MHz) |
|
|
|
|
|
Memory Read |
5977 MB/s |
7682 MB/s |
|
Memory Write |
4804 MB/s |
5948 MB/s |
|
Memory Copy |
4524 MB/s |
5643 MB/s |
|
Memory latency |
77.8 ns |
71.8 ns |
Memtach
Overall memory results were much
better when over-clocked, and the Memtach testing finished almost 2.5 seconds
faster.
{mospagebreak title=Price and Warranty}
Price and Warranty (4.8 / 5.0):
At £281.99 the 4GB kit definitely isn’t cheap, especially
when you can buy exactly the same specification modules in 2GB form for only £79.89.
However, for a 4GB kit, it’s on the cheap side compared with some of the other
kits we found in the shops.
Compared to its ECC brethren, the CT2KIT25664AA53E is
roughly 14% cheaper.
Crucial offer a Limited Lifetime warranty on the
CT2KIT25664AA53E, so if stops working at any time, just send it back and
they’ll replace it.
{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion:
Overall, we were quite impressed with the CT2KIT25664AA53E.
It over-clocks well, has a decent price tag, and good latencies.
Over-clocking the memory brings some real performance
increases, thirty percent in some cases, and that’s without tweaking the
latencies to push it even further.
With that said – we would have liked to have seen some heat
spreaders this memory, as it did get a little toasty when the voltage to it was
increased, but as you’re not meant to be over-clocking this memory anyway, we
can forgive Crucial for that.
If you do need 4GB of memory in a 2 x 2GB kit and don’t want
the error correction, cost and speed decrease that ECC memory brings the CT2KIT25664AA53E
kit won’t disappoint.
Packaging and looks: 4.3 / 5.0
Over-clocking: 4.8 / 5.0
Performance: 4.6 / 5.0
Price and warranty: 4.8 / 5.0
Overall: 18.5 / 20
Pros:
Good over-clocker
Low latencies
Cons:
Lack of heat spreaders
Expensive compared to a 4 x 1GB kit
We’d like to thank Crucial
for supplying us with this memory to review.