Overclocking and thoughts
OverclockingOCZ's Enhanced Voltage Protection keeps the modules' warranty intact if you feel that DDR400 speeds just aren't enough and need to raise the voltage. The EPoX motherboard's VDIMM was set to 3.1v (inside the 0.5% leeway OCZ guarantees) and the dual-channel kit was overclocked with the default 2-2-2-5 1T timings. Further, the latencies were relaxed to 2.5-3-3-7, to see just how high the modules would run at. Samsung's TCCD chips, for example, were fantastic at both low-latencies and high speeds, albeit with relaxed settings. That's what the Corsair Xpert modules featured.
OCZ's modules run comfortably past PC3500 speed and still keep the low-latency timings intact.
The pack also scales to DDR550 with relaxed timings, affording extra bandwidth at the cost of latency.
Thoughts
There's never been a better time to buy system RAM than right now. £130 buys you a 1GB DDR1 dual-channel pack that gives superlative performance when paired up with a S939 CPU, preferably a fast one. The performance advantage over regular memory, usually specified with 2.5-3-3-7 timings, can be close to 10%, so investing in some high-quality RAM makes decent sense. OCZ's EL DDR PC3200 Gold Dual Channel pack does exactly what it says on the tin, erm, heatspreader, that is, run at 2-2-2-5 1T at DDR400 speeds.
Getting the maximum performance potential out of your PC needn't be a difficult task. Start off with a decent motherboard, add in a tasty S939 CPU, and pair them up with some low-latency RAM. OCZ's DDR1 is as high as it currently gets.
