Conclusion:

Unfortunately my inability to Vmod the Asus P4C800E-Deluxe (until I get a digi-volt meter) just didn't allow me to do justice to this memory. I damaged my Corsair Twin-X4000PRO being overly anxious to employ a volt-mod a friend gave me for a review, but without a volt-meter. I would not be so foolish as to repeat that mistake. While I would definitely state OCZ EL4200 earned its "Universal" moniker, I wasn't able to run it at 2-2-2-5. Considering most motherboards supply approximately 2.80V to 2.85VDIMM, running CAS2-3-3-6 up to 230FSB may be the best many will achieve; still this is very flexible memory. OCZ's EL4200 exceeds its default speed, and by quite a bit. OCZ Technology is now poised to release PC4500, and this memory easily attained that goal, and even surpassed it. OCZ EL4200 is completely stable at 280FSB or 560MHz, and I was able to run the memory at CAS-2.5 under PAT's most aggressive settings (Turbo) on the P4C800E-Deluxe at 280FSB under all circumstances. This is apparent in the benchmarks.

Where will the immediate future take us? I do not believe DRAM makers are working on anything but DDR-II silicon where significant speed increases are concerned. Perhaps we'll see some PC5000, however; it'll most likely be based on further revisions of Hynix HY5DU56822CT-D and some fancy PCB footwork. Seems like OCZ Technology may be just the company to pull this off. They may in fact be, the quintessential "Universal" DRAM maker, and in continuing to manufacture RDRAM have taken on a Nostradamus market insight. OCZ hung tough with ProMos as well, and recently Hynix acquired ProMos increasing their 300mm Fab capability. Rambus is doing quite well, and I believe we'll all be speaking RDRAM and/or XDR quite soon. Transition can be difficult, and although were surly heading towards 64-bit; how and when each consumer should get there are not always easy choices. Prescott's initial release will be 478 compatible, but one wonders if it's worth it? How much more can we squeeze out of Canterwood? With the best 875 boards costing $200, and quality PC4200 costing over $350 per 1024-kit, isn't this asking a lot for hardware which technically is obsolete up against FX51 and it's current platform?

In what may be the oddest juxtaposition, our only reprieve in this rapidly aging Canterwood equation may be socket-478 Prescott's low introductory price? I don't understand why Intel didn't try to squeeze more out of Canterwood, at least justifying these $200 motherboards, Prescott being the ideal opportunity. AT least OCZ has given us a memory which finally meets rational latencies (CAS-2-3-3-6) for PC3500 and in the same package PC4500 for the Overclocker albeit at CAS 2.5-4-4-8. Unfortunately it arrived in Canterwood's twilight years (months/days). When all is said and done, OCZ Technology may be the company to watch, and for all the right reasons.

We would like to thank OCZ Technology for providing this memory for review.



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