SuperPi at 1M

SuperPi ran at 1M, has been divided into DDR and DDR2 categories. Lower is better.






Epilogue:

This has been a long and exhausting journey for this product tester. Over the last few years I've had the honor of traveling side by side with many "Ring Bearers" as they engineered a path to deliver the Ring of Complacency into the fires of Mt. Doom. For those not familiar with the Lord of the Ring, Return of the King epic, the message should be clear. Beyond the gripe and the hype, Mushkin has introduced a product line to meet every end-user's needs. To immediately dispel any concerns about "UnTesTed" memory chips let me clarify. The name is a misnomer once those chips are purchased by the manufacturer, as it would be impossible not to thoroughly test the chips prior to building a product line around them. The fact their warranted for life should say it all, furthermore after one month of testing rarely if ever did this memory require anything over 3.1V.

Mushkin has been producing memory for many years; they have come as far as they have by giving us high quality, high performance products which are reliable, and affordable. To dispel the second myth, there is only one manufacturer in the world I know of who doesn’t "re-label" chips purchased from IC's Fabs, that would be Samsung. While Samsung is certainly a force to be reckoned with how many of you have purchased memory kits with packaged, by Samsung? In this case I will say Mushkin has earned the title Lord of the RAM, Return of the MushkinG.


Conclusion:

I was somewhat put off by the performance of the 1GB HP3200 modules of which two were tested. Still at a MSRP of $193 $386 x2) the price is excellent for default performance of CL2-3-2-6. The 512MB EM3200 also tested as a 1GB pair, simply amazed me. For just $53 ($106 x2) I can't think of a better entry level PC3200 value. Their XP4400 at just $121 per module (x2 tested for 1GB total $242) is an amazing value for the performance. The most versatile modules tested were the XP3200 (formerly known as LV-II Black) at $114 or $228 for the 1GB total tested is one of the best values on the market today. At $206 for a 1GB pair their new Redline HP3200 impressed me more then any memory in recent memory (pun intended). Finally for the DDR line MushKinG's Redline XP4000 which held 2-2-2-5 timings at its default speed of 250HTT would cost just $260 for 2x512MB modules tested. These gave some of the best performance and are a product which contrary to popular belief requires very little voltage. Onto DDR2 MushKinG's PC2-4200LL for just $265 (MSRP) has alleviated fears DDR2 couldn't run a tight latencies. Al the prices noted are from the manufacturer, whose online store offers some of the most competitive prices, still these are MSRP and even lower prices are most likely available. I'd like to thank Mushkin for their cooperation.

Be sure to read our in-depth interview with Mushkin, over here

Questions/Comments: forum thread