Testing

Intel Test System
CPU	Pentium-D 930 Retail 3.0GHz Dual Core 2MB x2 L2 (1.285V ~ 1.388Vcore) Socket-775
Mainboards	Asus P5WD2-Premium (BIOS 0606)
Memory	Crucial Tracer Ballistix 5300 (2x512MB DC CL4-4-4-12) OCZ GOLD PC2-6400 (2x512MB)
Graphics	Gigabyte GV-NX68T256DH
Power Supply	PCPower&Cooling TurboCool 850 SSI
Cooling	Alphacool 12V, Black Ice Extreme Double radiator 2x Papst 4412 FG2/GL 120mm
Operating System	Windows XP

DDR2 has more then doubled in speed since its inception and with AMD announcing their transition to the standard the evolutionary path will most likely circumvent frequency, with a transmutation to tighter latencies. Corsair leads the effort in this respect with their 5400UL parts producing the tightest latencies available and at 675MHz an admirable performer. Latency as an obstacle was prompting DDR2 advocates to claim high speed would eventually compensate for loose timings. While this may be ideal based on Intel CPU architecture, that architecture is "finally" seeing the pint of diminished returns. We can only hope as AMD influences the market 2.5-2-2-6 timings on DDR2 may be possible.

DDR2 voltage, once thought to incur more errors then increase performance, is finally having the opposite effect, as with Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400, these modules requires 2.20V to run at their "default" settings. This increased requirement for voltage may be indicative of more robust BGA chips with greater tolerances. Super Talent does not specify voltage at their site and their memory ran exceptionally well with default DDR voltages, which for the Asus P5WD2-Premium is approximately 1.80V, Additionally these chips were also able to consume large amounts of voltage which they did to run at 4-4-4-15. I ran both kits using their SPD (Serial Presence Detect) timings as these are the manufacturers pre-programmed settings and are "usually" most stable. I overclocked both kits under SPD and then tightened timings as much as possible with the voltage I had at my disposal. The thumbnails below exemplify all settings where the memory remained 100% stable throughout the benchmarks and these will comprise our test results.

Crucial 800MHz-SPD | Crucial 920MHz-SPD | Crucial 900MHz CL4-5-5-18


Super Talent 800MHz-SPD | Super Talent 1000MHz-SPD | Super Talent 1000MHz 4-4-4-15


DDR voltage was a major factor in system stability, especially running games such as Far Cry and DOOM 3. There were numerous times I thought overclocking had corrupted my Config.sys (from the Error codes) yet increasing voltage allowed for stable operation without the need to re-copy or edit the Registry. In fact I may have learned more during these tests than with any other test. Several errors prevented me from booting into Windows and each time memory voltage increases mitigated the errors. I've included another series of thumbnails below exemplifying SiSoftware Sandra 2005.SR3 (Beta) results.

Sandra 2005.SR3
Crucial 800MHz-SPD | Crucial 920MHz-SPD | Crucial 900MHz CL4-5-5-18


Super Talent 800MHz-SPD | Super Talent 1000MHz-SPD | Super Talent 1000MHz 4-4-4-15


Benchmark charts >>>