Teamgroup Xtreem PC6400

Our third contestant of the day comes from Team Group. As I already mentioned, Teamgroup is a real newcomer in the European memory arena. Actually, it's not until recently that I came across this memory on the Xtreme Systems forums, where many of the worlds enthusiasts compete. Upon seeing the results of their new DDR2 memory, I decided to get a PC5300 "micron" kit for myself. This kit already scaled well beyond 1000Mhz, so when this roundup came up, I decided to ask Team Group for one of their high end modules. Have a look what showed up at the door :


The team memory kit comes in a specific, rather small package

The memory kit we are reviewing today is a memory kit from their "Xtreem" series, which sits at the top of their memory series besides the low end "value" line and the middle end "Elite" line. The Xtreem lineup consists out of 4 different memory kits, each in two sizes. The memory of the day, the PC6400 "333", is their top rating memory kit, together with the PC8500 part. These kits are squarely aimed at the overclocking community, and that's exactly what we'll be doing with them...

A little check up on the specifications:

Rated speed : PC2-6400/800MHz

Rated timings : 3-3-3-8 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS)

Layout : 64x8 DDR2 FBGA Chips

240pin DDR2 dimm

Parity : Non-ECC, Un-buffered

Aluminum Heat-spreader

6 Layers Ultra Low Noises Shielded PCB

Warranted voltage : 2.2V - 2.35V

Programmed EPP settings

Lifetime Warranty

I'd like to give an extra word on the rated voltages. When you take a really close look at the picture below, you might see the small print on the label that says : "CL=3-3-3-8 (2.35V-2.45V)". This is different from the specifications that are printed on Team's website, and are shown above. As the modules clearly print an allowed voltage of 2.45V, this is also exactly the voltage I've been using during our bench testing. However, I wouldn't advise this kind of voltage for too long without applying some extra cooling to the modules. Team Group warrants their memory for life, just like the other contestants, but obviously does not warrant their parts against over-volting.


front of the module, with specifications


back of the module, with serial number

As you can see, the modules have a really simple look, for some a bit too simple maybe... The heat spreader is a basic plate of aluminum that is glued to the memory banks. The plate has been "stamped" with the "Team" and "Xtreem" labels, and bares the necessary specifications by means of a sticker. Actually, there are two heat spreaders applied, which are not interconnected: the spreaders are open at the top side of the memory, allowing air to move between the banks. This way, the front as well as the back of heat spreader can aid in the heat dissipation. Other than that, the modules look deceptively simple: when I first lay hands on an Xtreem series I thought I was holding a value part... This is not a module you want to include in you plexi case for showing off, or wait, maybe you do... because like many things in life, first looks can be really misleading...


Overclocking performance


Team Group PC6400 "333" applied in our bench station

As this memory is rated as a 3-3-3 (CAS-TRCD-TRP) part, I'd like we'll get started with cas 3 performance this time. To make a long story short: performance is impressive. Without hassle we got the modules up to 894Mhz, which represents almost a 12% overclock. What we did notice immediately during our overclocking attempts is that this memory is extremely picky about TRAS settings. Only a setting of 8 cycles gave us a decent overclock on cas 3 and cas 4, anything else was met with a quick failure. TRP couldn't be lowered either, as with some earlier Micron ram, but this is not different from the OCZ part.

When we move on to the cas 4 setting, we ended up with 4-4-4-8 as our best settings, topping off at 1150Mhz. Impressive is an understatement, as this is already a 44% overclock, albeit on looser timings. Keep in mind though that this performance was only attained while applying 2.45V on the memory, but even then this is nothing short of impressive.

We had an impressive cas 4, what can we say about CAS 5 performance than ? To be honest, I'm out of superlatives, but how does a maximum overclock of 1218Mhz on 5-5-5-15 settings, 2.45V sound ? I really couldn't believe this numbers, so I checked and double checked. But every straight boot to this setting was met with no problem at all. Orthos was run at least 5 times. This is a stable setting, and the highest warranted memory performance I ever recorded. Time to have seat now...

Below are once more the orthos screens for the maximum overclock settings.


Left to right (click to open) : Maximum CAS3, CAS4, CAS5

Before we move on to our next contestant, a last word on the Team Group performance.

Some might argue that the reason for the high memory performance is the relaxing of the chipset strap above 400Mhz. I will provide a little word on this on page 6 of this review, as this is indeed one of the peculiarities of the P5B-deluxe motherboard, and maybe of some other 965 and 975 based motherboards as well. However, I want to stress that the highest memory speed was attained by using clockgen in conjunction with orthos, starting form below 400FSB, and the memory has been tested on the lower strap at 380-399FSB as well as on the higher strap from 401-406FSB. As I said, a little more about this on page 6.

Now onto our last review candidate: can it still Dominate? ->