Patriot PVS22G9200ELK 2GB DDR2 PC2-9200 memory kit review
 

Today, we'll be taking a look at a 2GB DDR2 memory kit courtesy of Patriot that promises high performance and overclockability aplenty with support for both relatively high clock speeds and voltages. Thus, we'll be taking a look at just how much performance can be eked out of a system with this memory in place, as well as how it compares to running 4GB of slower memory in your system to beg the question of whether quality or quantity is more important in this particular field.


Now, let's move on to gaming, a past-time which in the minds of many is one of the primary reasons for moving from 2GB to 4GB of system memory. So, let's see how our two setups fare here in a couple of gaming-related benchmarks. First up is Crysis, run at a resolution of 1280x1024 and utilising the game's in-built CPU test.


With our memory timings set up and a 0.5V increase to our memory in place to give it the 2.3 Volts it supports, we started pushing up the FSB of our Core 2 Quad Q6600-sporting system, eventually reaching a stable FSB of 320MHz. With the FSB and memory clock on Intel systems such as ours linked, this also gave us a final memory clock speed of 640MHz, leaving our 2GB of Patriot memory clocked at an effective speed of 1,280MHz, some 130MHz above its rated clock speed. Overall then, this left us with a final CPU clock of 2.8GHz, or 2,880MHz to be exact.


To keep it simple then, if you're happy to run your system at stock speeds, or perhaps with a mild overclock, or you're the kind of user that expects to use vast swathes of RAM as part of their everyday usage, then going for quantity over high quality memory will most likely be your best choice every time. However, delve into the world of overclocking and pushing your system to the limit, and Patriot's offering here begins to make a whole lot of sense, while keeping the cost of your system equally sensible.


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