OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) Platinum DDR SDRAM PC 3200 for $252 AR

WOOHOO
Time for memory upgrade and play BF2 with everything turned on.
Pretty sad I paid about the same price for my Corsair 2x512 3200XL only 6 months ago.
 
Ordered this same RAM on Wednesday. It was $269 with a $15 rebate dropping it to $258 after shipping. It should be at my office shortly after I get in Monday morning. Hopefully it's as good as it sounds!
 
I like OCZ but i dont think these will overclock even as well as the cheaper Crucial PC3200 Value sticks. I'm pretty sure most people top out around 220-230Mhz with the OCZ Platinum which uses Infenion chips. My Crucial Value will scale over 240Mhz.
 
You think they will only go to 220 - 230? That sucks. If it only hits 220 they are going back. My Samsung DDR400 that came out of a Sony P4 hit 235 no problem. I hope this ram will do at lease that much. Does anyone have this 2Gig kit?
 
DBZ33 said:
You think they will only go to 220 - 230? That sucks. If it only hits 220 they are going back. My Samsung DDR400 that came out of a Sony P4 hit 235 no problem. I hope this ram will do at lease that much. Does anyone have this 2Gig kit?
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You should check the OCZ forums to see how well their overclocking but i know they dont overclock as well on average as the Crucial Value RAM that uses Micron chips.
 
I should get the memory sometime this week and build my new PC over the next couple weeks, so I'm hoping it overclocks well. I read good reviews on it.
 
That OCZ memory should OC pretty well. A couple of things to remember though:

- the higher you push the OC, the more you might have to relax the timings
- the max OC possible is just as dependant on the motherboard as it is on the memory
 
I got mine yesterday and installed it last night. I was basically unable to push it past 206MHz with the normal timings (I tested by running Prime95 on both cores of my 4400+ X2 to see if I got a failure within the first 10 minutes of the test, which I would at higher settings). After I relaxed them to 3-5-5-8 I was still unable to get past about 225MHz (can't recall the precise number, but it was close to 225), which is pretty limiting in my opinion.

Fortunately though, I don't really care since I am a big fan of keeping timings high and instead dropping base RAM speed.

What I did was I dropped my RAM base speed to 166MHz and then I was able to push my cores to about 2575 stably (one is actually far more stable than the other it appears). Unfortunately that left my RAM running at about 194MHz, which is less than I wanted.

So my next step was to change my CPU muliplier to 10.5 and then I tried to hit 2575 again. I didn't quite make it, but I was able to get my CPU stable at 2551 which put my RAM at 202MHz.

I am not sure what is really limiting me, I think it may actually be that this RAM really just won't go much past 200MHz. So my next step is to get an XP-120, move my RAM to banks 3 and 4 (since on my MOBO the XP120 blocks bank 1) and then switch back to the 11x multiplier and try to push my CPU up to about 2650 which will leave my RAM at almost exactly 200MHz while probably capping the CPU as well.

Regardless the RAM has been a bit of a disappointment from a pure OC perspective, but at least my CPU may be able to give me the 20% OC I need to overcome the RAM limitations.
 
arentol, thanks for sharing your experience. That does seem to suck that it can't OC much. But Badger said that often, the motherboard could be limiting the OC'ability. Do you think your Abit is holding it back?

I have an Asus A8N-E (nForce4 Ultra, non-SLI) motherboard. I hope that it will be a little more OCZ-friendly. : \
 
Got mines today and installed it. Wouldnt POST at first for some reason until I shuffled the DIMMs around. Then the detected timings were 2.5-3-3-5 2T. I set the timings to 2-3-2-5 1T in the BIOS.
Memtest passed, and ran Prime95 for a while. So the memory works advertised out-of-the-box.
Now I play BF2 with all video settings at "high", and the game couldnt be smoother, like butter. I'm satisified.
 
beowulf7 said:
arentol, thanks for sharing your experience. That does seem to suck that it can't OC much. But Badger said that often, the motherboard could be limiting the OC'ability. Do you think your Abit is holding it back?
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I really doubt it is my motherboard holding it back. It is Abit afterall, only a very small step down from DFI... It could be my PSU, which is not exactly the best choice for OC'ing, but everything else seems strong except the RAM so I am doubtful about that. If it is the Mobo then I may see a difference when I move the RAM to banks 3 and 4 on Friday.

I checked my mobo's FSB limitation today and it looks like It can't get much past 285MHz on that (tried a jump from 285 to 290 and it rebooted, so 285 is my limit). I also did a slightly more accurate test on the RAM at default timings and it went well at 207.0, but when I went up to 207.9 Prime95 puked pretty quickly, and at 208.8 CLI.exe (ATI program) instantly crashed. Once I have the new CPU cooler and the RAM moved I will try to report back on whether I see a real difference.
 
GlimmerMan, glad to hear about your good experience w/ this memory. You have one heck of a system there w/ SLI mobo and 2 BFG 6800 GT video cards. :eek: So I'm sure that helps in your awesome BF2 experience. ;)

arentol maybe your memory came from a bad "batch"? Have you gone on OCZ's forum (I think it's bleedinedge.com) to get some recommendations?

I just got my memory today from the local FedEx office. I'll probably install it in the new unpacked motherboard this weekend, but I won't get the rest of my system (namely video card) until next week.
 
I used this ram yesterday on my P4 775 system and the highest the FSB would go stable was 235FSB 3-3-3-8. I just emailed Newegg for a RMA. Then I placed an order for the Crucial Ballistic tracer 2GB kit. I need around 250FSB or more. That is comming monday.
 
beowulf7 said:
I'd probably stay away from that Corsair RAM since the memory timings are horrible (3-4-4-8).
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Can you explain this to me please (or anyone). Does this RAM have good timings for a gaming machine? I don't intend on overclocking at all. Not yet, at least.
 
Zero said:
Can you explain this to me please (or anyone). Does this RAM have good timings for a gaming machine? I don't intend on overclocking at all. Not yet, at least.
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If you dont intend to overclock, then memory with the best possible timing would be best for gaming, 2.2.2.5 or 2.3.2.5, and 1T.
Overclockers dont really care for these timings because when you overclock, the timings have to be loosened a bit to run the memory faster.
 
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