256MB OCZ Performance Enhanced PC150 & Kingmax Tiny BGA PC150

Companies: OCZ, Kingmax, CrazyPC
Products: 256MB OCZ PC150 222 & 256MB Kingmax PC150 332
Date Reviewed: April 3, 2001
Reviewed By: Jason

More Power!:

With today's applications requiring more and more memory, many people are opting to purchase RAM in 256MB modules instead of the more traditional 128MB modules. The falling prices of RAM have also contributed to making 256MB modules a very affordable upgrade. Trying not to to be too redundant you can check out our previous review of AZZO PC133 256MB memory & Corsair's PC133 256MB memory and see how they performed on the same system.

This review we take a look at two popular brands of memory that are specified for 150MHz and beyond. The first is OCZ's Performance Enhanced memory, and the second is Kingmax's TinyBGA memory. Both are competitively priced and available through various resellers.

OCZ Performance Enhanced:

OCZ Performance Enhanced RAM modules are tested for 150MHz operation with 2/2/2 timing. OCZ uses high yield hand picked SDRAM chips for their modules. The module I received used the latest revision of 128Mb Infineon chips, as pictured below. Eight chips on each side, two sides, do the math, and you get a 256MB memory module.

Kingmax TinyBGA:

CrazyPC sent me this 256MB Kingmax TinyBGA memory module. It is very unique in that it uses BGA style RAM instead of the industry standard TSOP (like the OCZ memory uses). Another neat feature of the Kingmax is that it is only 1" high, making it perfect for tight clearance situations. One thing that did disappoint me was when I was looking at the spec's was that it is only rated for 3/3/2 timing. These numbers actually translate into the following:

• CAS Latency = 3

• RAS to CAS Delay = 3

• Precharge Delay = 2

The biggie right there is having the CAS Latency at 3, this is a bigger performance hit than the other two settings. I tried running 150MHz @ 222 and it just wouldn't run stable. Anyhow, here is a close-up picture of the chips and the sticker if you really want to decode more info from it.

Go To Page Two For The Test & Results -->