TwinMOS Dual Channel PC3200 DDR RAM

Company: TwinMOS
Product: 256MB PC3200
Street Price: ~$55
Date Reviewed: June 3, 2003
Reviewed By: Joey Chao

Conclusions and Final Thoughts:

Price:
TwinMOS PC3200 is priced reasonably. As far as this being a Dual Channel Kit, we do not think that the memory is actually paired and tested together. Reading over at Viper's Lair, they too also had the same suspicion and the question was never directly answered. We even searched the web for the kit and could not find anything but the modules being sold individually.

Performance:
The TwinMOS faired ok in our performance testing. It did score slightly lower than the Crucial PC3200 at the same timings. Honestly, this is insignificant and no user would ever notice the difference except when comparing benchmarks. The timings also have a lot to do with the performance. Since TwinMOS has decided to go with the conservative SPD timings (2.5-3-3-8), the performance will be a little lower than say another memory module at the same speed but using 2-2-2-6 timings.

Stability:
The memory was rock solid during the course of this review. We did not have to use any extra voltage than stock. MemTest86 ran overnight without a single hitch even at our overclocked speed of 450MHz. The loose timings give the memory a bit more stability and may possibly prolong the life since no extra voltages are needed.

Support:
TwinMOS' support is pretty good. You can go directly to their site to find product information and information on their warranties and RMA service. They do offer links so that you can e-mail their tech support. For more information on TwinMOS warranties click this link.

Overclocking:
Overclocking this memory was a little disappointing. The problems we had with changing the timings was very frustrating. 450 MHz DDR is not a bad overclock but the timings are very conservative. There are other manufacturers that offer memory that overclocks higher at better timings. Also we had to use 2.8V to get to 450 MHz. This is a lot of voltage for such a low speed at relaxed timings. High voltages can damage and/or shorten the life of the memory.

Overall:
The TwinMOS PC3200 is average memory. There was nothing that we were really impressed with during the review. Overclocking results were much lower than what we had expected. We do however give the benefit of a doubt. Maybe our memory was just an unlucky stick. There are plenty of other reports that TwinMOS is a good overclocker. The people reporting these nice overclocks also have different memory chips than the ones on our review samples. Here is a good example from our friends at The Crucible of some nice overclocking TwinMOS PC3200. Hopefully we will have better luck next time.