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256MB Corsair & 128MB Mushkin Memory
Companies: Corsair
Micro, Mushkin
Products: Corsair 256MB PC133 222, Mushkin 128MB PC150 232
Street Price: Corsair 256MB - $174 / Mushkin 128MB - $119
Date Reviewed: January 15, 2001
Testing:
I have read many memory reviews, some good and some bad. Some of
the bad ones tried to compare two or more sticks of memory by running a Sandra
benchmark at the same speed, claiming that one stick was faster than another.
That is just total nonsense! (Note that I used a very nice word,
"nonsense", but I was thinking something much worse.) If you have the
same machine, and use any brand of memory in it at the same speed, they should
all come out to be the same number. They might fluctuate a little bit because of
all the other background processes that are running in windows, but more or less
the numbers should be the same. When someone says they are different in speed,
that would be like saying that one 800Mhz Duron is faster than another 800Mhz
Duron in the same system when both are running at the same speed.
Things that DO affect performance at the same speed are BIOS
settings such as the "CAS Latency", "RAS to CAS Delay", and
"Precharge Delay". While these settings only have a small affect on
performance, every little bit does help. Some newer VIA boards have memory
settings such as "8/10ns", "Normal", "Fast", and
"Turbo". These BIOS settings actually adjust quite a few memory
timings and can really affect your memory performance. Another thing that
affects performance is the actual board you buy, performance can vary greatly
from model to model. BIOS updates generally contain memory tweaks that help
performance and stability, among other things.
The biggest factor in performance though is your front side bus
(FSB) speed. The faster the FSB, the better the memory performance. This is the
only way to overclock Intel processors, whereas AMD processors rely more on
adjusting the multiplier. Intel more or less defines their "value
line" to use 66Mhz FSB, and their "performance line" to use
100/133 FSB. But for serious overclockers hitting 150+ FSB is just another part
of every day life, and to hit these high FSB speeds, you need good quality ram.
After saying all that, you can gather that my opinion of a
quality stick of memory is one that will hit the highest FSB, with the most
memory tweaks enabled.
I will state now that I DID test both memory modules in my
Athlon system (KA7-100) and both ran fine with a memory speed @ 133Mhz CAS2.
Unfortuantly my Athlon doesn't like upping the FSB any, but my main concern was
just general compatibility, as some cheap memory modules will not run reliable
on an Athlon system.
So now we get to the Intel systems, and the wonderful world of
FSB overclocking. The BE6-II uses a default VIO of 3.5, most motherboards these
days have the ability to adjust the VIO which is very nice since you can
sometimes gain a little more stability from upping the IO voltage. I tested for
stability using several programs, noting maximum speed and memory timings.
Remember the Corsair can run at 222 while the Mushkin has to be 232.
Oddly enough, switching over from 222 to 333 didn't let me go
any higher than 155FSB. It wouldn't even post higher than 155FSB, very odd,
but that's just how it happens sometimes. That's pretty darn good for a 256MB module that has 7ns
chips!
The Mushkin results were a little bit different. The max I could
go at its rated 232 was 150 (right on spec), but I was able to go up to 160FSB
running at 333. The highest speed I was able to get it to post was at 164, but
it would lockup at the memory count and not even try to read the HD. Impressive
to say the least, even more impressive on a BX board! Running 160FSB means that
the AGP bus speed is at 107Mhz! That's WAY out of spec for an AGP video card,
but I find the GeForce2 MXs are almost bullet-proof and can handle anything you
throw at them.
Conclusion:
I didn't want to review each of these memory sticks separately,
and I wasn't able to obtain similar memory modules to compare them against, but
in the end I think this review turned out alright. Most high quality PC133 rated
memory these days will hit 150FSB, sometimes you have to bump up the VIO a
little though.
With the new KT133A chipset starting to trickle out on the
market, there have been claims of running 150FSB stable on these boards, so
getting memory that can handle this speed is becoming increasingly important for
the overclocker.
Keep in mind there is no "real" PC150 spec, these are
just hand picked memory modules that pass the torture tests.
The 256MB Corsair memory module is really top notch quality
(along with all of Corsair's memory), and has proven itself to be a good
performer in the overclocking arena. With the price drops in SDRAM, 256MB memory
modules are becoming more affordable to the average consumer.
The 128MB Mushkin memory was also an excellent overclocking
performer. However, having a timing of 232 just makes me wonder why it is like
that. For the extra $10 I would go with the latest Mushkin High Perf. Rev 3
memory that is rated for PC150 @ 222. But if you happen to find a good deal on
the slightly older PC150 (like the kind used in this review), I would definitely
grab it!
If you want to read about more memory comparisons, check out our
previous PC133 Ram Roundup which compares seven
different memory modules!
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