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.

Corsair Benchmarks
	Post	Sisoft Sandra Memory Test	Quake III Arena	3DMark 2000	SPEC viewperf
155Mhz 222

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!

Mushkin Benchmarks
	Post	Sisoft Sandra Memory Test	Quake III Arena	3DMark 2000	SPEC viewperf
150Mhz 232
160Mhz 333
164Mhz 333

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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