System specifications and benchmarking notes
Here's a quick rundown of the test system should you wish to compare benchmark results with your own.
- Intel Pentium4 2266MHz S478 Northwood CPU Northwood B
- ABIT IT7-MAX i845E motherboard
- ASUS GeForce4 Ti 4400 64MB at stock speeds (275/550)
- Corsair XMS3200 CL2 RAM (CMX256A-3200C2)
- Samsung PC2700 o/c to DDR-400 run at 2.5/6/3/3
- 120GB Western Digital 120JB 7200rpm hard drive with 8MB cache.
- Liteon 16x DVD
- Samcheer 420w PSU
- 21" Sony G500 FD monitor
- Alpha 8942T cooler with 26dBA fan.
Software
- Windows XP Professional Build 2600.xpclient.010817-1148
- Intel Application Accelerator drivers
- Detonator XP 29.42 drivers
- Sisoft Sandra 2002 Professional
- Pifast v41
- Lame v3.91 MP3 encoding with Razor-Lame 1.15 front-end
- 3DMark 2001SE
- Comanche 4 benchmark
- Serious Sam 2 Demo
- Quake 3 v1.30
The Corsair module is rated to DDR-400 @ 2.5v with 2/6/3/3 timings. This is what I set within the BIOS of my IT7. To get the modules running at DDR-400 speed, I raised the FSB of my rather overclockable 2.26GHz Pentium 4 from the stock 133MHz to 150MHz. Then, using a trick that ABIT have implemented in their BIOS', I ran the memory at a 3:4 CPU:DRAM ratio, giving me 200MHz (DDR-400) speeds on the memory.
To highlight the effects that extra bandwidth has on a number of benchmarks, I've conducted them using the processor at 2550MHz / 150FSB / 150MHz (DDR-300) memory speed. I've benchmarked again with the same CPU MHz speed and FSB, but this time raised the memory speed to 200MHz (DDR-400) using the 3:4 ratio trick. This methodology should highlight what effect faster memory has on our P4 system, and allow you to make up your minds as to whether the performance gains from running DDR-400, if any, are worth the premium that this memory currently enjoys over lesser memory. I'll finally overclock this module to see just how much headroom it currently has.
To give us some sort of indication of how this module compares with some of the competition, I've enlisted the help of some Samsung PC2700 (DDR-333) memory
Samsung PC2700 memory made some waves when it was first introduced into the retail channel. A number of modules were able to scoff at their 166MHz at CL2.5 rating and run flawlessly at DDR-400 speeds. I own two such modules. If you're thinking of purchasing some, be sure to get the CTL and not DTL specification. The former is regarded as being the better overclocker.
I was able to run the Corsair module flawlessly at DDR-400, CL2/6/3/3 timings, at 2.5v, substantiating Corsair's claim. Even 6 hours of Memtest torture couldn't produce an error. My Samsung ran at DDR-400, with CL2.5/6/3/3 timings, at 2.5v. I'm going to add the scores it obtains to show you whether having a guarantee of CL2, at DDR-400, is worth the extra premium over DDR-400 CL2.5 memory.
On to the benchmarks.