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Printed On: | July 6, 2008, 4:19 am |
| Category: | Memories | |
| Type: | Reviews | |
| Posted By: | tUx | |
| Date Posted: | December 10, 2007, 10:00 am |
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Introduction
Recently, we have been seeing a steady decline in DDR2 pricing. Gone were the days of mainstream memory going at $200 for a 1GB stick enthusiast memory 2GB kits selling at a range of $500 to $800. Today, we could easily grab a pair of mainstream memory for an absurdly-low price of less than $50, and a high-performance 2GB memory kit for no more than $300. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to see DDR2-800 memory in the average consumer's PC, or even DDR2-1066 performance kits.
In this review, we will be looking at Aeneon's latest DDR2 and DDR3 performance kits. They are from Aeneon's overclocking XTUNE line, the XTUNE DDR2 is clocked at 1066MHz, while the XTUNE DDR3 is clocked at 1333MHz. Not only do the XTUNE memories come with heatspreaders, they offer higher performance at a lower Vdimm than the competition does.
The latest JEDEC specification for DDR2 is 800MHz frequency at an operating voltage of 1.8V. Most of the high performance kits are considered to be overclocked at 1066MHz, with some kits even going past 1100MHz. However, their rated voltage are usually rather high at over 2.0V. With the Aeneon DDR2 kit, 1066MHz is achieved at a JEDEC specification 1.8V. This is the first DDR2 kit that offers such a low voltage at this performance level. Whereas for Aeneon's DDR3 kit, it is programmed according to the JEDEC DDR3 specifications, offering 8-8-8-15 timings at the default voltage of 1.5V. Let's move on and see how do these kits fare in overclocking.
Compiled from various sources at www.aeneon.com
Aeneon memory products are offered by Qimonda, one of the world's leading memory companies for retail and channel markets. They are committed to meet the requirements of distributors, resellers, e-/retailers and system integrators.
Aeneon offers high-quality DDR, DDR2 and DDR3 DRAM modules for desktop and notebook PCs. Renowned for excellence in product quality, high performance and early availability, their products are based on leading-edge German technology and reliability.
To address the needs of both PC system integrators as well as mainstream users looking for performance and quality, they have a comprehensive portfolio of memory products includes DRAM modules for notebooks, PCs and servers as well as Flash based products such as USB sticks, SD cards and microSD cards, .
Aeneon products are 100% tested and certified to meet the latest industry standards. Working closely with top motherboard manufacturers, Aeneon offers high-quality DRAM modules that work excellently with desktop PC and notebook systems, as well as servers.
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Aeneon DDR2 1066MHz dual channel 2GB Kit
Specifications of the DDR2 1066MHz kit:
- 2 x 1GB memory modules in a dual channel kit
- 2 identical modules tested together in dual channel mode
- Highest quality heatspreaders for preventing critical operating temperatures
- 128M x 64-bit DDR2-800 based on 16 64M x 8-bit DDR2 FBGA components
- Rated 800MHz at 4-4-4-12 latency and 1066MHz at 5-5-5-15 latency
- Runs rated speeds at standard DDR2 voltage of 1.8V
- Supports industry standard 800MHz 5-5-5-15 for non-overclocking operation
- EPP support
The memory comes neatly packed in a see-through plastic packaging.
Black heatspreaders and the common green PCB are used. The design on the heatspreader is very simple, yet it is attractive. Heatspreaders are clamped on, but they have been applied very evenly over the FBGA chips.
Screenshot of the Aeneon 1066MHz kit's SPD. It is programmed as a PC-6400 part.
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DDR2: Benchmarking
Before we go about overclocking, we put the Aeneon kit through a few quick benchmarks to see where it stands in terms of performance.
The reference RAM used are Kingston ValueRAM sticks that have Micron D9 ICs on them.
Here is the rest of the setup:
- Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz
- ASUS P5K Premium
- ASUS EN8800 GTS 640MB
- Seagate 7200.9 80GB SATA
- Silverstone Zeus 650W
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DDR2: CL3 and CL4 overclocking
The default voltage for this pair of memory is 1.8V.
We tried various Vdimm values and noticed that 1.95V to 2.0V is the sweet spot for this pair of memory. For all our overclocking tests of the Aeneon DDR2 kit, we have kept the memory to 2.0V.
Interestingly, setting the memory to anything around 2.2V to 2.3V, which is still considered 'rather acceptable' to more enthusiastic overclockers, would result in system instability. The system refuses to POST when 2.3V or more Vdimm is fed to the Aeneon pair.
A 70mm fan was placed on top of the northbridge and memory sticks to help cool the components during overclocking.
Let us start overclocking with CL3 values.
With 3-3-3- timings, this pair was able to give 334MHz (668MHz DDR). Not a fantastic result, but it isn't that bad either. However, 3-4-3- and 3-4-4- did not give us any increase in clock at all.
Moving on to CL4, we started off with 4-3-3- timings.
We weren't quite able to hit 400MHz on 4-3-3-, stopping at 350MHz (750MHz DDR).
4-4-4- timings gave us 462MHz (924MHz DDR).
We ended up with the same clock of 462MHz (924MHz DDR) at 4-4-3-. Knocking down the RAS Precharge value did not have any impact on memory speed.
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DDR2: CL5 and CL6 overclocking
Loosening further to CL5, here are our findings.
378MHz (756MHz DDR) was achieved with 5-3-3- timings. That's 28MHz (56MHz DDR) up from running 4-3-3-.
Loosening the sub-timings to -4-4- on CL5 gave us a big jump in speed. We got almost 150MHz (300MHz DDR) more than 5-3-3- with a clock of 512MHz (1024MHz DDR).
A maximum clock of 568MHz (1136MHz DDR) was achieved using 5-5-5- timings.
Let us have a go at CL6...
We were quite surprised that this pair actually runs CL6, but we didn't get any increase from running CL5.
The highest clock achieved on this pair of memory is found to be 1136MHz 5-5-5-15 at 2.0V. We tried going lower to 1.90V and it runs fine with the same settings.
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Aeneon DDR3 1333MHz dual channel 2GB kit
Specifications of the DDR3 1333MHz kit:
- 2 x 1GB memory modules in a dual channel kit
- 2 identical modules tested together in dual channel mode
- Highest quality heatspreaders for preventing critical operating temperatures
- 128M x 64-bit DDR3-1333 based on 16 64M x 8-bit DDR3 FBGA components
- Rated 1333MHz at 8-8-8-15 latency
- Runs rated speed at standard DDR3 voltage of 1.5V
- Fitting in industry standard motherboards
The same packaging used for DDR2 and DDR3 kits. We get the two sticks and an insert containing information on the memory modules.
DDR2 and DDR3 memory sticks are just about the same: green PCB, black ICs, gold colour connectors. To break away from the sea of green PCBs, Aeneon has decided to use eye-catching not-so-common blue coloured PCB for its DDR3 sticks. The blue PCB is paired with black heatspreaders with a white stripe.
The construction of the module is very solid. The heatspreader is fixed evenly and permanently to the module. This kit should be able to take a couple of accidental knocks here and there without problems.
SPD table of the Aeneon PC3-10700 kit.
Like the DDR2 kit, it does not offer any bling, but still remains very attractive.
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DDR3: Benchmarking
Like the DDR2 kit, we put the DDR3 sticks through the same set of benchmarks too. Results will be slightly different because the CPU is clocked higher at 333MHz x 10 rather than the default 266MHz x 11.
The reference RAM used are Mushkin PC3-14400 sticks which have been set to run 1333MHz also.
Here is the rest of the setup:
- Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz @ 3.33GHz
- ASUS Blitz Extreme
- ASUS EN8800 GTS 640MB
- Seagate 7200.9 80GB SATA
- Silverstone Zeus 650W
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DDR3: CL7, CL8 and CL9 overclocking
1.90V was fed to the pair of DDR3 for today's overclocking.
Clock speed does scale pretty linearly with voltage increase, but it stops abruptly at 1.90V. No improvement was seen when 2.0V was pumped in. We stopped trying at 2.1V. The memory could POST at any voltage we put it through, unlike the DDR2 kit which had a certain limit of Vdimm.
Like the DDR2 kit, we had a 70mm fan blowing over the memory kit and the northbridge to keep temperatures low.
We start the day of with a slightly tight CL7 setting.
Only 650MHz (1300MHz) for this pair of memory at 7-7-7-. The system would POST at a little bit more to 660MHz, but Windows would not be able to load.
Let us now try CL8.
We were able to get a decent 730MHz (1460MHz DDR) for 8-7-7-.
8-8-8- timings, which is also the rated default timings, gave us another 20MHz (40MHz DDR) to make it 750MHz (1500MHz DDR).
Okay, for the final set of overclocking tests, here is CL9.
The pair of memory clocked in at 830MHz (1660MHz DDR) at 9-7-7-.
And finally, we got the highest frequency of 850MHz (1700MHz DDR) at 9-9-9-.
We only lost 20MHz (40MHz DDR) when the sub-timings were lowered from 9-9-9- to 9-7-7-. 9-8-8- returned the same results as 9-7-7-.
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Conclusions
The Aeneon DDR2 1066MHz kit is obviously designed for low Vdimm. However, that comes with a price of running at relaxed timings only. This pair of memory is something that enthusiasts who are very particular with temperatures should look at. Although it would not make you sit up straight in your chair, it still overclocks decently at 4-4-4- and 5-5-5-.
This DDR2 kit isn't the fastest kit in performance and overclocking, but it is still recommended because of it's price-performance ratio and the benefits of running a lower Vdimm. There are many high-speed kits out there in the market since around two years or so, but till now, there are still none except the Aeneon that are rated for 5-5-5-15 at 1.8V for 1066MHz. With the Aeneon pair, users can look forward to enjoying better performance without the worry of higher power consumption or a noticeable increase in overall system temperature due to the use of high Vdimm.
Unfortunately, DDR3 pricing is still very high at a steep $600-ish for the cheapest kits around. Most of the DDR3 products we see on the market now are aimed at the enthusiast and overclockers. The general community would not consider DDR3 as a mainstream product yet.
VRMarks for DDR2 kit:
VRMarks for DDR3 kit:
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