OCZ and quality.. so far so good and just as fast as 850E :)

[MistaTastyCakes]

I've just picked up 512mb (2x256...dual channel!) of this stuff at googlegear.com for about $65 bucks a pop, which is considerably lower than Corsair...however, if you take a look at some of the reviews this stuff's been getting, it seems the web sites are loving this stuff. I guess I'll be the guinea pig if there hasn't been one for the OCZ PC3200 already, but so far, this stuff looks pretty nice. Think it's all some weird coincidence, or could OCZ be getting back on the right track? Or did they just get lucky?

I'll be testing it all out on my MSI 655 Max-LS when it arrives, and I'll post some screenshots of Sandra and other benchmarks, if anyone wants to find out if this stuff is really any good. Heck, even if you're not interested I wanna know I've never done this before so if anyone wants to see a specific benchie, just ask and ye shall recieve

Link to reviews

 

[Adul]

looks like the new owners turned things around there. Lets hope they keep it up.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

As long as your warranty is being honored through the reseller you should be OK, but I wouldn't trust OCZ to back up a product so buyer beware

 

[huthut]

Their EL series RAM are very good.

 

[Trevelyan]

I'm still skeptical... after all, I've heard they hand pick samples they send to reviewers... so wouldn't that make reviews pointless?

 

[Smaulz]

Well, I'd be interested in seeing what you find out. I'm getting ready to order some from NewEgg for a system I'm building for a friend... lemme know how it turns out.

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

Will do

Waiting for googlegear to finish processing my order sometime this century 24 hour processing...suuuure.. pssh! I shoulda ordered from newegg and paid a little more for shipping, hehe. I suspect I'll get it by the end of this week unless something weird goes wrong in the ordering process. I'll keep ya updated

I'm so ready to ditch this flaky L4S8A2 motherboard I have now and start fresh. I'd use it in a second for a system for my mom or a friend, it's nice at stock speeds, very stable, but I wanna tweak, do a mild o/c perhaps, and that is one thing this mobo simply doesn't wanna do

 

[ZimZum]

Originally posted by: Trevelyan
I've heard they hand pick samples they send to reviewers... so wouldn't that make reviews pointless?

If "handpicked" means taking corsair ram and slapping an OCZ heatsink and sticker on it then yes thats what they do. But the stuff the
regular consumers get is still crap.

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

I did some research on google, and it looks like Corsair, KingMAX, and TwinMOS use Winbond W942508BH-6s chips, while OCZ is using Winbond W942508BH-5s chips for reviews. Now, this line of chips is seeming to be a good one, noted for hitting 200+ on Corsair RAM...and the only difference I can find in the two chips is the last part.. one is 6s, one is 5s.. I'd say it's safe to guess that one is 6ns and one is 5ns? If so, that means OCZ is NOT giving the reviews Corsair copies, due to the fact that the two samples use completely different chips. There could still be something fishy up though, who knows. OCZ doesn't exactly have the best rep.

However, if this proves to be true and OCZ is using the 5ns version of the Corsair RAM, then more power to them

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

Well, I got the stuff in, and after a night of wrestling with the new components, I've come to a couple conclusions.. the MSI mobo was a dud, and I'm going to simply return it for a refund if possible.. grrr.. and the OCZ is so far so good running on my ECS mobo at 400mhz! Now it's time to do some o/cing.. more coming soon. The OCZ does work at the advertised speed though, which is more than I can say for the last stick of Samsung PC3200 I used.. /grumble

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

Well, one last update till I get a new mobo. The highest I can get the DDR is 400mhz. I can't overclock it one notch. However, I moved the DDR down to PC2700 speeds, and it wouldn't boot into Windows if I upped the FSB 1 mhz there, either. So, this is actually looking like a motherboard issue, more than a RAM one. The RAM runs fine at 200mhz, but to test higher, I have to up the mobo's FSB and this ECS HATES being overclocked at all.

So, all in all I'm pleased with the RAM so far. 400mhz, no voltage adjustments needed. The MSI mobo was DOA so I had to plug it into my ECS which can't take an FSB of 134mhz, apparantly. So, does OCZ have it all together now? I can't really say just from this test. It works as advertised, but I haven't had the chance to bump it up any higher yet. I spose there'll be yet another update in like.. two weeks when my RMA on the mobo is done

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I haven't bought MSI since the K7T debacle I suffered through (2 dead boards in as many weeks) and OCZ has been on my "do not trade" list as a Troll for much longer and you use both!!! :Q My hats off to you, you're braver than I

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

No MSI for me again! This is my second MSI board, and both have been duds.

Only reason I tried OCZ is cuz I'm cheap and it got some nice reviews...I like this stuff so far! I believe the chips on this are 1ns faster than Corsair, actually. And the big ol' copper heat spreaders are probably simply ricing up my RAM, but I'd imagine they do a good cooling job. They're HEAVY! I think I'll wait and grab an Asus SiS655 board and see how it all goes. MSI must have the "YAY! I GOT MAIL!" guy building their motherboards

 

[AJF01]

I received today a stick of 512 MB OCZ 3500 EL from Googlegear.

I did some preliminary testing. Using SPD timings of 9-4-4-2, I was able to get to 223 Mhz FSB SYNC on Abit NF7-S rev1.2.

I believe that the 223 limit was caused by a limitation on the mobo, but I could be wrong. I'm running this mobo with no mods and asking more than 223 FSB SYNC is not realistic.

Right now, I'm testing with tigher timings and getting my way up slowly.

Right now I'm @ 215 Mhz 6-3-3-2 running 3D Marks.

So far, so good with OCZ

AJ

 

[AJF01]

Last Results

OCZ 3500EL 512 MB Stick worked as advertised. 217 FSB SYNC 6-3-3-2 @ Default VRAM of 2.6, this is with MEMTEST86 Stable.

I was able to memtest86 for 7 hours 0 errors @ 220Mhz 6-3-3-2 @ VRAM 2.7. Still testing

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

I just got my Asus P4SDX in the mail and I've got my OCZ PC3200 in it, running stable at DDR400 so far, no voltage adjustments needed. When I determine this is stable, I'll do some light overclocking. The P4SDX doesn't let ya take the FSB over 166mhz, and there's no PCI/AGP lock, so I don't think I'll do anything hardcore...I'm using stock cooling and cheapo silicone thermal grease anyways.

So far I'm quite pleased with both Asus and OCZ though. According to Sandra, my memory's roughly running around 850E/PC1066 and PC4200 speeds and I'm still at an FSB of 133

If OCZ uses the 5ns Winbond chips I think they do, I can't really see a reason to buy Corsair PC3200 for $10-20 more a stick.

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

Posted and stable in Windows at 140mhz, DDR at 420mhz, DDR voltage up to 2.7 - I did this as a precautionary measure, I'm not sure if it's required or not.

Running Prime95 now. This OCZ is nice.

 

[bupkus]

This is good news for me. I got 2 sticks of the OCZ PC 3500 256MB still in the FedEx box unopened.
I'm waiting on the Epox 8RDA3+. I just got an 8RDA+ for another box I'm building for a friend. Unfortunately, the chipset is A3, not C1. Don't know if I should suggest we send it back.