OCZ Platinum Rev. 2 Vs. Crucial Ballistix

[piromaneak]

I read the reviews @ AnandTech (The only up-to-date Hardware Review site I know of; most of the rest update with a review here or there every two months or so) and saw that the OCZ Platinum and Ballisitx PC3200 chips got very high marks and were neck and neck throughout the benchmarks but at the end of the review, the author didn't really define an exact winner between the two saying both were very competitive. So I came here to break the supposed deadlock.

Money is of some consequence but I am willing to ante up for better RAM. I would like opinions on the two types of memory in the topic only (Owners of the RAM preferred) about how it runs, how much you got it for and what not.

Also, on the OCZ site I noticed that they sold a "Dual Channel" version of the Platinum Rev. 2 that are in a matched set box and was wondering whats all the hubub about Dual Channel.

Thanks in advance for answering my questions.

-Dave

 

[Mik3y]

ocz el plat, for that it has a higher avg oc. i havent heard of any ballistix that's gotten higher then 260, but have seen 290+ on the el plat.

 

[piromaneak]

So whats the difference between Dual Channel and the ordinary RAM?

 

[Jotho]

Originally posted by: piromaneak
So whats the difference between Dual Channel and the ordinary RAM?

If you have a motherboard supporting dual-channel memory access, buying the DC kit will guarantee that the new sticks you buy will work as expected in dual-channel mode. However, I've never seen any instance where buying two of the same stick from the same manufacturer (ie: two separate sticks, not a DC kit) will not work in dual-channel mode.

 

[piromaneak]

Thanks for the reply Jotho...

Ok, I know some people HAVE to have either the OCZ Platinum or Ballistix memory so cmon, speak up 😛

 

[2thAche]

I have OCZ Plat EL REV2 1GB dual kit. At 400MHz, 2-2-2-5 it puts up 5000 something in Sandra memory. I run it daily at 500MHz 3-3-3-8 2T and 2.8V VDIMM and it puts up these numbers:

sandra memory

To me that's pretty good! It will run 533 at the same timings for 2.45GHz completely stable. I leave it mainly to 500 because 250FSB 4x HTT gives a nice 1010 HT bus speed and the gaming benches from 250/4x and 266/3x were not that much better.

As far as the command rate goes, it will run 1T, but every now and then I would get LESS_THAN_OR EQUAL bluescreens. For me, stable means never EVER crashing. At 2T, it NEVER crashes or sticks and still gives up great memory scores. Snaps out of standby, games for hours, you'd never know this is an overclocked machine.

On top of that, the OCZ guys will answer emails and phone calls the same day, and they understand what you're doing with their stuff. They'll give you advice on timings etc or problems. I have nothing but good to say, I've been using OCZ since I OC'd my P3 1000 with OCZ ICE PC150 SDRAM.

 

[piromaneak]

So why is the Platinum Ed. so much more expensive than the lower models? If there's really not that much of a difference I dont see the spending the extra bones on it. If there's a comperable model thats pretty much the same speed then Id like to know.

 

[2thAche]

You can't show me many sticks of memory that will run DDR400 at 2-2-2-5 and DDR533 at 3-3-3-8. And like I said, if you have problems, how many companies will get on the phone with you about overclocking? Or RMA your memory becuase it won't run stable at 500MHz?

2 years from now, this will still be good memory.

 

[piromaneak]

alright alright you can put the gun away now! 😛 I'm sold...