After having reviewed the Corsair PC2400 Cas2 which we got running at 162 MHz FSB Cas2 (see review here and the Crucial PC2100 which we had running at 146 MHz FSB at Cas2 (see review here) we're really looking forward to review Mushkin's attempt at PC2100 DDR RAM.
The stick we have with us today is one that is equipped with Hyundai chips. Here are the specifications:
AMD, VIA, ALI approved
PC2100 = 266MHz FSB!
Rated 2.5-3-3 @ 133MHz
Uses 128-Megabit chips
16Mx64 Module
16Mx8 Chip Density
Unbuffered
As you can see it is rated at 2.5-3-3 @ 133 MHz, similar to the Crucial and Thermaltake PC2100 sticks.
MushkinMushkin is a company that for a long time have catered for overclockers with their High Performance PC133 and PC150 SDRAM (known as Rev 2 and Rev3 etc) and results from these sticks have always been very good.
As DDR RAM was starting to gain an interest and as it should perform (at least theoretically) much better than regular SDRAM, Mushkin wanted to offer DDR RAM as well. So here we stand with one of their sticks - as mentioned before: equipped with Huyndai chips - so let's get down to business. But before we do so, a few basics on DDR RAM have to be told...
DDR RAM – what you need to know...
DDR RAM comes in three flavours: PC1600, PC2100 and now PC2400. PC2400 is used in a system with a 150 MHz (300 MHz) FSB, PC2100 SDRAM is used in systems with a 133 MHz (266 MHz) front side bus, and PC1600 SDRAM is used in systems with a 100 MHz (200 MHz) front side bus.
What makes DDR SDRAM special is that it reads information on both the rising and falling edge of the CPU's clock cycle, which theoretically doubles the speed of memory processing over standard SDRAM. As you will see on the next page, the speed isn't exactly doubled, but it does perform a lot better than standard SDRAM.
Packaging
Mushkin RAM comes packaged in an inflated bag where it is kept seriously safe! (Click to enlarge.)
