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Test System
For this review we'll
be using an ASUS P5W DH Deluxe motherboard which is based on Intel's
975X chipset. As of the date of this review, this motherboard is still
considered one of the best, if not the best C2D motherboard ever made.
Heck, we liked it so much we bought 5. Here is a basic rundown of the test system:
|
Hardware |
Model |
|
Motherboard: |
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe |
|
CPU |
Intel C2D E6600 |
|
Video Card |
ATi X1800 XT |
|
Memory |
OCZ Titanium Series
PC2-6400
4-4-4-15-1T |
Testing
|
 The majority of
testing will be done using
SiSoft Sandra Pro Business version
XI SP1a (2007.4.11.22). ClubOC has been using SiSoft Sandra for many years now and
it's pretty much the only benchmarking program we trust for testing
memory and processors.
|
Default Memory
Speed and Timings
|
Memory Bus Speed:
|
800MHz
(default) |
| Memory
Voltage: |
2.2v |
| Memory
Timings: |
4-4-4-15-1T |
| CPU Bus
Speed: |
300MHz |
| Final CPU
Clock Speed: |
2.4GHz (default) |
Running at CPU and
memory defaults, hitting 800MHz was effortless. No tweaking required
what so ever. I simply plugged
in the memory, set the memory timings to 4-4-4-15 and verified the
voltage at 2.2v and rebooted.
Once again, ASUS shows us why their motherboards are so popular in the
enthusiast community. So at CPU and memory defaults, we have a Sandra
score of 5421/5471. So if you are not an overclocker or a tweaker, these
numbers should be extremely close to what you should be expecting. Now
let's move on and see how much headroom this memory has in the
overclocking department.
Overclocking
|
Memory Bus Speed:
|
900MHz |
| Memory
Voltage: |
2.2v |
| Memory
Timings: |
4-4-4-15-1T |
| CPU Bus
Speed: |
300MHz |
| Final CPU
Clock Speed: |
2.4GHz
(default) |
In my first attempt,
I bumped the OCZ memory up to an 889MHz speed with no other overclocking
settings selected in the ASUS bios. The PC2-6400 Titanium memory allows
for a memory voltage increase up to 2.30V but that was not needed in
this attempt. This time I received a Sandra score of 5555/5560,
a nice performance increase over stock with very little effort. Now let's go back
to 800MHz and tighten up the timings and see what happens.
|
Memory Bus Speed:
|
800MHz |
| Memory
Voltage: |
2.2v |
| Memory
Timings: |
4-4-4-10-1T |
| CPU Bus
Speed: |
266MHz |
| Final CPU
Clock Speed: |
2.4GHz
(default) |
I was unable to
lower the latency timings too much, but I was able to maintain a 100%
stable system at 4-4-4-10 at 2.2v. With these timings UI had no problem
running any applications including demanding games like Supreme
Commander. This time I had
a score of 5405/5258. This is a slight increase over default
settings, but it is only the tip of the overclocking iceberg.
|
Memory Bus Speed:
|
800MHz |
| Memory
Voltage: |
2.2v |
| Memory
Timings: |
4-3-4-9-1T |
| CPU Bus
Speed: |
266MHz |
| Final CPU
Clock Speed: |
2.4GHz
(default) |
After several
attempts at lowering the timings I topped out at 4-3-4-9. Not bad
considering the original 4-4-4-15 is pretty aggressive out of the box. I was able to maintain a 100%
stable system at 4-3-4-9 at 2.2v. Strangely adding to the default
Voltage in 2.25 V or 2.3 V did not allow me to find a stable setting
that was faster. This time I had
a score of 5553/5582. again a very slight increase over default
settings, but these timings show just how much room OCZ gives us in the
overclocking realm. Time to
overclock the CPU.
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