OCZ has been on the cutting edge of some seriously FAST memory in the last 12 months. We've watched with awe as the PC-4000 mark quickly came and went with the right-behind release of PC-4300.Yes, even PC-4800 has been recently announced! So why then all the fanfare about PC-3500? With a rated speed of only 217MHz (DDR:434) certainly a higher clocked RAM like PC4000 would be better wouldn't it? Frequent visitors should remember a recent article I posted which featured a 1GB Dual Channel kit of very low latency (2/3/2/6) PC3200 which I ran at a stock memory bus clock speeds with a 5:4 divider (250:200) against a set of PC-4000 with typical latency settings (3/4/4/8) at 1:1 (250:250). Using the frame rate count, increase, and spread in popular 3D games as our "real world" gauge of performance, the difference was often very small and many times in the single digits.

      The intricacies of OCZ PC-3500 Enhanced Bandwidth are founded heavily upon aggressive timings. A special flag note on the OCZ product web page reads " * On Intel 875/865 chipset motherboards, use CAS 2.5, 3-2-6 for higher memory bandwidth" Not an unusual statement among memory vendors calling for more aggressive memory timings on Intel chipsets. Not since the BH5 and BH6 days have we had the chance to increase memory bus speed and still maintain relatively low latency settings. OCZ uses the Asus P4C800-E Deluxe as their test bed to certify each memory module before it is wrapped in retail shrink wrap. Of course it carries the OCZ Lifetime Warranty.  Even though it only wears a PC3500 rating, I expect that the OCZ "Platinum" Legacy will hold true we will running far and beyond the DDR:434 point with even better than marked latency settings.

     Specifications call for the memory to be powered with 2.8 Volts vDIMM. Extreme Overclockers are well aware that OCZ memory modules have a very high voltage tolerance, and it isn't uncommon for the modules to perform even better when supplied with up to 3.2Volts vDIMM. For the faint of heart that don't want to run the risk of voiding their warrantee, stock configurations of 2.8 volts vDIMM and lower will be tested.

Test System

     The 250Mhz front side bus represents an ideal Overclocking target for most Intel CPUs with quite a few being able to easily exceed this point. In this particular instance, the memory is only rated (officially by OCZ) to function on a 217Mhz front side bus. However, testing will commence at incremented bus speeds and results recorded until the memory ceases to function with satisfactory stability.  At all points during testing the CPU and memory bus will be run synchronously and the memory will be set-up in a Dual-Channel configuration (2x 512MB modules).