Every DDR has its Day

With Core i7s and that wondrous triple-channel memory controller nabbing all the headlines these days, we shouldn't forget old man dual channel, best mate of most current Core 2 chips. DDR3 may not have much to offer over DDR2 when paired with Intel's sterling mainstream chips, but a touch more overclocking headroom and the peace of mind that you can reuse it when you upgrade to a Core i7 (or the cheaper, upcoming i5) makes it worth going for if you're building a new system now. An additional question is whether that exciting third channel really buys you much extra everyday performance when paired with a Core i7 now. Figures like 20 to 30Gb/s bandwidth certainly sounds saucy, but so does saving $70-odd by sticking to dual channel. But how much should you spend? We're pitting the lowest of the low (numbers-wise, that is) against some fairly high-end dual-channel DDR3: Patriot's simple 1066 sticks versus Corsair's spiky 1600MHz XMS 3s. Superficially, it's like parking a Fiat Panda next to a Jaguar - but if all you want to do is get around town, maybe the shame of the Panda car is worth it for all the money you'll save. 1 066 vs 1 600 Surprisingly, the Patriot sticks look much more attractive than the Corsair ones. There may be no heatsink on the Patriot, but the PCB is a glossy all-over black: this is ninja RAM. Conversely, there's something very bland about the XMS 3's muted silver spreaders. They look a bit too much like a security fence at an internment camp. With matched latencies meaning performance is identical at our Core i7 920's default settings, there really is no earthly reason to pick up the pricier Corsairs, if you have no intention of going for a swim in the BIOS' scary pool. Even if you do, the Patriots run stably at 1400MHz, so there's an impressive degree of overclocking potential in these bargain basement babies. They fell over above that, but invest in some third-party heat-spreaders and you'll be able to squeeze a little more out of them. They're also easy to run, requiring little-to-nothing in the way of volt-tweaking, whereas the thirsty Corsairs require a shocking 1.8v to run at their officially-rated 1600MHz - comfortably the highest volt-demands in this test. Even then, our review sticks were not stable at 1600Mhz (and 9-9-9-24) - they repeatedly caused bluescreens during our World in Conflict test. They were absurdly and painfully hot to the touch, suggesting that the spiky heatsink Corsair made such a fuss about wasn't quite up to snuff as we thought. Just over 1400MHz seemed to be their real limit, which meant they offered precisely nothing over the cheapie Patriot sticks. There's every chance we just had a busted pair, as Lord only knows there's enough cheerfully functional DDR3-1600 in the world, but that 1.8v requirement is something to be wary of. It restricts overclocking options, as too many volts into the RAM can fry a power-sensitive Core i7, plus there's so much 1.65v-rated DDR3-1600 available for similar money that there's really no need to go for this spark-hungry kit. Of course, the 1.65v stuff tends to scream about being Core i7-ready on the box, and there's a certain premium involved in that. Careful shopping, and a preparedness to stick to a Core 2 for now, could save you a pretty penny or two. More positively, both kits held their own against the triple-channel, supporting theories that Core i7's prized third slot is largely about posing points when it comes to day to day computing and gaming. The synthetic SiSoft Sandra tests revealed a massive jump in memory bandwidth for triple channel vs dual channel, but this wasn't meaningfully reflected in any of the other tests. The upcoming Core i5, the mainstream variant of the expensive Core i7, will only be dual channel - and, unless you're into crazy processor overclocks and thus need to avoid bottlenecking in the RAM, the steep drop in memory bandwidth this entails is unlikely to affect you after all. It would certainly be a waste prudent to only use two of the i7's three channels, but if you're a bit short on funds now, you could comfortably go for just two sticks until you've the cash for a third one, without any realistically and noticeable performance impact. The real lesson here, though, is that cheapo 1066MHz sticks aren't going anywhere just yet. A speed of 1066MHz is the official rating for Core i7 920s and 940s, and the current official number for the top-end of the Core 2 range. If you're running at stock speeds, you simply don't need anything more than that, so don't worry that you're missing out by aiming low. The scope for overclocking from those humble Patriots - and, doubtless, a lot of their similarly-specced rivals too - is hugely impressive, when they are able to run stably at around 30% faster than the official rating. If you're hoping to hit around 4GHz from your Core 2 or Core i7, bargain-bucket DDR3 memory will be able to take you there: and thank heavens there is such a thing as bargain-bucket DDR3 these days, as its first few months on the block were looking a little too financially intimidating. Today is most definitely DDR3's day in the sun at last and for all the hullabaloo about i7's third channel, the current prevalence of Core 2 and Phenom II means dual channel memory is going to remain the norm for a while yet. All this bodes well for Core i5 taking over the entire world when it finally turns up later this year. For all your Discount Computer Parts, Games and Notebook requirements visit us at http://usacomputers.rr.nu and http://sacomputers.rr.nu

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