Product Specifications and Information

OCZ confirmed the use of Micron memory chips for their PC2-8000 EL memory. This new Micron chip is also a variant of the D die provided in 64x8 chips for the 2GB memory kits. OCZ provides this memory as the 1GB DIMMs we are testing in P/N OCZ2P10001GEE. The PC2-8000 EL is also available as 512MB DIMMs - P/N OCZ2P1000512EE. Both the 512MB and the 1GB DIMMs are available as matched pair kits of 1GB and 2GB.

Typical of OCZ memory, the PC2-8000 EL kits and DIMMs carry a lifetime warranty. Rated performance is at 2.1V compared to the DDR2 standard voltage of 1.8V. OCZ also provides EVP (Extended Voltage Protection) for these DIMMs, providing the full warranty to users operating the PC2-8000 parts up to 2.2V +/- 5%. That translates to a practical upper limit for warranty service of 2.3V.

The PC2-8000 EL also features the new OCZ XTC heat spreaders. These new heat spreaders claim optimized convection and better heat dissipation than previous designs. Removing heat shields is a lot more risky with surface-mounted chips on DDR2 as they can easily pull away from the PCB still attached to the thermal tape. For that reason we did not test OCZ's claims.

The XTC heatspreaders are certainly a great deal lighter than any non-perforated designs. They also appear to work well in dissipating heat, though to be honest we have found in the past that heat-spreaders provide very little improvement in heat dissipation compared to bare DIMMs. The larger surface area ought to benefit from active cooling and the DIMMs also have a unique look that some might find appealing. However, the bottom line is whether or not this memory lives up to performance expectations, and that's what we're here to find out.

Index Memory Test Configuration
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  • plewis00 - Monday, April 3, 2006 - link

    If Half-Life 2 was producing anomalous results why didn't you replace it when you suspected a problem with some other game instead. Because haven't you now voided your HL2 benchmarks effectively?
  • Wesley Fink - Monday, April 3, 2006 - link

    The HL2 Lost Coast results were consistnet for this round of tests, but they did not compare well to earlier test results. We have now discovered the benchmarking issue and the HL2 results will be updated as soon as testing is complete.

    Earlier tests were run with HDR (High Dynamic Range) enabled, while current tests were run with HDR disabled. We are now testing with HDR enabled.
  • Avalon - Monday, April 3, 2006 - link

    You guys need to do something about those memory setting charts. The ones where you display the different timings you could achieve at different FSB settings for a particular memory...mainly, the part where you have "highest performance" I find misleading, because you have increased the CPU speed, so it almost makes it look like the performance results you have next to the settings are getting a huge boost in performance by going from one setting to the next, when it's really the CPU speed causing that.

    Maybe make a note on the chart stating that at highest performance mode, the CPU speed has been increased.

    Other than that, not a bad review. Good memory, it seems.
  • Wesley Fink - Monday, April 3, 2006 - link

    The information on which values were overclocked was already in the table, but we revised the chart to try to make the Overclocked values stand out more and to clearly identify the stock performance speeds and values.
  • SnoMunke - Monday, April 3, 2006 - link

    Interesting article...now about the grammar...

    "OCZ EL PC2-8000 is the best performing DDR2 memory we have ever tested, clearly outperforming any DDR2 that has been tested at AnandTech."
  • Wesley Fink - Monday, April 3, 2006 - link

    An edited sentence and the original sentence got accidentally combined. Thanks for pointing this out. It is now corrected.

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