Mushkin PC3200 2-2-2 Special: Last of a Legend
by Wesley Fink on April 4, 2004 8:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Memory
It was quite a surprise when Mushkin asked if we were interested in reviewing their latest PC3200 2-2-2 Special. Did they have new memory capable of the 2-2-2 speeds at DDR400 that we had seen in the past with Winbond BH5 chips? Mushkin's answer was even more surprising! Mushkin says that they still have BH6 chips to build PC3200, and they have enough stock to last 2 to 3 more months. No one else in the memory industry has any Winbond BH5 or BH6 left, so we knew AnandTech readers would want to know that Mushkin still has them available.
The exit of Winbond from the active memory market has caused quite a stir. The BH5 chips are gone, which all the DDR400 2-2-2 ultra-low latency used. What many don't realize is that the more recent CH6 and CH5 are also gone, which were being used in Rev. B products that have 2-2-3 timings - with Ras-to-Cas timing at 3. There are still some memory chips from other vendors that can manage 2-2-3 timings, but nothing has come down the pike yet that can fully duplicate Winbond BH5 at 2-2-2 at DDR400.
Since the Mushkin PC3200 2-2-2 Special is clearly the last lot of this legendary memory, we were interested to see what they would do in our benchmarks. Would these Mushkin sticks still astound as BH5 has in the past, or are these the last BH6 chips not quite up to the performance that we came to expect from the best BH5?
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MIDIman - Thursday, April 8, 2004 - link
Confused about the last chart concerning highest speeds. Anandtech mentions that the Mushkin did extremely well, but its pretty much the lowest of the group on all of the charts.I've been looking at costs via pricewatch, and something in the middle, like Geil's 4000, is looking very attractive when you put cost into the table.
Praeludium - Tuesday, April 6, 2004 - link
The only reason you're going to be paying attention to the 'last chance!' warnings is if you're planning on building a Nostalgia System from the year 2004. Maybe put this special RAM in with that Voodoo 6 that sold on Ebay a few months back, and it'll be a great hodgepodge of anachronisms and sought-after parts!pgx - Tuesday, April 6, 2004 - link
"it is your last chance to buy them", "Mushkin Special is your last opportunity", etc seemed stressed enough(how many times were thoughts like that mentioned?)... i mean if mushkin has a stash of old winbond chips who's to say no one else does? this review just gave me a weird vibe. sure the performance is great but the cost is really high and with ddr2 right around the corner who knows what is going to happen.retrospooty - Monday, April 5, 2004 - link
IF Twinmos is getting out of the DRAM business, why did they just release a bunch of new DDR2 chips including DDR2 667 ?They stopped the bh-5's because it was expensive as hell to produce, not enough profit margin.
TrogdorJW - Monday, April 5, 2004 - link
I think you showed a performance comparison once using 5:4 ratio for overclocking, and the performance was actually quite high. Can you do a roundup at some point showing highest overclocks using 1:1 *or* 5:4 - basically show a breakdown of how the two options end up performing with a variety of memory? Also, is that sort of overclocking (5:4 ratio) an option with Athlon 64 systems at all? Is it even beneficial in the Athlon 64 world? I'm guessing no, but would like your input on the matter.KristopherKubicki - Monday, April 5, 2004 - link
Winbond is getting out of DRAM. There will be no more BH5s all though there are some reservesof them here and there. Mushkin had one of the larger reserves if i remember.Kristopher
Pumpkinierre - Monday, April 5, 2004 - link
I thought they were producing BH5s again.Wesley Fink - Sunday, April 4, 2004 - link
#1 -I haven't a clue how it happened, but the chart is now fixed. The extra line is removed.
l3ored - Sunday, April 4, 2004 - link
i think your numbers are screwed up for the 2-2-2 special overclocking, you have 400ddr speeds at 2-3-3-6 or something and 500 ddr at 2-2-2-5an unrelated question: why did they discontinue the bh-5 and 6 chips?