G. Skill F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX
G. Skill entered the US market at about the time that Samsung TCCD memory was launched. G. Skill capitalized on the incredible performance of TCCD and produced some excellent TCCD parts that were marketed to enthusiasts on many Forums. We reviewed the early TCCD in PQI & G. Skill: New Choices in 2-2-2 Memory and found that the G. Skill performed very well.
Specifications
G. Skill rates their 1GB DIMMs at DDR400, which is usually an indication that B die Infineon memory chips were used.
Test Results
To be considered stable for test purposes, Quake3 benchmark, UT2003 Demo, Super PI, Aquamark 3, and Comanche 4 had to complete without incident. Any of these, and in particular Super PI, will crash a less-than stable memory configuration.
Test results also point to Infineon B die chips. The G. Skill 2GB kit is very fast from DDR400 to the highest stable overclock that we could achieve at DDR516. This is a very high overclock for B die Infineon memory, showing G. Skill has not lost their expertise in squeezing the most out of the memory chips that they use. If fast performance with 1GB DIMMs from DDR400 to DDR500 will meet your goals, then the G. Skill 2GB kit is a good choice. The only problem, compared to other 2GB kits, is that C die Infineon is just as fast at lower speeds, but C die continues to overclock to DDR550 to 580.
Like the Corsair Infineon B die that we reviewed in Part 1, the G. Skill is a memory that does not need a special board with super high voltages to get the best from the memory. You can get the best from these 1GB with almost any decent motherboard, since we never needed more than 2.8V for stable performance at any speed.
G. Skill entered the US market at about the time that Samsung TCCD memory was launched. G. Skill capitalized on the incredible performance of TCCD and produced some excellent TCCD parts that were marketed to enthusiasts on many Forums. We reviewed the early TCCD in PQI & G. Skill: New Choices in 2-2-2 Memory and found that the G. Skill performed very well.
Specifications
G. Skill rates their 1GB DIMMs at DDR400, which is usually an indication that B die Infineon memory chips were used.
| G. Skill F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX Memory Specifications | |
| Number of DIMMs & Banks | 2 DS |
| DIMM Size Total Memory |
1GB 2GB |
| Rated Timings | 2-3-2-5 at DDR400 |
| Rated Voltage | Standard (2.6V) Voltage |
| SPD | 2-3-2-5 |
Test Results
| G. Skill F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX (DDR400)- 2x1GB Double-Bank | |||||||
| CPU Ratio at 2.4GHz | Memory Speed |
Memory Timings & Voltage |
Quake3 fps |
Sandra UNBuffered | Sandra Standard Buffered |
Super PI 2M places (time in sec) |
Wolfenstein - Radar - Enemy Territory fps |
| 12x200 | 400DDR | 2-3-2-7 2.5V |
539.5 | INT 2527 FLT 2669 |
INT 6033 FLT 6016 |
82 | 117.6 |
| 11x218 | 436DDR | 2.5-3-2-7 2.6V |
541.2 | INT 2664 FLT 2802 |
INT 6438 FLT 6367 |
82 | 118.2 |
| 10x240 | 480DDR | 2.5-3-2-7 2.7V |
552.2 | INT 2806 FLT 3018 |
INT 6715 FLT 6632 |
81 | 119.3 |
| 9x258 (2.32GHz) |
516DDR | 3-3-2-8 2.8V |
535.7 | INT 2969 FLT 3132 |
INT 6739 FLT 6646 |
82 | 116.3 |
| 10x258 (2.58GHz) |
Highest Mem Speed DDR 516 |
3-3-2-8 2.8V |
571.0 | INT 3041 FLT 3241 |
INT 7179 FLT 7117 |
75 | 127.8 |
Test results also point to Infineon B die chips. The G. Skill 2GB kit is very fast from DDR400 to the highest stable overclock that we could achieve at DDR516. This is a very high overclock for B die Infineon memory, showing G. Skill has not lost their expertise in squeezing the most out of the memory chips that they use. If fast performance with 1GB DIMMs from DDR400 to DDR500 will meet your goals, then the G. Skill 2GB kit is a good choice. The only problem, compared to other 2GB kits, is that C die Infineon is just as fast at lower speeds, but C die continues to overclock to DDR550 to 580.
Like the Corsair Infineon B die that we reviewed in Part 1, the G. Skill is a memory that does not need a special board with super high voltages to get the best from the memory. You can get the best from these 1GB with almost any decent motherboard, since we never needed more than 2.8V for stable performance at any speed.
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Beenthere - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
Crucial use to be a pretty good memory supplier at one time and I've bought plenty of their products. There seems to have been a philosophical change at Crucial a number of years ago and I stopped buying and recommending their products after a major hassle over one failed DIMM out of the many we had purchased. Seems like their submission of a discontinued product to this 1 Gb review is another example of mis-management and manipulation of the media...In regards to 1 Gig. DIMMS vs. 512 Mb it seems to me relatively few people really need these DIMMS. If you are a serious gamer playing the latest game versions, sure you'll see some small performance improvement for a PRICE. And that is the point really - what do you get in tangible system performance gain and is it of enough emotional value to you to pay the premium price. Obviously for some it is as they will pay $1000 for a CPU, $700 x 2 for 7800 GTX 512 Vid cards, etc. I doubt however that most PC enthusiasts can really justify those prices nor the price premium for 1 Gb DIMMS based on system performance gains.
And along those lines... how often do PC enthusiasts and / or gamers replace their entire PC hardware??? If for instance you are building a new PC now because the Opti 165 / X2 3800+ are a sweet deal, would you really be in the market for a new AMD AM2 system in a 4-6 months when they are readily available??? I doubt many folks replace their hardware that often but I could be wrong. If it is true then I wonder where all the good hardware ends up after it's used for a couple months and then trashed for the latest trick-of-the-week hardware???
xsilver - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
its called ebay - or as some say "egay" :por I think option 2 is the not so rich friends who suck up a lot
option 3 is "damn, I overvolted the cpu to attain max overclock and the damn thing fried itself -- oh well, just buy another fx-60"
note that option 3 people probably fuel the reason for why manufacturers think they can charge us $500+ for a gfx card and $1000+ for a cpu
JarredWalton - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
Worth note - and not shown in the benches here - is that 2GB of RAM can have a massive impact on load times for some of the latest games. It is also incredibly useful when you're editing a bunch of images in Photoshop. The difference in level load times on BF2 is amazing, even when comparing 4x512MB 2T to 2x512MB 1T.BF2 is something of an exception right now, but over the next year I expect more and more games to push the memory requirements beyond 1GB. FEAR is another reasonable example, though not quite as pronounced as BF2. Some of the MMORPGs also get a lot of use from 2GB.
Personally, I won't be buying 512MB DIMMs anymore, but I still use them in systems I build for other people.
johnford64 - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
Why is the OCZ PC4000 XTC and Normal Gold not covered in either article??? The Platnium EB's are too much money, and i would like a good read and comparison on the XTC/Golds. As a side note, Crucial stopped making their 2GB DDR1 kit, so they couldnt replace my dead det, which is why i got the OCZ'sbigtoe36 - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
XTC and golds do feature the same IC, OCZ are moving to replace all old heatspreaders with XTC so you will see some older stock using the old spreader in stores.So apples to apples they should clock near the same but the XTC moduls running a little cooler.
johnford64 - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
But my question is why neither XTC or Gold kits have been reviewed here, if there have please let me know whereMiggle - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
not much difference (in RTCW at least) between 400mhz and 533 (must be the timings). Good review tho.Now, i'm looking for a link that shows how mem timings impact A64 (2-2-2-6 vs 2.5-3-3-7). Hope someone could give me one.
still, me thinks that fast mem = costs too much and not that worth-it. I just bought geil value ram that does 2.5-3-3-6 @ 200mhz and quite happy /w it (on AXP still tho).
android1st - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
I was just trying to decide about my next system whether I should wait for DDR2 or increase the memory on my old system. I think I'm going to wait for DDR2, hopefully AMD will roll out 65nm around the same time as the new socket. And prices will be reasonable and availability will be high. Guess we'll wait and see...Nocturnal - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
Crucial recently pulled their Ballistix 2GB kits due to unforseen circumstances. Everyone at XS is speculating that all of the RMAs that have been going on is culprit.johnford64 - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
That happened to me, 2 dead kits. They tried to offer me 2GB of PC3200. Like hell i am taking $150 ram in place of my $400 USD ram.