[grogi]

OCZ Reaper PC2-6400 HPC Memory Kit (2GB)
"OCZ Technology has been building innovative cooling solutions for their memory line for several years now with tremendous success. A few examples being the XTC Coolers and Flex XLC Memory Water Cooling Blocks in addition to their standard heatspreaders with construction materials evolving from aluminum, copper, gold and titanium. OCZ Technology has taken the next logical step by incorporating heatpipes into their designs. This heatpipe cooler is styled OCZ's Reaper HPC technology. HPC stands for Heat Pipe Conduit. A big thanks goes to OCZ Technology who has sent over a retail sample of their Enhanced Bandwidth Reaper clad memory for a us to have a closer look. Let's get started."

OCZ Platinum r2 DDR2-800 2GB Memory Kit
"OCZ plays the high-end game almost exclusively, and has innovation and performance marks to back up the company's rep. Given all that, their Platinum series is about as vanilla as they scoop. No SLI EPP features, no Vista certification, no extreme heatspreaders or water blocks; just sleek, downright minimalist looks, and a bar they, themselves, have set high.

Their Platinum series holds some of their better-binned memory, with low latencies and a claim to satisfy "...the extreme gamer and overclocker," with "high-end DDR2 based systems that extra performance edge that is demanded by today's hard core gamers and enthusiasts."

But, after pushing this RAM to its underwhelming limits, I wonder where their attention is focused...

The Memory

Kurtis likens the heatspreaders to cheese graters. I can see that; especially since one came unglued when first installing the RAM--I got a good look at it all by itself. That foreshadowed my experience pretty well."

Crucial Ballistix PC3-12800 2x1GB (BL2KIT12864BA1608)
"The kit of memory I am referring to is from none other than the masters of the DDR2 universe and now, the DDR3 universe, Crucial; a division of Micron Technology, Inc.. Defending Castle Greyskull...I mean, defending the overclocking memory crown that Micron easily won in the battle for DDR2 supremacy is not something Micron or its retail subsidiary Crucial are taking lightly. With Micron DDR2 D9XXX ICs being the "must have" IC of 06/07, Micron has some big shoes to fill when it comes to DDR3 for 07/08. This is where Crucial comes into play providing todays review sample that is no doubt based on Micron ICs backed by the incredible customer service and support of Crucial."

Corsair DOMINATOR Twin3X2048-1800C7D 2GB DDR3-1800 Memory Kit Review
"Dual core processors and DDR2 memory mix quite well together, so does that mean quad core processors and DDR3 memory are to be married at the hip? In a word, yes. Slated to become mainstream in 2008, quad core processors from Intel and AMD face a potentially serious memory bandwidth crunch. As is usual in tech, it's the age old problem of one standard not scaling up to support the next. In this case, current DDR2 memory cannot scale high enough, or fast enough to meet all the demands of quad core processors.

That's where DDR3 memory comes in, and Intel has taken the lead in laying the foundation for the new memory standard. While its upcoming Core 2 Quad processors are compatible with current generation platforms, Intel is doing its best to make sure those quad core CPUs are not starved of memory bandwidth.

So I bet you're wondering, is it the right time for hardware enthusiasts to upgrade to a DDR3 platform? Are there overwhelming benefits from DDR3 memory, particularly if the PC is just equipped with a dual core processor? These are both very valid questions, and it's something PCSTATS is definitely going to explore.

The first step is testing out some fresh new DDR3 memory, and first on the test bench is a 2GB kit of Corsair PC3-1800 DDR3 RAM. Memory manufacturers are scrambling to release high end DDR3 RAM kits, but we're a little surprised to see memory speeds already shooting through the roof. Time will tell if the memory makers are jumping the gun a little, but for consumers who can afford to splurge, there's a growing inventory of really nice, really fast, enthusiast grade DDR3 to consider."