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Ultra PC3200 Dual Channel DDR Kit


Date
: 06/25/04 – 05:41:58 AM

Author
:

Category
: Memory

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer:
Ultra Products

Price:
MSRP ~$250 USD

Its not every day when Overclockers Online brings you a review on memory modules. This is only our third memory review and in the past Tim has looked at the TwinMOS PC3200 Dual Channel Kit and the TwinMOS PC3200 Single Module. Today I bring you something different, I bring you a module made by a company not everyone has heard of. I have in my hands the Ultra Dual Channel PC 3200 1024 MB DDR Kit.

So who exactly is Ultra Products? They are a company located in Fletcher, Ohio [Ed. small world!]. They offer a wide variety of products and not just memory modules.

<div style='margin-left:1cm;color:#CCCCC9;'> It is Ultra's mission to be the best provider of technology-solutions in the global market. By offering superior products and complete technological solutions, the company seeks to create new and profitable ways for business partners to grow and for their revenues to increase.[/quote]
That statement above summarizes the good beliefs you can find at Ultra Products.

Enough about them though, Im sure youre all dying to see what I have. The package arrived at my door in the typical brown box. Nothing fancy at all, I have too many boxes now and enough Styrofoam to fill my backpack. There was no damage to the box so I know Federal Express handled it fine. If for any reason the box was damaged, you do not have to worry. Ultra Products has a second line of defense, and a damn nice looking one too. The modules were not packaged in some plastic case or your typical anti-static bag. No, I got a nice wooden box.

Does that not look sweet or what!

Page 2 : Specifications

Here are some specific details about the sticks I got.

2*512 MB
CAS # Latency: 2
RAS# to CAS# Delay: 3
RAS# Precharge: 3
Cycle Time: 7
Command Rate: 1T (cycle)
5.0 Nanosecond access time
Dual Bank Technology
Aluminum Heat Spreaders
Lifetime Limited Warranty
SPD Programmed with JEDEC values

Look at those babies shine. Cant wait to pop it in and see what how they perform.

Heres a copy and paste from the IC manufacturer.

<div style='margin-left:1cm;color:#CCCCC9;'> High speed data transfer rates with system frequency
up to 200 MHz
Data Mask for Write Control
Four Banks controlled by BA0 & BA1
Programmable CAS Latency: 2, 2.5, 3
Programmable Wrap Sequence: Sequential or Interleave
Programmable Burst Length:
2, 4, 8 for Sequential Type
2, 4, 8 for Interleave Type
Automatic and Controlled Precharge Command
Power Down Mode
Auto Refresh and Self Refresh
Refresh Interval: 8192 cycles/64 ms
Available in 66-pin 400 mil TSOP or 60 Ball SOC BGA
SSTL-2 Compatible I/Os
Double Data Rate (DDR)
Bidirectional Data Strobe (DQS) for input and output data, active on both edges
On-Chip DLL aligns DQ and DQs transitions with CK transitions
Differential clock inputs CK and CK
Power Supply 2.6V ± 0.1V for DDR400
[/quote]
Heres a picture of the module if you somehow removed the heat spreader. I suggest you dont. I wasnt able to and I even tried to pull them off!

If you look carefully, you can see the chips used: V58C2256804SAT5B. Note that this image was provided by Ultra, it is
not an Overclockers Online original!
The actual product may differ than what you see. The biggest company doesnt make this module either, you probably havent heard of Mosel Vitelic. I know I havent, but Im sure Ultra did some research before they picked up any ol chip for their RAM.

Lets break down the bar code into something more readable:

V Mosel Vitelic Manufactured
58 DDR SDRAM
2 2.6 Volts
25680 256Mb 8K Refresh x8 (I think my stick would actually say 51280)
4 4 Banks
S SSTL
A Component Rev Level (A=0.14 micro)
T Component Package TSOP
5B Rated for 200 MHz @ 2.5-3-3

If my module has the exact specifications as above, with the exception of being 512 MB, then what I really have is a CAS 2.5
not
2.0. None the less, Ultra markets these at 2.0 so Im sure it will run at 400 MHz @ 2.0-3-3, and if not, well know in a few minutes.

Page 3 : Installation

This is the easiest part of this review. Take the old modules out, install the new ones in banks 1 and 3 and boot!

Page 4 : Overclocking and Testing

Heres the system that Im using to test the memory kit.

Abit NF7-S v2.0
AMD Mobile XP 2500+
Ultra Dual Channel 1024 MB DDR Kit
HIS Excalibur 9550 VIVO (provided by HIS)
40 GB Maxtor ATA 100 7200 RPM Hard Drive
asetek KT03A-L30 Cooling (provided by asetek)
Windows XP SP1 + Latest Drivers

Temperature:

These sticks get warm when you crank up the voltage and start overclocking. I was averaging over 45 degrees Celsius, at which point I put some fans around the modules and it dropped the temperature by 15 degrees. It didnt help all that much in terms of overclocking but without the heat spreaders, I wouldnt dare touch the RAM as itd probably give you a nasty little burn.

Here are the modules up close and personal. In the second photo, you can see the heat spreader and what appears to be thermal tape holding it down.

Benchmarking

First thing I did when I booted the machine was pop into BIOS and crank the FSB to 200, set the CPU FSB/DRAM ratio to 1:1 (400 MHz) and changed the memory timing to 2-3-3-7. Nothing special as memtest, prime, F@H all worked beautifully. A stable overclock was considered when memtest passed with no errors and the system was stable with prime95 and F@H running for a few hours. The highest stable overclock I could achieve at 2-3-3-7 was 426 MHz (213 FSB). It was a decent overclock, but when I spoke with the Ultra engineers they said they tested there memory at 434 CL 2 on a Athlon 2100+ Palomino core. Whether or not the test was conducted on the PC3200 or PC 3500 or on an Intel machine, I dont exactly know.

Moving on, my next step was to loosen the timing to 2.5-3-3-7. For a 1:1 ratio, the max stable overclock I could achieve was 446 Mhz (223 FSB). Anything above and something would fail. Im certain this was the limitation on my mobile processor. After going through all the possible ratios, I hit the ceiling at 466 Mhz (140 FSB 3:5 Ratio). Not too bad, a shame my processor couldnt go that high. Times like this where I wished I had an Intel Pentium 4 C processor.

Page 5 : Conclusion

After hours of testing, I think Im finally done testing. The Ultra Dual Channel Kit is clearly a budget kit as its quite affordable and comes in a very nice box youll never use again. If you dont plan on overclocking your FSB very much then this kit would be an ideal low budget decent performance alternative to the Corsair, TwinMOS, OCZ modules. I was told that the MSRP is 250 USD and if you visit Tiger Direct, youll find that the package is available for $250 is actually 2 x 512 MB PC 4000 with different timings.

Advantages
:
Very Affordable
High overclocking potential on a looser timing
Pimp ass wooden box package
Aluminum heatsinks
Lifetime Limited Warranty

Disadvantages
:
Overclocking ceiling at factory timing easily reached
2-2-2 modules now available

Many thanks to Ultra Products for making this review possible.