KingMax PC-150mhz Memory Module Review - KingMax PC-150mhz Memory Module Review
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Performance: Now one of the things that has always bothered me about this memory, is the fact that KingMax never really states what this stuff is capable of as far as CAS latencies. This can be a big performance area when it comes to overclocking and benchmarks in general. It has been proven time and again that you will see much better performance with CAS 2 settings as opposed to CAS 3 settings. Unfortunately, the majority of memory out there will not run stable @ CAS 2 settings at or above 133mhz FSB. Of course it is available, it's just very expensive and not widespread at this point in time.
Test System Configuration:
P3 700e (@various speeds)
Abit BX-133 Raid MOBO
Kenwood 52x CD-Rom
All memory was 128meg sticks
Lots-0-Cooling Fans
6-pack of beer as seen below
OK, enough of my gibberish. Lets get started. What these memories are capable of running at the different Cas settings that are adjustable in your bios.
| Cas3 Settings |
| FSB | Tiny BGA | Crucial | Corsair |
| 140 | Post/Stable | Post/Stable | Post/Stable |
| 141 | Post/Stable | Post/No Windows | Post/Stable |
| 142 | Post/Stable | Nothing | Post/Stable |
| 143 | Post/Stable | Nothing | Post/Stable |
| 150 | Post/Stable | Nothing | Post/Stable |
| 152 | Post/Stable | Nothing | Post/Registry Error |
| 154 | Post/Stable | Nothing | Nothing |
| 155 | Post/Registry Error | Nothing | Nothing |
What we are seeing above is a good indication that the BGA is indeed top quality memory. I have to give the Crucial credit. It is at least making it above the manufacturers intended specifications, as is the Corsair. I was actually pretty impressed with the Corsair being able to run 150mhz! Considering this stuff is only rated @100mhz FSB, we are definitely getting our money's worth out of it. As you will see later with SiSoft Sandra, the crucial is only rated up to 125mhz FSB. The Tiny BGA is performing as it should. I could not get into windows above the 154mhz FSB mark. However, I do not believe I am having a memory problem here. With the configuration I'm running, this puts my Video Card square at 102.6mhz AGP. Considering 66mhz is spec, I would say that is my breakdown. Still pretty respectable that the old Geforce2 GTS would let us get away with this type of abuse. I would have loved to had a non-clock locked CPU, to go with an old PCI video card in-house to really put the Tiny BGA on the grill, but unfortunately, that's not the case. Next up are the Cas2 settings.
| Cas2 Settings |
| FSB | Tiny BGA | Crucial | Corsair |
| 121 | Post/Stable | Post/Stable | Post/Stable |
| 122 | Post/Stable | Post/Stable | Post/No Boot |
| 123 | Post/Stable | Post/Stable | Post/No Boot |
| 134 | Post/Stable | Post Stable | No Attempt |
| 135 | Post/Stable | Post/Not Stable | No Attempt |
| 136 | Post/Stable | Nothing | No Attempt |
| 137 | Post/Stable | Nothing | No Attempt |
| 138+ | Post/Stable | Nothing | No Attempt |
| 154 | Post/Stable | Nothing | No Attempt |
Here is where things are getting really impressive for the Tiny BGA. This stuff seems to be golden. I physically could not get this memory to fail, even with Cas2 settings across the board. Again, I believe the breakdown was in my Video card at over 154mhz FSB. Still, nothing to be upset about. This stuff is straight up kicking some serious ass. Maybe soon we can pit the Tiny BGA up against some Corsair and Muskin PC-133. Now that would be a showdown for sure. We'll let you guys know if there is a chance in hell that this happens.
Now as far as Cas3 settings go, I was impressed by the Corsair PC-100. However, setting the memory to 2-2-2 really put the smack down on it. 121mhz FSB was the best I could get out of the Corsair, anything above that was not good. But again, we cannot really be dissappointed here, as it is rated 2-2-2 up to 100mhz FSB. An extra 21mhz is nothing to balk at.
I ran some Quake3 and 3dMark2000 scores also, but I do not believe the results produced any negligible differences. Therefore I am going to leave them out of the review. FPS in Q3 were nearly identical between Cas2 and Cas3 settings. We're talking .2FPS difference at worst case. 3dMark2000 did show a general 50-60 point increase in scores, but when we are talking scores over 7000, this is not much of a difference. Now I did some serious system tweaking on the old box once I realized the Tiny BGA could run 150+mhz @ Cas2 settings. Here is what I was able to finally attain in 3dmark2000
Not too shabby. And believe me, I could not have done this without the Tiny BGA, that's for sure. Ok, next up we are going to delve into the world of SiSoft Sandra Memory benchmarks.
For the purposes of this review, I am only going to show you how the Tiny BGA is running in SiSoft. Sorry for the quality of the pics. I was an idiot and saved most of these as JPG's instead of GIF's.
| Cas3 Settings |
| Tiny BGA 100mhz FSB | Tiny BGA 133mhz FSB | Tiny BGA 150mhz FSB |
| 
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| 
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As you can see above. Each incremental change of FSB brings the scores higher. What we expected? Of course. Below we are getting into the Bios Cas2 settings and this is where the BGA is gonna make it's money.
| Cas2 Settings |
| Tiny BGA 100mhz FSB | Tiny BGA 133mhz FSB | Tiny BGA 150mhz FSB |
| 
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| 
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Did you think I was joking? Well I wasn't and the scores speak for themselves. Now as I stated earlier in the article. I was somewhat hesitant about the BGA as nowhere does KingMax state what Cas settings this stuff is guaranteed at. Maybe they do not even abide by the same rules as everyone else, and just assume whatever we can throw at it is gonna work. Well, if that is the position they are taking, they are very correct. This stuff took everything I could throw at it and just looked back at me and smiled. Needless to say, the BGA exceeded my expectations by quite a bit. To be honest. I was hoping it to be stable @ 150mhz FSB at all Cas3 settings, and I was praying it would run 133mhz FSB @ Cas2 settings. I got that and then some.
One additional item I wanted to touch on here, was whether or not you could run the Tiny BGA memory in your system in addition to other brands/makes of memory. I am happy to say yes. The Tiny BGA performed very well with both the Crucial and the Corsair memory. Infact, it even seemed to bring the Crucial up to a higher standard as far as stable speeds. I did not have the chance to run it extensively with the Corsair. Justifier was getting antsy to have 256megs of ram back in his box. He's always looking for an excuse on why he gets fragged anyways, so I did not want to help the situation.
So I'm not going to give this product a final rating, why? I believe our readers can choose from the information I have provided, whether they like this or not. However, I am going to provide you with the Pro's and Con's as I see em.
Tidbits: Here are some SiSoft pics of what these 3 memories are rated at. Just for you guyz's personal info. I tell ya, I do love SiSoft, it will tell you damn near everything there is to know about your PC, and probably things you don't want to know.
Pro's:
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Very small footprint (It's Tiny BGA!)
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Very stable at high FSB with all Cas2 settings
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Compatible with different memory brands
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Price is competitive for the performance
Con's:
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DDR is on the horizon. This memory may be obsolete soon.
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It's so small you may lose it :-) (Honestly, that's all I can think of)
As usual. Thanks for taking the time to check out our review of the Tiny BGA memory. If you have any suggestions, questions, props or flames. Please send them HERE.
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