Mushkin Rev3 SDRam Review - Mushkin Rev3 SDRam Review

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Manufacturer: Mushkin
Availability: Now at Mushkin.com
Price: $89 for 1 128MB stick
Reviewed by: -SPeeD

 

Setup: As we discussed earlier. This memory is guaranteed for 150Mhz at 2-2-2 CAS settings. Lets take a look at this in the SoftMenu III screen on the Abit BIOS. 

 

 

 

 

 

Benchmarks and Performance: Just for the hell of it. Lets take a look at some benchmarks of this memory running at 100Mhz FSB with no tweaks whatsoever. So as to give us an initial benchmark to start at.

Not looking good at all, however we are well below this memory's rated settings. Just below that of the old tried and true Intel BX chipset, and well below that of the KT133 and KT133a chipsets. Lets take a look at how far things move up when we bump up to 133Mhz FSB and enable Turbo settings with CAS-2 in the Bios.

Ahh, now we're getting somewhere. I have to say, the VIA KT133A chipset is just incredible. Here we see the memory performance rivaling that of the stock BX, KT133 and KT133A chipsets, and approaching near DDR PC2100 levels of performance. And better yet, the Mushkin is taking every ounce of this performance and running like a champ. But again, still at below rated settings. 150Mhz FSB you say? Lets take a look.

Getting better every step. Now we see the Mushkin taking it all at 150Mhz FSB with all memory settings maxed as before, Turbo, Cas2, 4-way interleave, all the goodies enabled. You'll also notice at these speeds, the Mushkin is outperforming almost every chipset in the crowd to include Intel's now defunct 840 chipset, but with the exception of the AMD 760 DDR. So, as Mushkin has stated, this memory hangs tough at it's rated settings and then some. What struck me as funny, is you'll notice that ALU at 150Mhz is less than it was at 133Mhz as well as Integer stream results. My theory is that the VIA chipset natively supports the 133FSB speed, but overclocking and running at 150Mhz FSB is throwing some mismatches within the data path itself, and causing troubles theirin. That's just my guess. If anyone else has any idea's, feel free to drop me a line.

Now I'm sure some of you people are wanting to know just how much can this memory take? Does it overclock even higher than it's already rated speeds? That's a damn good questions that I'm going to answer for you. Lets head to the last page and check it out.

 

Overclocking: If your looking to purchase some memory that will meet and/or exceed your performance and overclocking needs. I think you can definitely count Mushkin in as your top choice. I was able to attain a speed of 160Mhz FSB with 4-way interleave, Turbo and Cas2 settings enabled. Simply amazing! Here's a snap with Sisoft showing the goods.

 

 

Now that's got to be a beautiful sight to any avid overclocker. 160Mhz FSB folks!! Very impressive. You'll also notice the bank settings are at 2-3-2 when infact they were set to 2. Maybe at this speed they defaulted back to something a little less stressful? Not really sure, but honestly, at 160Mhz FSB I'm not going to complain. Lets checkout the synthetic Sisoft performance benchmark compared to the other chipsets:

 

DDR? Don't count good old SDRAM out yet! This type of performance guarantees that the KT133A chipset with Mushkin Enhanced Memory installed has plenty of life left in it and will be around for quite awhile. Even surpassing DDR memory performance. I cannot express how impressive the Mushkin memory is, handling 4-way interleave/CAS2 and Turbo settings at speeds in excess of 160Mhz FSB. I'd also like to state the Mushkin outperforms the Kingmax 6ns Tiny BGA memory by a longshot, something I had previously speculated. Needless to say, my speculations have been put to rest. And with a guaranteed lifetime warranty from Mushkin, how can you go wrong?

Finally, let me put all the sisoft memory scores from 133/150 and 160 together so we can see check 'em out.

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion: I can highly recommend this memory to any overclocker looking to assemble the necessary hardware to make an extremely fast, stable and performance worthy system. Here's a quick recap of the highs and lows if your considering purchasing the Mushkin Enhanced Memory.

Highs: 

• Guaranteed @150Mhz 2-2-2

• Overclockable and ready to tweak

• Compatible with a wide variety of chipsets and configurations

• Very stable

• Free shipping in the continental US

• Lifetime Warranty

Lows: 

• Only available in 128MB sticks

• Slightly higher price than other memories, $89.00 (although very few manufacturers guarantee 150Mhz 2-2-2)

• Available only on the official Mushkin Website

 

With that said. I think the high's outweigh the lows by quite a bit here. Yes, you may be paying a few $$ more than the next memory. But you can feel confident that the Mushkin will run very stable in your system at rated speeds and beyond, complete with a lifetime warranty. Hats off Mushkin for providing a damn fine product and the courtesy to back it up with support you can rest easy with.

DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware.

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