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| The
Hot Hardware Test System |
| A
memory proving ground |
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Full
Tower ATX Case w/ 300W PS, Pentium III 800EB
(supplied by Outside
Loop Computers),Soyo
SY-6BA+IV Motherboard,
128MB of Kingmax TinyBGA PC133 SDRAM and
EMS PC133 SDRAM, WD Expert AC418000 7200 RPM ATA66
Hard Drive, Elsa Gladiac AGP Card , Kenwood
72X CDROM, Win
98SE, DirectX 7.0a
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In an effort to
fairly evaluate the TinyBGA DIMM, we paired up
both a 128MB EMS PC133 memory stick and the
Kingmax DIMM, with a BX chipset based motherboard
from Soyo. The front side bus speed of the
processor on this board, will dictate the memory
clock speed as well. Thus, when set to a
133MHz. Front Side Bus Speed, the memory clock
will be set to 133MHz. as well.
We then set out to
run our P3-800 at front side bus frequencies of
100MHz. and beyond. Here are the
results. Obviously, when clocked to anything
less than 133MHz. we are "underclocking"
the processor. In addition, we also set the
CAS latency timings to 2 or 3 to see how the
modules would hold up. We left CAS delay and
pre-charge times set to 2 in both sets of
tests. As you may know, CAS (Column Address
Strobe) Latency or the reduction thereof,
significantly improves memory bandwidth. In
any event, here's how things shook out.
I was
surprised to see that the Kingmax DIMM could only
hang in there up to 145MHz. The EMS module
actually handled 150MHz. perfectly and even
155MHz. Unfortunately, our poor processor
got a little flaky at the 155MHz. speed.
Never the less, we should note that even though
the BGA packaging of the TinyBGA has its
advantages, the silicon inside needs to be able to
yield the right speeds as well.
Moving
on we have a few tests of SiSoft's Sandra at
various speeds....
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Kingmax
@ 145MHz. CAS3
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EMS
@ 145MHz. CAS3
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EMS
@ 133MHz. CAS2
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As you can see, when
set up with the same clock speeds, the TinyBGA
DIMM from Kingmax and the EMS DIMM, perform almost
identically. The variation you see in the
scores is well within the margin for error window
with any of these tests. No clear advantage
to either module is evident here.
On the other hand,
the Kingmax module could only handle 133MHz. at
the CAS3 setting. As you can see from the
EMS score, memory bandwidth at 133MHz. CAS2 is
almost as high as a 144MHz. CAS3 setting.
Well,
what do we know now about the Kingmax TinyBGA DIMM?
There are a number of things you should take away
from this. First, the modules are small, in
fact the smallest in the market I would bet.
Over all performance with these modules is right
up there with the best of class and the likes of
the EMS PC133 module we tested. On the other
hand, stability at high bus speeds is not quite as
good as certain high end products out on the
market today. Keep in mind however, that
with the ease of manufacturing and better quality
yields that BGA technology brings, these modules
should also cost less to build. We'll have to see
if this trickles down to the retail level.
We
give the Kingmax TinyBGA PC133 SDRAM Module a
HotHardware Heat Meter rating of...
Talk
this up in the HotHardware Conference Room!
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