PDP Systems PDC22G4200+XBLK DDR2
HH Test System and Configuration
Compatibility Testing: To test the stability and compatability of the Patriot Memory, we installed it in a series of motherboards to see if we encountered any issues. For this, we installed the PDC22G4200+XBLK into three of the most recent motherboards we've reviewed. The first was an ASUS P5GDC-V Deluxe I915G, followed by an MSI I915P Neo2 Platinum and a Foxconn 925XE7AA-8EKRS2 I925XE, which we also used for all benchmarking. In each test scenario, we did not experience any odd behavior whatsoever with any of the boards.
;)
When we installed the memory modules into our Foxconn test board, we found when we set the memory timings by SPD in the BIOS, the system defaulted to the proper 3-2-2-4 timings. Once Windows loaded, we used CPUZ to take a closer look at the memory settings and SPD programming. What we found was that even though the memory was running at the expected 3-2-2-4, the SPD is actually set for 3-2-2-3. Currently, our test board is at the lowest possible settings in the BIOS, but if future updates unlock lower settings, these modules may be able to go even lower.
 |
|
|
||||
How we configured our test systems: When configuring our test systems for this article, the first thing we did was enter the system BIOS and set each board to their "Optimized" or "High-Performance Defaults". The hard drives were then formatted, and Windows XP Professional (SP2) was installed. When the installation was complete, we hit the Windows Update site and downloaded all of the available updates, with the exception of the ones related to Windows Messenger. Then we installed all of the necessary drivers, and removed Windows Messenger from the system altogether. Auto-Updating and System Restore were also disabled, and we setup a 768MB permanent page file on the same partition as the Windows installation. Lastly, we set Windows XP's Visual Effects to "best performance", installed all of our benchmarking software, defragged the hard drives and ran all of the tests. Throughout all of our standard benchmarking, we had the memory voltage set to 1.9v. When overclocking, or experimenting with lower latencies, we set the memory voltage to 2.0v.
