...Product	Crucial PC2100 Mem.
...Manufacturer	Crucial
...Supplier	Crucial
...Price	Variable*

 

 

 

Part One: DDR Ram; Double Importance...

The PC users who read online resources such as sites like these usually come in three diverse 'flavours'. Firstly, at the ends of the proverbial scale, we have the speed freaks who want nothing more than the fastest benchmarking system available and overclock as many things as possible. On the other hand we also have readers who prefer stability and usability and need to see not only which products perform the best, but which products represent the best value and stability. Lastly we have a 'bit of something in-between'. This would represent the majority of users I would suggest. Most of us want stability but with a little bit of fun thrown in for good measure too. So what's the point? Whatever type of user you class yourself as, it is impossible to deny the importance of good memory.
Ever been held back in overclocking before? You know your board can go higher from all those online awards but something isn't quite cutting it at those high speeds. The primary suspect for me is always bad quality memory. The various forums around the Internet are filled with overclocking woes and the answer is usually the same. 'Have you checked how far your memory can go?' Cheap quality ram is the main form of overclocking limitation. Crucial has a good reputation for having a lot of respect for overclockers and indeed it's true that Crucial ram is great at higher frequencies as we shall see later.
But what of the users whom deem stability and performance of equal value? There are a surprising number of unsuitable sticks that seep on to the market. Mainly in OEM form, the kind many high street retailers have for insanely cheap prices at the moment. These sticks are not recommend; not only do they have slower latencies, they also might have problems operating correctly over time. As is usually the way, you get what you pay for!

Part Two: Testing (1)

Our test setup was built around one simple premise; 'to find which stick represents the best quality, performance and value for money.'

The combatants for the testing are: -

1. 256 MB Crucial PC2100 Cas 2.5
2. 256 MB Kingmax PC2100 Cas 2.5
3. 256 MB OEM PC2100 Cas ?? ( Purchased from a 'bigname' highstreet retailer. [Name withheld]

The testing setup consisted of : -

AMD Athlon XP 1800+
Abit KG7 - Raid
ATI 64MB Retail VIVO Radeon
Win 98.

Lets see just who comes out on top as we move to page two....

Page Two: Results
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