OCZ PC2-8500 Low Voltage Blade Series
Introduction
Many of you may have seen Tony's thread in the AMD section where he introduced this memory to the public for the first time. The first shipment of this new item came to Germany and has been available from one retailer for about 2 weeks now. Since this is one of the first times that an item is available in Germany before you could get it somewhere else, I thought I should write a small review and share my findings with you. The kit is using some new ICs that should be able to show some impressive frequencies for 4GB kits, so stay tuned.
I got this memory 2 days ago and I had a busy weekend, I will add more and more results when I get them. One thing to note is that I will be testing on a 32bit XP, I know that's not optimal for a 4GB kit but it's the only OS I have.
This is my first review so please bare with me, but also say what you liked or didn't like. I'm also open to suggestions on what I should test.
The Memory
The memory comes in a small plastic package and we can already see the typical black PCB and black heatspreader. Inside the box we find a quick installation guide and, of course, the memory. As mentioned they feature a black aluminium heatsink, consisting of two parts screwed together. The memory sticks are very heavy and the quality of the heatspreader is admirable. To be honest, I expected nothing less from my first OCZ kit.
After I installed them, I booted up and checked if they functioned correctly. Everything was working fine, but I noticed that the stick's SPD was programmed to PC2-8900 or 555MHz CL5-5-5-18.
The box and the labels say it's 533MHz memory, so I hope Tony can shed some light on what happened during assembly.
No pictures for now, I was so eager to test them I didn't take the time to take some pictures. I will show some pictures later on.
Specifications
Here are the specifications that can be found on OCZ's site.
Test setupCode:1066MHz DDR2 CL 5-5-5-18 Available in 4GB (2x2048MB)Dual Channel Optimized Kits Unbuffered 1.80 Volts 1.85V EVP* 240 Pin DIMM Pure Aluminum Heatsink OCZ Lifetime Warranty Part Numbers 4GB (2x2048MB) D/C Kit PN - OCZ2B1066LV4GK
Testing procedureCode:Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P w/ F9 retail BIOS 2x2GB OCZ 8500 Low-Voltage Blade Geforce 8800 GT 512MB Western Digital 160GB HDD Thermaltake Toughpower 750W Windows XP Professional SP3 32bit Cooling: TRUE Black on CPU, board on stock cooling
Now unto the tests!
Testing procedure will be as follows: The sticks are tested with MemSet 86+ before entering Windows and then I will show screens after testing the frequency with 5 passes of Intel BurnTest. This will ensure that the results are comparable to 24/7 stability, as those sticks aren't targeted at hardcore-benchers but rather at people wanting a decent overclock for a long time without the use of excessive volts. I will test different timing sets going from CL4 to CL6, using a voltage ranging from 1.80V to 1.86V for now, later on I will test what I can get with "high" voltages up to ~1.93V, as that should be the limit according to Tony. I skip CL3 testing as I regard it as irrelevant, and when you see my CL4-3-3-12 results you will understand why.
Tests
For the tests please look at the next posts in this thread, there are results coming up next week.
Price and Availability
The memory is available from the German retailer Alternate in different countries across Europe.
There are two versions you can get right now:
On the one hand, the XTC Platinum LV for a price of ~73€, and on the other hand the kit I'm testing here, the Blade Series LV for a price of ~65€.
Both sets are in stock and ready to be shipped.
Conclusion
From the testing I have done I can clearly say, that OCZ has a winner with this kit. For an everyday user's point of view, it has everything you could ever wish for. It's extremely flexible and can operate at up to 500MHz at CL4, which is great for a 2x2GB kit, on the other hand you can also clock up your dual core's FSB to more than 600MHz with this memory kit still running strong on the 1:1 divider at CL5, up to almost 620MHz.
For those looking for HTPC memory that might do their rated specs at lower voltage, this is definitely a kit to check out. I was able to run their rated speed of 533MHz 5-5-5-15 at 1.60V (real) on my Gigabyte EP45-UD3P.
From a bencher's perspective, these aren't that great however. Their disability to run tight subtimings and the fact that you can't clock your FSB to extremely high speeds while running this kit is a clear drawback. I'm afraid we'll still have to stick with our D9-based memory.
Everything summed up I'll definitely recommend this kit to anyone looking for a fast and reliable solution for their everyday rig, especially if you like to overclock your rig once in a while.
Small update after almost two years of use: This kit is still going strong in my 24/7 rig, most of the time I've been using it undervolted to 1.60V and running at 500MHz CL5. I've never encountered instability or other problems. This kit has been a great purchase back in 2009, and if you bought a set back then as well, I hope you're still as happy with your kit as I'm with mine. Thanks again for following my review and the many views and posts that this thread has seen.
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Originally Posted by chew*
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1240mhz@2.02v 
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