Samsung PC3700: DDR466 Memory for the Masses

Performance Test Configuration

The Memory testbed for evaluating the Samsung PC3700 is the same used in our earlier reviews of DDR500 and other High-Speed Memory.

Kingmax Hardcore Memory: Tiny BGA Reaches For Top Speed
New Memory Highs: Corsair and OCZ Introduce DDR550
OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 2: The Universal Soldier
OCZ 4200EL: Tops in Memory Performance
Mushkin PC4000 High Performance: DDR500 PLUS
Corsair TwinX1024-4000 PRO: Improving DDR500 Performance
Mushkin & Adata: 2 for the Fast-Timings Lane
Searching for the Memory Holy Grail - Part 2

All test conditions were as close as possible to those used in our earlier memory reviews.

INTEL 875P Performance Test Configuration
Processor(s):	Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz (800MHz FSB)
RAM:	4 x 256MB Samsung PC3700 (DDR466) (SS) 2 x 512MB Kingmax DDR500 Hardcore Series (DS) 2 x 512MB Kingmax DDR466 Hardcore Series (DS) 2 x 512MB Corsair XMS4400v1.1 TwinX (DS) 2 x 512MB OCZ PC4400 DC Kit (DS) 2 x 512MB OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 2 (DS) 2 x 512MB OCZ 4200EL(DS) 2 x 512MB Mushkin PC4000 High Performance (DS) 2 x 512MB Corsair TwinX4000 PRO (DS) 2 x 512MB Mushkin Level II PC3500 (DS) 2 x 256MB Adata DDR450 (SS) 2 x 512MB Adata PC4000 (DS) 2 x 512MB Corsair PC4000 (DS) 2 x 512MB Geil PC4000 (DS) 4 x 256MB Kingston PC4000 (SS) 2 x 256MB Kingston PC4000 (SS) 2 x 512MB OCZ PC4000 (DS) 4 x 256MB OCZ PC3700 GOLD (DS)
Hard Drives	2 Western Digital Raptor Serial ATA 36.7GB 10,000 rpm drives in an Intel ICH5R RAID configuration
PCI/AGP Speed	Fixed at 33/66
Bus Master Drivers:	875P Intel INF Update v5.00.1012, SATA RAID drivers installed, but IAA not installed
Video Card(s):	ATI 9800 PRO 128MB, 128MB aperture, 1024x768x32
Video Drivers:	ATI Catalyst 4.1
Power Supply:	Vantec Stealth 470 Watt Aluminum
Operating System(s):	Windows XP Professional SP1
Motherboards:	Asus P4C800-E (875) with 1015 Release BIOS

Since Samsung provided four single-sided DDR466 DIMMs for testing, we did not believe we could effectively test performance of Samsung DDR466 in AMD motherboards which only have 2 or 3 DIMM slots for the XT and A64 chips. Therefore, we only tested performance on our Intel test bed. We did try to run the Samsung DIMMs on an Athlon 64 platform and had no problem running 2 DIMMs at the same timings found in the Intel testing.

Test Settings

The following settings were tested with Samsung DDR466:

1. 800FSB/DDR400 - the highest stock speed supported on 875/865 and K8T800/nF3/SiS755 motherboards.
2. 933FSB/DDR466 - the specified rating of the DDR466 memory modules.
3. 1000FSB/DDR500 - the maximum speed that many current Intel 865/875 boards can achieve.
4. Highest Stable Overclock - the highest settings we could achieve with this memory and other memory we have tested.

These are the same general settings used in benchmarking other memory in the above list of memory tests. DDR400, DDR500, and Highest Memory Speed have been used for all benchmarking. DDR466 has only been tested in the past for modules with this speed rating.