All Mushkin's memory products are shipped out inside a special air
bag. They haven't changed the design of it since the early days; well
this is simply because it requires no changes. The air bag protects
the modules very well and ensures safe delivery. It was a few years
ago that we first saw one of these air bags, and we were simply awestruck.
Mind you, the air bag has one more advantage; once the modules are
taken out, the air bag immediately turns into a football for everyone
to play at office :)
Before I go any further let me point out that DDR memory is quite
easy to be installed the incorrect way if you're not careful. There
are so many out there who have burnt out thier brand new memory modules
simply because they were too hasty and installed the modules the wrong
way. In most instances this will void warranty as well. You don't
want to ruin a perfectly good performance module just to save a few
minutes now do you?
Specifications
Copper heatspreader build (Tampering with heatspreader void warranty.)
PC3500 = 433MHz DRAM Bus
Unbuffered, 6-Layer PCB
Rated 2.5-4-4 " 32x8 chips
Hand tested!
All performance memory modules that come out today are fitted with
memory heat-spreaders. While the performance benefits of this is still
quite subjective, Mushkin has decided to go with the flow and included
copper heat-spreaders on their modules.
As you can see, the traditional Mushkin black PCB is still maintained
on their modules. All Mushkin modules are built around a 6-layer PCB
design ensuring good signal integrity even at very demanding conditions.
The memory chips used in the modules are ultra fast Winbond 5ns chips
which are hand tested on various platforms to ensure the highest quality.
Each module is implemented in a 32MB x 8 configuration with a single
side configuration.
We tried to remove the copper heat spreaders for a closer look at
the memory modules, unfortunately the bond was too hard and we didn't
want to put too much force which would result in damaging the module.
Who ever expects to try their luck at removing the spreaders, please
note that tampering with them will directly void warranty.
PC3500 modules by default have an overclocked BUS speed. By default
no CPU currently in the market can reach 217MHz FSB (433MHz DDR) speeds
without quite a lot of tweaking. However most motherboards today come
with a CPU/Memory divider, which allows us to separate the working
speed of the CPU and Memory BUS. So if you're running a 3:4 (CPU:
Memory) divider, and have a CPU running at 150MHz (which can be easily
achieved), your memory BUS speed will be 200MHz (400MHz DDR). (150
x 4 /3). For the memory to work at 433MHz DDR you need to have a FSB
of 163MHz. We're dealing with very high speeds here, so it's paramount
that the memory modules are of high quality. Mushkin memory has not
let us down before, so lets hope these modules stand up to their reputation.
Thing to note is that these modules are rated at 433 MHz at CAS 2.5.
There are already quite a few manufactures out there who have come
out with CAS 2 memory running at 433MHz. A CAS latency of 2 provides
slightly higher performance in contrast to CAS 2.5, but Mushkin probably
rates their memory at CAS 2.5 just to ensure absolute stability. We
shall however try our luck at running these modules at CAS 2. If you
need more information about CAS Latency and what it's all about go
here.
Time to see how the modules perform. On to the tests…
