Introduction

Are you mentally challenged? Yes… well no need to worry as Mushkin is here to the rescue. Mushkin Memory needs no introduction as one of the leading memory giants in today's PC arena. If you haven't heard of them, well…. How can I describe you now? Hmmm...let me see!! Just kidding folks. Incorporated in early 1994 and based in Colorado, Mushkin memory has come up from an average memory producer to one of the leaders in the market today. The key to Mushkin's success is due to two aspects; high performance and incredible stability. Believe me people; Mushkin memory is one of the most stable memory types capable of withstanding high overclocking procedures.

Memory is something you can never have enough of. Anybody disagree with me? Guess not. Well hunting for memory can be a very daunting task indeed, nevertheless it's one of the most important factors you should not overlook when buying. The main criteria you have to consider in memory are speed, type and the brand. There are many generic types of RAM out in the market going at very eye catching prices, however opt for these modules only if you don't require high performance. If you plan on overclocking your system extensively these types of RAM will fail miserably. So when it comes to high performance and stability, well your choices narrow down considerably. Before I continue on there's one fact all you newcomers to the PC arena should know. Never think that spending extra for a good brand of memory is a waste of your money. Actually consider it as a saving. Arguably RAM is one of the key important pieces of hardware in your computer when it comes to performance and reliability. The total performance of your system significantly depends on your memory. So if you expect high-quality performance from your system a good brand of RAM will take you a long way. Overclockers, ever wondered why your systems crash constantly even though you have installed the best cooling in your system? Well taking a look down memory lane would be a good start.

So what do we have in offer to you today? Mushkin sent us one of their 128MB PC 133 High-Performance Rev 3 SDRAM modules to be tested. There're a few things you should know when installing RAM modules in your system in order to get the most out of them. So find out what they are just to update yourself.

Things to know

The performance of your memory will have a lot to do with the type of motherboard you use. If you're one of those overclockers who still rely on those great BX boards, memory frequency will only fully support 66MHz and 100 MHz FSB (Front Side Bus) speeds. The newer i815 and i815E chipsets are similar to the BX chipset, however they are capable of going beyond the 133MHz mark.

Going into the bios chipset feature setup of your board, you're offered three settings, which determine the working memory frequency for your system. The common settings are CAS Latency, RAS to CAS delay and Pre-charge delay. To get the best performance from your system you need to set these timings to their optimum level, so lets see what all these mean.

CAS (Column Access Strobe) Latency tells the system of the DRAM system memory access cycle timings when SDRAM memory is installed in the system. The memory's column access timings and the current system clock speed determine the ratio for this setting. Setting this to CAS 2 will give you the best performance, yet if the RAM is not rated at this setting the system might not be very stable. Higher the clock speed of your system, harder the ability to run a lower CAS rating. This actually depends on the CAS rating of your memory. If it's rated at CAS 2 then it's likely that you'd be able to run high frequencies without any lockups. Mushkin's 128MB High Performance Rev 3 modules are rated at CAS 2 as 133MHz. As our tests will show we were able to go beyond this frequency at CAS 2 with no system halts.

RAS (Row Access Strobe) to CAS delay sets the delay between the CAS & RAS signals. Pre-charge delay and RAS to CAS delay should be set to a lower value for best performance. A higher number will improve stability, compromising in performance. However the memory in concern today has a rating of 2 at 133MHz.

Mushkin's High Performance Rev-3 memory are rated at 2-2-2, which effectively means that its CAS Latency, RAS to CAS delay and Pre-charge delay are set at 2 at a speed of 133MHz. After all why would they call it "High-Performance" huh?