Today we say goodbye to
32-bit Windows as we convert another system to Windows Vista Ultimate
64-bit. With a 64-bit operating system we gain support for more than 3GB
of RAM, which is where 32-bit Windows leaves off. Yes, there are some
tweaks out there to fool your computer into recognizing more than 3
gigs, but if you want real support you must switch to a 64-bit OS.
The test system we'll
be using today starts out with the ASUS Striker II Extreme and an ePower
Tech 1200w power supply. We then dropped in an Intel C2 Quad Q9450
Processor, a pair of 500GB Seagate hard drives running in RAID 0, and
then topped it off with a Visiontek HD4870 video card. Here are
the specifics:
Motherboard
ASUS Striker
II Extreme
CPU
C2Q Q9450
Video
Visiontek HD4870
Memory
4GB Mushkin
HP HP3-12800
Power Supply
ePower Tech 1200w
Storage
2 x 500GB Seagate HDD
RAID 0
Optical
Lite-On 20X DVD+/-RW +DL
OS
Windows Vista Ultimate
64
Overclocking
My objective was to crank these bad boys up to see
how fast they could go and I was fairly
pleased with the results. With the voltage at 1.9v throughout testing I was able to boot into windows and run some benchmarks
at 2000MHz, but it just wasn't stable. It really needed just a
little more voltage to become stable. In order to achieve 100%
stability I had to bump it down a
notch to 1969MHz. For
those of you that don't know, the 790i does let you key in the memory
speed that you want, but it uses dividers to get you close. In
this case, keying in 2000 got me 2000MHz, keying in 1999 got me 1969MHz.
Testing
To properly test the RAM I'm going to run the Mushkin
HP3-12800 at a few
different speeds. The CPU will be running at 400MHz (1600) and
450MHz (1800) FSB. From those settings we'll run the memory at
1600 default timings, 1600 tight timings, 1800, and finally as far as we
can overclock it. Now at 400MHz CPU and 1600MHz Memory, I used the
linked and sync. All other speeds at 400MHz CPU was unlinked.
At 450Mhz CPU and 1800MHz Memory, I used linked and sync. All
other speeds at 450MHz CPU was unlinked.
Memory tests will be done using
SiSoft
Sandra Pro Business XII SP2. ClubOC has been using
SiSoft Sandra for many years now and it's pretty much the only
benchmarking program we trust for testing memory and processors.
Let's run some tests and see where this new Mushkin HP DDR3 memory comes
in.
1600FSB/1600Memory
CAS 7-7-7-24
INT buff'd
9128 MB/s
Float buff'd
9114 MB/s
1600FSB/1600Memory
CAS 8-8-8-24 (default timings)
INT buff'd
8917 MB/s
Float buff'd
8892 MB/s
1600FSB/1800Memory
CAS 8-8-8-24
INT buff'd
8962 MB/s
Float buff'd
8959 MB/s
1600FSB/1969Memory
CAS 8-8-8-24
INT buff'd
8992 MB/s
Float buff'd
8907 MB/s
1800FSB/1600Memory
CAS 7-7-7-24
INT buff'd
9753 MB/s
Float buff'd
9813 MB/s
1800FSB/1600Memory
CAS 8-8-8-24 (default timings)
INT buff'd
9692 MB/s
Float buff'd
9669 MB/s
1800FSB/1800Memory
CAS 8-8-8-24
INT buff'd
10015 MB/s
Float buff'd
9971 MB/s
1800FSB/1965Memory
CAS 8-8-8-24
INT buff'd
9920 MB/s
Float buff'd
9889 MB/s
As you can see from the scores, running your memory linked and in sync with the FSB
is the best
way to go. Sandra turned out some pretty good scores and we even hit the
10k mark at 1800/1800. Hitting over 10k in Sandra was common to see when
overclocking DDR2, but it's something we just don't see with DDR3. In
fact this is the first DDR3 memory kit we've tested that has been able
to reach the 10k mark!
