Testing Continued

     At 2.7GHz I was able to reduce the memory bus speed back to 1000MHz which made it easy to turn the memory voltage back down to 2.2v.

     At 3GHz, the fastest memory setting I could use was 999MHz. Even at 2.4v and beyond, I was still unable to take the next jump. The memory just does not have any headroom over 1100MHz. As for the CPU, it just begs to be overclocked. Even at 3GHz, I could tell this CPU has a lot left in it because it did not require any voltage increase to run, nor did I have to detune the bios settings to achieve 3GHz. I'm really looking forward to PC2-9000.

Conclusion

     The PC2-8800 Gold Edition XTC is very fast memory and I'm quite impressed with it's performance due to the fact this system posted some of the fastest memory benchmarks I've see. Unfortunately it felt like I have to push the memory more than I should have since I had to max out it's voltage rating just to hit it's rated speed and memory timings. Regardless, at 2.4 volts this memory is 100% stable. Again, this is incredible fast memory, but its overclocking capabilities just isn't there. If you are looking for overclocking memory to take you beyond the 1100MHz mark, it's probably best to keep looking or to try out OCZ's PC2-9000 or higher.

     Even though I hit a brick wall at 1100MHz, this is still some very desirable DDR2. If you don't plan on going over 1100MHz you just can't get hurt by picking up a pack of PC2-8800 Gold.