OCZ DDR2 PC2-9200 Reaper HPC Edition

May 18th, 2007 | By Archive

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OCZ DDR2 PC2-9200 Reaper HPC Edition


Date
: 05/18/07 – 02:00:32 AM

Author
:

Category
: Memory


Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
OCZ Technology Inc.

Price:
$$229.99 After $40 MIR (Newegg)

OCZ Technology needs no introduction but they get one anyway. The company was founded on the notion that "OCZ was founded by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts" and that still holds true today. It has been close to seven full years since OCZ was conceived and they have done nothing but expand and grow from day one. Their secret to their success has been great product availability, incredible service & warranty support, and always a source of industry leading memory.

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My personal experience goes back a long way with OCZ both as an average user and enthusiast. Being located in Canada, I have to continue to applaud OCZ for consistent availability nation wide at smaller retailers as well as the larger online retailers on each side of this expansive country. Innovation is nothing new for OCZ as they have been prototypical at leading the memory push with every memory generation since the dual-channel revolution that started with OCZ and NVIDIA. That innovation vault is visited again today as we look at the newest in heatsink design for memory from OCZ in their Reaper HPC series.

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The DDR2 lifespan may be at its peak right now, but the advances in IC options for high clocking memory are non-existent. Manufacturers are left to rely on Micron based DDR2 solutions for high speed modules like the OCZ Reaper HPC PC9200 sticks that run at a rated DDR1150 at 5-5-5 timings. In order to run these frequencies, modules are rated to run at the absolute edge and any cooling advances may go a long way in preserving performance in these high-end modules.


Page 2 : Package & Contents

The OCZ Reaper HPCs sport the newest cooling technology that OCZ has at its disposal, the package even has a small advancement that I am happy to report on and show you here in a little bit.

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The package hasn't really changed all that much as OCZ continues to rely on the standard plastic form fitted blister pack. I personally love this package as it protects the memory well and does its job. The modules and cardboard insert are readily visible and at first glance, these heatspreaders really aren't that big, just a bit tall.

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I would imagine all of the OCZ Reaper series comes in the same package with the sticker at the bottom being the only difference. My kit is obviously the highest binned PC9200 dual channel set to run at 5-5-5-18 timings.

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The top half of the package has the Reaper HPC logo and the famous OCZ branding. In this photo, on each side of the package we can see the small change OCZ has made with its blister pack. The package is actually heat welded together in four separate spots.

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I was quite pleased to see this as prior to these "tack welds", the OCZ packages were never sealed in a manner that you knew you were getting a brand new, un-used, kit of memory when buying retail. With these seals, that will again be the case because you can simply check to see if the welds have been broken.

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The backside of the cardboard insert provides us with a nice little diagram of how the Reaper HPC heatspreaders work. The black heatsinks sitting on either side of the modules directly contact the ICs and draw the heat from the memory. The heat is then transferred up to the heatpipe where the aluminum block dissipates the heat. It is definitely a unique heatspreader, let's take a closer look.

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The all black heatspreaders really give the Reaper HPCs an edgy look to them. I am always partial to black so they immediately stand out in my opinion with a strong confident look to them at the same time of maintaining a level of sophistication. In the end, the looks don't matter, the performance does.

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The key component of how this setup works is the single large heatpipe that runs along the top of the modules and then curves upwards where it joins the finned aluminum heatsink. The process seems simple enough and we all know how heatpipes play an integrated role in every other aspect of cooling, why not memory?

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The backside of each module has a part number sticker with specifications of the module printed on it. This sticker is conveniently placed over one of the two screw holes that hold the heatsink on the modules. The screw holes hold two screws that keep the rear panel and front panel of the heatspreader together.

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I have mentioned the height of these modules is obviously greater than standard memory modules but what I was surprised to see was how thin these modules really are. They aren't any bulkier than any other heatsink design and installation issues should be at minimum with the Reaper HPC heatsinks.

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The ICs on the memories PCB appear to be making very good, solid, contact with the heatsink. It also appears that OCZ has used a thinner thermal pad in-between the ICs and the heatsink. This thermal material looks similar to what other memory manufacturers have been using and is usually fused with heat to the ICs. For this reason, I won't be removing these heatspreaders as damaging the ICs in removal is very likely.

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With the excellent contact that the ICs make with the heatspreaders and the overall heavy feel of the heatspreaders, I am going to venture to say that the Reaper HPC heatspreader is one of the better designs that I have seen. Personally I don't know how much the heatpipe plays a role in the whole process but the beefy heatsinks alone that are pressed onto the ICs are a huge improvement from standard heatspreaders we have seen to date.


Page 3 : Specifications

There are not too many kits of memory on the market right now that are specified to run at DDR1150. Obviously OCZ does not warranty this memory to run this high frequency with any setup but they do have 2 chipsets on the approved list including the
Intel 965P
, and the
NVIDIA 680i
. If you are interested in this kit, then you will likely want to be running one of these two chipsets or a setup that you know will run DDR1150 because a high number of machines will not, especially AM2 users because you will have to have a high clocking chip utilizing lower CPU multipliers with a high HTT or FSB.

The basic specifications have been summed up for you in a small graphic I put together:

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The main timing set of 5-5-5-18 at DDR1150 is what these modules are programmed to run at with the following sub-timings for the two different chipsets.

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I will be overclocking and benchmarking this memory on the i965 chipset on my Asus P5B-Dlx so that is what I am most interested. 680i based motherboard users also have the advantage of using EPP profiles for getting the memory up to speed. Interesting heatspreaders you say?

The Reaper HPC is an innovative cooling solution developed by OCZ to effectively minimize heat produced by high-speed memory. As heat rises into the thermo-conductive copper heat pipe conduit, it is dissipated through the strategically-placed compact aluminum fin array.
Personally, I wasn't a big fan of heatspreaders until Corsair and Super Talent and now OCZ, according to the photos, started using a nice solid heatsink that covers all the ICs with a thinner more advanced thermal adhesive method. If the heat pipe at the top actually helps cool the memory, great! If not, then at least there is a solid heatsink on each side of the memory doing as good a job as any other heatspreader out there.


Page 4 : Installation

The topic of conversation at the bottom of the last page was the heatsink design of the OCZ Reaper HPC. That conversation might as spill over here into the installation section. With my P5B-Dlx, the memory area isn't very tight but it is quite busy.

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To the left of the memory is the rather large Thermalright Ultra-120 as well as a north bridge waterblock. With these items all being a bit larger in one aspect or another than the stock counterpart, there is still plenty of room for all to get along and play their proverbial "role".

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We looked at the memory quite a bit in the early section and came to the conclusion that the width of these modules was not going to be any more than a standard set of memory. This photo simply further confirms that with plenty of room in-between each module for a 3rd and 4th module.

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The last step in the installation phase was to setup the fan and get everything running. I did not have the full services of my Hipro-Tech.com DDR Maximizer so I have left it out of the photos but my northbridge cooling has be upgraded in preparation for some benchmarking sessions in the near future so we will benefit from that today. The above photo illustrates how the setup was tested unless otherwise noted.


Page 5 : Overclocking

We have seen the modules, taken an in-depth look at the heatspreaders, and went over all of the specifications…but what can these modules really do? The overclocking section is what I always anticipate when reading a memory review so this is where I spend most of my time for my reviews. Here is a complete list of hardware used for the overclocking:

CPU: Intel C2D E6600 (L629B383)
CPU Cooling: Thermalright Ultra-120
MB: Asus P5B-Dlx Wifi-AP Edition
NB Cooling: Asetek WaterChill KT12A-12VX
GPU: PowerColor X1650 PRO 256MB
PSU: Silverstone Zeus 560W
HD: Seagate SATAII 80GB 8MB NCQ
OS: Windows XP SP2 (with all updates)

Memory:

OCZ Reaper HPC 2x1GB DDR1150 5-5-5-18 @ 2.30v (OCZ2RPR11502GK)

I will show you what I achieved with these modules through screenshots at the various overclocks and charts showing what frequencies were stable at each set of timings. This is a list of what I use as a stability test for each overclock listed.

  • Dual 32M runs of Super Pi Mod 1.5 (ran at the same time)
  • 2 hours of dual Prime95 using Orthos Beta on blend mode
  • 1 hour of dual MemTest in Windows using 750MB/instance
  • Multiple loops of each 3DMark 01 / 03 / 05 / 06

    The above suite of programs may not be enough testing for true 24/7 stability testing but the above programs used for the durations I run will provide a very good idea of what these modules are capable of for a daily overclock. For a daily overclock, however, I don't recommend anything much over 2.30v as Micron based DDR2 will ultimately die when exposed to more than that voltage daily.

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    As you can see above, I did all of the overclocking and testing with active cooling over the modules. I highly advise against running DDRII memory over 2.3v but I will be providing results up to and including 2.5v. We start with a look at the overclocking ability of this memory at 3-3-3-8.


    3-3-3-8 2T

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    I had my expectations wide open with this memory because I didn't want to assume it would clock like other PC9200 OCZ modules such as the Flex XLC. This lack of expectations went only as far as a few hours into the 3-3-3 clocking when I quickly realized that I was likely dealing with a memory kit that was binned for operation at 5-5-5 as it clearly struggled at 3-3-3. I also did some checking at 3-4-3 and got the appropriate frequency increase of about 10MHz-15MHz at each voltage stage. I did manage to stabilize DDR800 but at a rather high 2.40v which I wouldn't recommend anyone running with this kit.

    DDR800 3-3-3-8 2T @ 2.40v

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    4-4-4-8 2T

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    As I mentioned, I wanted to go into the overclocking section unsure of what to expect but with the 3-3-3 clocks that I got on my P5B-Deluxe I pretty much assumed DDR1100 would be at the high end of the 4-4-4 clocks. The PC9200 Reaper HPCs came close reaching DDR1070 at the rather high 2.44v. DDR1000 clocked in at 2.25v which is nice enough for a lot of CPU/Divider setups on the P965 chipset.

    DDR1000 4-4-4-8 2T @ 2.25v

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    5-5-5-8 2T

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    If the last two timing sets didn't excite you that much, the 5-5-5 results certainly will. As the chart above shows you, these modules clearly like to run 5-5-5 and run it well. At only 2.04v I was able to stabilize 560MHz which is just 15MHz less than the stock speed of DDR1150. DDR1200 was easily stabilized at less than 2.20v which gives plenty of overhead for these modules to go from. The Prime stability limit of this kit was DDR1280 but I was able to run dual 32M SuperPi a good bit higher which makes me think the Prime stability limit might be in the motherboard.

    DDR1280 5-5-5-8 2T @ 2.41v

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    Page 6 : Benchmarks

    We now know what the memory is capable of in this system. We will now see what the performance is like by looking at some bandwidth and benchmark numbers. I like to have a variety of timings and comparisons, the chart below outlines what frequencies and timings I will be running the benchmarks at.

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    The last three results on the bottom half of our chart are going to show a direct comparison between the higher-end of the stable top speeds at the three different timing sets. I booted at 400 FSB and used ClockGen to increase to 417FSB so the benchmarks are all done on the 1066 strap. You will also notice that the grey result is run at 3-4-3 instead of 3-3-3. This is because 3-4-3 is actually faster on the 1066 strap. As always, we start with memory bandwidth tests first.

    SiSoft Sandra 07 SP1 – Memory Bandwidth

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    Lavalys Everest Ultimate 07 v4.00 – Memory Bandwidth

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    The bandwidth numbers show a pretty even increase with memory speed adjustments. The Everest numbers are pretty impressive for the bottom white and grey results at DDR1250 and DDR1043. With a CPU speed of only 3.33GHz, 10k Read speed was almost achieved by both.

    Lavalys Everest Ultimate 07 v4.00 – Memory Latency

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    The latency results show a bit of an odd-ball number for the middle bar on the graph representing DDR800 3-4-3-8. On the whole, the latency results are a bit off as I would have expected a gradual decrease in latency from top to bottom for the last three results. I double checked the results but am still not convinced of the validity based on the results.

    FutureMark PCMark 05 & 3DMark 01 SE

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    The next couple of benchmarks I look at are PCMark 05 and 3DMark 01. In the end, the memory doesn't play a huge role in the performance of either program as the results are very similar at the same CPU speed. For benchmarking purposes, the higher the memory frequency, the better the results are going to be.

    SuperPi Mod v/1.5 – 1M

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    SuperPi Mod v/1.5 – 8M

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    SuperPi Mod v/1.5 – 32M

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    SuperPi is just a benchmark but tends to provide valuable information as to how your memory is performing. In all sizes of SuperPi calculations, the faster the memory speed, the better the time. Even at the same CPU speed, DDR1250 always outperforms DDR1043 @ 4-4-4-8.

    Gaming Benchmarks – Far Cry / Half-Life 2 / UT 2004

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    The gaming results are much like all the other benchmarks that we looked at today. They again favor memory frequency when the CPU frequency is the same. The tighter timings at lower frequencies always seems to be slightly behind except with FarCry which doesn't seem to be system limited with all results being very much the same.


    Page 7 : Conclusion

    As I wind this review of the OCZ Reaper HPCs down, I can't help but think about the future and what memory will bring. DDRII prices are at an all time low, performance is at its height, and the selection of available models is mind numbing to put it mildly. Waves of DDRIII memory and capable motherboards are crashing on to the beach every now and then so it appears to be entering the market-place rather soon as well. I think I speak for all memory enthusiasts when I say, the future is so bright, we have to wear shades.

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    The performance of these Reaper HPCs at 5-5-5 certainly was bright enough to blind me without glasses. I still can't get over how well they scale above DDR1200 with such small amounts of voltage. Obviously the ability for these crazy high clocks to continue rising just isn't there. I saw with my P5B-Dlx that it simply couldn't handle dual-channel memory past DDR1280 although the memory seemed more than willing. It appears as though the tortoise has caught up to the hare and is going to pass him…until the new round of chipsets come out which has already begun.

    Lets just say this, when the motherboards memory controllers learn how to play at higher frequencies, I have a kit of memory here waiting for you. The new P35 Intel chipset looks ambitious and those boards are starting to pop up on the other side of the planet so I am very much looking forward to pushing these modules further in the near future.

    Advantages

    Best looking memory on the market…black = good
    Killer performance, killer overclocking ability, and a price that won't kill you
    I actually like the Reaper HPC heatspreaders, and I don't like much
    Lifetime warranty from one of the best in business…OCZ

    Disadvantages

    3-3-3 / 3-4-3 / 4-4-4 overclocking wasn't exciting
    Height of these modules will play a role in some setups

    Overclockers Online would like to thank OCZ Technology for this review opportunity.

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