It didn’t take long time before Kingston got a competitor at DDR500-market because today we got their pressrelease for OCZ EL DDR PC-400 Gold. OCZs DDR500 are, just as Kingstons HyperX-modules, optimized for high clockfrequens and not “tight” timings. And it’s not something they shuffle about in the specefications.
“HyperSpeed® enabled modules contain firmware and are built on a PCB that is optimized for the highest possible frequency and due to these optimizations the PC4000 Gold modules may not allow latency faster than 2.5-4-4-5, regardless of the module frequency.”
Speaking about specifications, OCZ EL DDR PC-400 Gold is a bit better than Kingstons equivalent. OCZs modules are specified at 2.5-4-4-7 timings which is better than HyperX 500MHz with their 3-4-4-8-1 timings. OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 Gold is also using EVP® (Extended Voltage Protection) which allows voltage upto 3.0 without breaking the guarantee for the modules. A very interesting feature for many but the question is if it could be a problem for the real serious overclockers.
The modules are, according to OCZ, optimized for Intels 865/875-chip which is not so unexpected when these chipset are the only one in a longer period of time which allows 250MHz bus.
It will be very interesting to see both prices and tests of OCZs memory and see how they will stand up against Kingstons models, but during that we have to be satisfied with some specifications.