Socket AM2 is waiting around the corner and with it all current desktop platforms will use DDR2 technology. However, Socket AM2 is not suppose to be a big step up in performance compared to Socket 939, which leaves overclockers and enthusiasts in a troubling situation. Some will jump onto the new one, some will stay with the old. For the latter an interesting review has now been published. PureOverclock compares three 2GB kit (2*1GB) from Corsair. Corsair XMS 4400 Pro TwinX, Mushkin, Mushkin XP4000, and OCZ, OCZ PC4000EB Platinum. The first use Infineon’s CE5 chips, while Mushkin use Samsung’s UCCC chips and OCZ here comes with Infineon’s CE6.
Corsair’s more expensive kit turned out to be capable of tighter timings than the other and at the same time very high frequencies. As expected Mushkin’s modules performed very high frequencies thanks to the UCCC circuits, but the latencies were far from flattering. OCZ end up somewhere in between with relatively good latencies at lower speeds, but didn’t quite manage as high speeds as Corsair’s and Mushkin’s kits.
It all comes down to a matter of taste and the size of the wallet.
