Mushkin 3500 Level II Black

Gotta catch a flight soon so I don't have much time to tweak the settings. Booted up to 452 MHz at 2:3:3:5 with no problems at 2.8 V. One thing I immediately noticed when I got these sticks is that they're heavy. I nomally dismiss heatspreaders as useless trinkets but these suckers might actually do something. They're made out of very thick copper. I have pictures but no time to post. Although Sandra is pretty stupid, here are some preliminary benchies: this is running dual channel on an Abit IS7. FSB is at 283 MHz with memory set at 5/4 divider.
I'll do some more in-depth tests when I get back from Cali.

Update: tweaked it a little (was able to catch a later flight)

Now at 452 2-3-2-5

Can toy get any tighter timings? And at 2-3-2-5 is that alos using 2.8V? I'm guessing you haven't had a chance to run memtest yet. Nice results so far though. Keep us posted.

MushKin 3500 Level II Black

1st Post!

That is good to know, I have 4*512 sticks in the mail to me now

I just need a motherboard now...

Well, I had to loosen the timings a tad as I was getting some errors in MemTest. btw, I missed my damn flight because of a lost cell phone .

452 MHz 2-3-4-6

At these settings, it can run memtest all day .

Mushkin 3500 Level

You are using this memmory with the Abit IS7?

I really only want to run at 250 5:4 or above. I have ran at 240, but my Geil 3500 was giving me serious memtest errors at 200*15 and even 133*15 at any latencies and any voltage....I RMA'ed them. I am not using that Motherboard for this comp.

I'm looking at the IC7-G.

Re: Mushkin 3500 Level

fhpchris said:

You are using this memmory with the Abit IS7?

I really only want to run at 250 5:4 or above. I have ran at 240, but my Geil 3500 was giving me serious memtest errors at 200*15 and even 133*15 at any latencies and any voltage....I RMA'ed them. I am not using that Motherboard for this comp.

I'm looking at the IC7-G.

Click to expand...

Yes, I am using the IS7.

I know that Winbond CH5 chips are having problems with the memory divider at high speeds on Abit Springdale/Canterwood boards. This is why I bought the Mushkin memory which is based on Winbond BH4. My Corsair ran like a champ in my old P4PE hitting 433 MHz 2-2-2-5. Unfortunately, past 250 MHz FSB, my computer would go haywire with the 5/4 memory divider.

What processor do you use?

My only concern is how am I going to cool this thing. I understand that is kind of off topic

I had a Zalman 7000cu on my 3.0, it ran a little less than 40 degrees C unloaded at 237*15. I may have to resort to H2O.

I use a 2.4 C @ 3.4.

Ok, I got these puppies to 452 MHz 2:4:2:5 (kinda odd settings but they are the tightest I can go. Doing cycles of Memtest right now. One hour and no errors - looking good .

Sandra scores are around 6050-6100 (again, meaningless )

geez this one stick of RAM costed $200?? is it that worth it?

If it will run at 452MHz

From what I understand, in order for Mushkin to get the Winbond BH4s, they had to bid a large ammount. That and the fact that Mushkin quality is much better than stuff like Geil.

You get what you pay for.

We will find out when my RAM comes in the mail.

-N- said:

geez this one stick of RAM costed $200?? is it that worth it?

Click to expand...

Err, it was two sticks of 256

Re: Re: Mushkin 3500 Level

method().man said:

Yes, I am using the IS7.

I know that Winbond CH5 chips are having problems with the memory divider at high speeds on Abit Springdale/Canterwood boards. This is why I bought the Mushkin memory which is based on Winbond BH4. My Corsair ran like a champ in my old P4PE hitting 433 MHz 2-2-2-5. Unfortunately, past 250 MHz FSB, my computer would go haywire with the 5/4 memory divider.

Click to expand...

The Mush is still using BH-5 not BH-4.

Your Corsair was late XMS3200, I presume? As BH-5 chips are the same thing in the Corsair XMS3500 . . .

I think these are some damn good ram sticks if you ask me.

Clevor said:

Your Corsair was late XMS3200, I presume? As BH-5 chips are the same thing in the Corsair XMS3500 . . .

Click to expand...

Really old xms3500. I didn't actually rip the heatspreader off to look at the chips but I was having problems with the 5/4 divider with that stick so I presumed it was CH5 as many people have been noting problems with memory that utilizes those chips. The Corsair would boot up to 220 FSB 1:1 no problems but around 255/260, it would go haywire.

As far as the Mushkin being "worth it"? Well, it was a judgement call on my part: I had one stick of 512 xms3500 that was having problems with dividers in my IS7. One option would have been to spend another 120-130 for another stick for dual channel and still have problems. Or, but two new sticks of this mushkin stuff which I knew would be BH5 and would work properly. After selling my corsair for 135, the Mushkin sticks ended up costing me roughly $65. After the computer hell I've been through recently, I just didn't want to take chances.

Pretty expensive for RAM. If I didn't have to contend with this divider business; and if I wasn't completely up to my neck in computer problems, I probably would have just save myself some money and gone for Buffalo. But, I knew the performance I wanted; knew which chips I needed; and knew that Mushkin had never let me down in the past.

I thought all the XMS3500 are BH-5? Are the later sticks different? Is there a rev. 1.2 version like the XMS3200 with different chips?

So Methodman, how are the Mushkin doing on the Abit board? I thought the XMS3500 with BH-5 was the sticks having problems with this board, so going to the Mushkin won't help on the Abit.

Oh sorry, Methodman, you are the original poster of this message so you already gave the results.

I also received DC 512 set, and this mem rocks. I was using Geil Dragon 3500 1gb, and could not even get the Geil to run at 430 at a 1:1 ratio.

Played around a little with it last night and was able to hit 255fsb; 1.66 setting on the Aopen board, with 2-2-2-5 timings @2.75 VDIMM, ran Prime all night without a glitch. Was also able to get this mem to run at 220fsb 1:1 ratio using 2-2-2-5 @ 2.6 VDIMM, before I got impatient and decided to go straight for a 250 oc and switched to the 1.66 setting. This mems spd defaults to 2-2-2-5 at setting below 433, and I think my mem was running @ 406 DDR at the 1.66 setting.

This memory rocks, and is the best sticks I have ever had. If you own an Aopen board this mem will get you far and I expect to get very close to the 250FSB with 1:1 ration and relaxed timings.

specs on the mem voltage are 2.5 -2.75 to maintain warranty coverage, but they an be taken higher, but my board only goes to 2.8, so I don't believe I will run it out of specs just to get a couple of more FSB ticks.

Awesome memory, and Geil sucks!

Archangel8 said:

Played around a little with it last night and was able to hit 255fsb; 1.66 setting on the Aopen board, with 2-2-2-5 timings @2.75 VDIMM, ran Prime all night without a glitch.

Click to expand...

Uhh, I assume you meant 455 MHz at 2-2-2-5. Cause 255 DDR is 510 MHz! If this isn't a typo, then DAMN!