OCZ EL 3200 pl ltd probs...

Since this is my first post at the board let me start out with a big hi to everyone

Here's my prob:
Following a lot of frustrating experiences with generic ram on an ASUS K8V i decided it was time to invest in some high quality memory.
After much reading, over here and at Amdmb, i made up my mind on getting 2x512MB of MUSHKIN PC3200 222... but just couldn't find any reseller that would let me take the memory home without encurring in a return penalty should it fail to work and as a result i ended up picking 1Gig of OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Dual Channel Platinum Limited Edition as this was the closest thing to the mushkin i could find.

On first boot with bios settings at auto (spd - 2-3-3-6) all seemed fine and sweet so i had a go with tighter timings and as soon as i dropped to 2-3-2-6 system became unstable. After days of testing i got the following results (cpu running at default speed):
1st dimm module runs 9hrs of memtest + 6hrs of prime95 torture test faultlessly at 2-2-2-7, vdimm at 2.6v
2nd dimm only passes memtest if i drop timings to 2-3-3-7 (test 5 fails immediately with anything set lower) and upping voltage to 2.7 then 2.8v does nothing to change this
Above results are consistent after swapping the modules back!

I don't want to be too picky and running both dimms at 2-3-3-7 allready yeld quite good results but i can't help feeling a lil anoyed for not getting the results to match the price premium these sticks carry.

As i'm a real noob when it comes to high performance ram i really could use some help.

Do you think my selection of tests is conclusive?
Is this difference in performance normal in a dual matched pair?

Lastly and most relevant. Given that i'm bound to loose out some cash in postage for returning these mems would you take a second chance with an identical kit from OCZ or rather bet on the Mushkin (they don't carry Corsair...)?

I sincerely thank you all for any input.

P.S. Posted the exact same question over at amdmb... hope this is ok....

isnt that memory bh6? if so it just loves high voltage so im thinking u may have gotten some ch5 by mistake??. b4 u do anything get ahold of ocz. those guys are there for 1 thing and thats to make u satisfied. im sure they will work something out to youre satisfaction, cause that memory isnt cheap.. secondly restoking fees are part of the game. i have a set of kingston valueram bt-d43 that runs 260-1-1 which i only ran for 2 weeks
just for testing purposes, i paid 100.00 and had to drop them to 60.00 bux for anyone to sho interest. u have to remember these companies are in business to make a profit and sending stuff back
that isnt defective costs them time, plus when the boxes have been opened no-one wants to pay full price.. lastly i want to emphasize ocz will make u happy so dont forget to contact them first... flapper

LuisMM,

PM me your phone # or e-mail address (for whatever method you prefer to be contacted by) and I will assist you first thing in the morning (1:00 AM ATM)

flapperhead

Yup, this memory supposedly has bh-6 chips and is rated for 2-2-2-7


I have no way of checking the chips due to the massive heatspreaders but i'd be extremely surprised if it would turn out they used two different chips in a dual matched pair....

I honestly understand your point regarding return fees and i'm sympathetic with reseller's position when it comes to products that ship in sealed packages (that was the case whith MUSHKIN). I'll add that the shop i picked these up was extremelly professional and the conditions they proposed for getting either one of the products were absolutely fair (trouble was finding this shop which is located quite far from me)

As you may notice i didn't even have time to follow your suggestion on contacting OCZ for in the meantime SeanOMatic has posted offering his help.
I'm confident it'll all turn out for the best and i won't forget to let you know of the outcome.

SeanOMatic, PM sent

i have that ram and have found that they can run on my asusp4c800e dlx, p4 3.2 at 235 fsb 2-2-2-5 w/ 5/4 divider

at 1:1 they can run at 2-2-3-5 at 218 stable on memtest for 8 hours and prime95 for 8 hours

all at 2.85 volts

havent played around with them much... but they r tricky to get setup right and the temps inside case have a lot to do with their performance

sounds like u got 1 bad stick.

call their tech #, they r very friendly and helpful...I know from at least 4 calls and they provide some good insight on what works

in addition they dont like to run with turbo or PAT enabled

Thanks for the feedback voodoothenoob!

Glad to hear your's are delivering the goods ... judging by the performance of my good one dimm i too am convinced they should be capable of doing pretty well.

Shop has but one other kit of ocz's in stock, gonna decide over the weekend wether i ask for the replacement or have a go with mushkin...
i can tell you that my initial aprehension on getting another set of ocz's has certainly disappeared after reading the replies i got and the PMs i exchanged with SeanOMatic and for that alone i'm really glad i posted at the board

luismm said:

flapperhead

Yup, this memory supposedly has bh-6 chips and is rated for 2-2-2-7

http://www.ocztechnology.com/produc...00_Dual_Channel_Platinum_Limited_Edition_*EOL

I have no way of checking the chips due to the massive heatspreaders but i'd be extremely surprised if it would turn out they used two different chips in a dual matched pair....

I honestly understand your point regarding return fees and i'm sympathetic with reseller's position when it comes to products that ship in sealed packages (that was the case whith MUSHKIN). I'll add that the shop i picked these up was extremelly professional and the conditions they proposed for getting either one of the products were absolutely fair (trouble was finding this shop which is located quite far from me)

As you may notice i didn't even have time to follow your suggestion on contacting OCZ for in the meantime SeanOMatic has posted offering his help.
I'm confident it'll all turn out for the best and i won't forget to let you know of the outcome.

SeanOMatic, PM sent

Click to expand...

ocz has unbelievable support.. yeah somethings not right cause im almost positive that particular memory is bh6. goodluck let me know how it goes

Sorry everyone for digging up this old thread but just wanted to provide some long due feedback for those using the search function.

Following your advice i RMAed the OCZs and one stick was indeed defective. Confident with the results of the one good stick i tried to get a replacement but reseller had sold every 1GB kit and i was told OCZ had stopped producing this memory so they weren't expecting any more... (i did think about contacting OCZ directly for i doubt at the time they hadn't any left for this kind of issues but the idea of how long it might take just discouraged me... sorry Sean ).

Anyway decided i'de take a chance with mushkin and asked for a 1GB kit of PC3200 LevelII 222. (as i'm such a lucky ******* couldn't avoid another RMA for i received a 512MB kit sent in by mistake )

After all this time i finally got my new ram and everything's working smoothly:
memory is running at 200mhz 2-2-2-6 vdimm 2.7v in slots 1&3 memtested and primed for 18hrs each with 0 errors.
tested it with memtest at 230mhz 2.8v and all seemed good but mobo's lack of AGP/PCI lock prevents me from keeping it that way for (I suspect) my SCSI controller doesn't quite like the overclock...

Again sorry for the long post and thanks everyone for your suggestions.