Thanks for the article Reefa
. Your poker analogy is great - but I say "why even gamble?".
Personally, I'm still a BH-5 man. Now that UTT has hit the world in a big way, good BH-5 and BH-6 can be found for a more than fair price, and quite easily if you know where to look.
Why would I pay Mushkin or OCZ for binned DDR500 UTT, that is
only guaranteed to do 250 MHz 2-2-2-X (and with no mention of 1T/2T timing) at 3.3-3.5V,
with active cooling when I can buy used and enthusiast tested (a far superior 'standard' to any speed bin, in my opinion) BH-5/BH-6 that will do 250 MHz 2-2-2 with 3.2V-3.3V, without any active cooling at all?
My point is that almost any halfway decent (almost any older PC3200/PC3500 BH-5/BH-6 that has seen use, and a long 'lifetime burn-in' as a result) BH-5/BH-6 will end up doing 250 MHz 2-2-2 given enough voltage, usually only around 3.2V-3.3V with an Athlon64 - which is the only platform that this memory really flies with right now.
The higher rated UTT speed bins are a waste of money because of this -
right now I would not even think about buying any BH-5/BH-6/UTT that has not been tested to at least 270 MHz 2-2-2 with 3.6V. I have half a gig of Corsair BH-5 that does 260 MHz with memtest86 stability, in an nForce2 motherboard, when given 3.6V. I bought it for $135 Canadian currency several months ago. This memory that I have is average, maybe slightly above average.
I'll gladly shell out for a UTT (or BH-5/BH-6) 'speed bin', but only if it is exceptional UTT/BH-5/BH-6 that has been reliably tested by another enthusiast, or specifically binned by OCZ/Mushkin for me personally. Why waste your money on a brand new 2-2-2-X (1T?/2T? 3.3V-3.5V? Active cooling 'required'?) DDR500 speed bin when you can find better, used memory, for way less money?
Just my 2 cents, I'm interested in what everyone else thinks