PC133 SDRAM Roundup - April 2000

Conclusion

The first thing that must be understood is that although we attempted to place similarly performing modules on an equal level, not all modules are in fact created that way. There are errors that due occur that don't result in system halting crashes or loss of data, and to most AnandTech readers, especially the average business/SOHO user or gamer, these memory errors go undetected. If you were running a more mission critical setup, for example a webserver, these errors would most likely end up in the worst case scenario, server downtime, but considering that you'd never want to overclock anything that would be used as a full time server this shouldn't really apply.

In terms of the best bang for your buck, Mushkin's Budget PC133 SDRAM is fairly affordable at $99 and as long as you don't plan on using a CAS 2 setting (as it didn't work at CAS 2 at all) it should be fine up to around 146MHz.

For those users that are looking for a reliable CAS 2 capable module, the Infineon based Corsair/Memman modules worked out fine up to 146MHz as well as the Mosel Vitalic modules from Mushkin and the 256MB NEC module also from Mushkin.

For the most part, a well designed PC133 module featuring 7.5ns chips as did all of the modules in this roundup, should be able to handle the 133MHz setting without any problems and considering that most memory manufacturers are lenient with the -ns ratings on their chips, you shouldn't have too much of a problem pushing them another 5% - 10% above their intended 133MHz operating frequency.

As far as our pick out of the 9 in this roundup goes, the results speak for themselves, Mushkin's latest revision of their High Performance PC133 SDRAM with Mosel Vitalic chips comes out on top. As with any company, be careful when ordering however, because unless you make it very clear that you want this particular module when ordering, you may not get what you expected.

Links

Corsair - http://www.corsairmicro.com

Memman - http://www.memman.com

Mushkin - http://www.mushkin.com

Samsung - http://www.samsung.com