OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 Reaper HPC Edition PC Memory

Observation

   We will start off this part of the review by comparing the memory to 1000 other modules that have nothing to do with each other so lets start looking at the 15 pages of bar graphs….got you!  I think with this review will take it in another direction some may like it or may not, so if you have any comments go to the forums in the hardware review sections and voice them there.

Personally I decided to go in this direction with the review as I get tired of all the graphs and comparisons thrown in my face. You probably already know what you memory can currently do and what you would like to see your next purchase of memory can do, right? RIGHT! I will show you some graphs…yeah I know that just goes against what I said, but the graphs will be about the OCZ Reaper 8500 DDR2 Memory. Showing some baselines and how far the memory can be pushed.

Overclocking: It’s what we really want to know.

We all want the get the most out our games with increased FPS (Frames Per Seconds) one way to get this done is of course buying a faster video card, but if you are a little strapped on cash you can overclock the card. The same can be said for your CPU by increasing the Front Side Bus and overclocking the memory. But you need memory that can stand up to the challenge and the OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 Reaper HPC Edition is ready to accept the dare. Here is a quick view of the memory threw CPU-Z ver. 1.41 at the recommended settings.

 QUAKE 4 (OpenGL) features fast-paced multi player competition modeled after the speed, feel, and style of QUAKE III Arena. Raven Software has collaborated with id software, the creators and usual developers of Quake games in the past. In this case, id Software supervised the development of the game as well as providing the Doom 3 engine, now known as ‘id Tech 4’. The graph below shows you the results from testing the memory at three different resolutions. Passes were made at each resolution with the memory at the recommended settings in the BIOS and default (auto) settings within Quake 4. Another set of passes were done with the FSB set to 313 and the graphics bumped up to AA-4 and AF-8. The video card used for this testing was a Sapphire X1950 Pro Ultimate. 

Now lets take a look at what the memory can do in everyone’s favorite Overclocking benchmark tool SuperPi. The version that I am using for the test is SuperPi 1.5 XS. What I did was run multiple tests at the stock speeds and overclocked speed. The RAM  speed was set to 1067(what the BIOS showed), voltage was set to the default 2.30 and only the FSB (Front Side Bus) was changed to achieve the results. The 5-5-5-15 timings were left alone. After testing for awhile I was able to get, what I think, is a good overclock with an increase of 47 on the FSB for a 17.669 % increase. I was able to get above the 313 FSB, but I started to get a few errors and 313 was the spot were it felt the most stable.

Here is your look at the OCZ Reaper 8500 DDR2 set at 313 on the FSB.

As I said earlier I am pushing the OCZ Reaper 8500 DDR2 Memory against itself. I took the Overclocking results from above and set out to beat it. For the next test I took the CPU multiplier and dropped it down one from 8 to 7. I next set the memory to the highest voltage setting that OCZ will still cover in the warranty which is 2.35 volts. The 5-5-5-15 timings were left alone. Little by little I upped the FSB until I got errors and then back it down until the errors no longer happened. The end result was pretty impressive for only having changed a few options. A FSB increase of 108 at a 34.505 % increase and it took the CPU from 2.13 to 2.947. That’s a nice 38.028 % increase over stock.