Patriot PDC2G3200LLK 2GB Dual Channel Kit

Introduction

The recent battle for the 2GB crown has been extremely intense. The most impressive solution thus far has been Crucial’s Ballistix solution. Another giant in the memory market, Patriot, is certainly not intending to sit this one out. Their PC3200LLK 2GB solution has been in the market for quite some time now and was one of the first to be rated with low latencies. Patriot’s offering looked good right from the start.

Our last encounter with Patriot memory left us more than satisfied. Their PC2-5600 XBL memory performed very well and came with an extremely affordable price tag. Their price/performance ratio was untouchable. Although their PC3200 2GB memory is not released under their XBL series, the rated low latencies should still bring in some good bandwidth. As for the overclocking potential, well, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Patriot Patriot PDC2G3200LLK

Patriot’s memory now comes with new sleek packaging. It deviates from the traditional clam shell or hip tray mold and it looks quite attractive. The aluminum heatspreaders come in a nice red finish and match perfectly with the red Brainpower 815 PCB.

As mentioned earlier, the Patriot PC3200LLK 2GB comes rated with low latencies of 2-3-2-5 at a speed of 200MHz. The rated voltage ranges from 2.6v-2.7v. The memory ICs used to power my sample was the Infineon BE-5. There have been many reports from enthusiasts that the PC3200LLK comes with a variety of Infineon ICs–BE-5, CE-6, and BE-6. All of these may cause the overclocking results to vary. Even the results from the B-5 are quite unpredictable. While some can overclock higher than others, but the majority usually hover around the 230MHz mark.

Test System and Overclocking

Test System:

• AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice
• DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D
• 2 x 512MB Patriot PC3200LLK 2GB
• ATI Radeon X800XT
• Arctic Freezer Cooling 64
• Thermaltake PurePower 680W
• BIOS 623-3 and orange slots

Overclocking:

Keep in mind that during overclocking, the latencies are as follows: CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS

The overclocking process for the Patriot PC3200LLK 2GB kit was very short. I began the test by making sure that the memory was capable of running low latencies of 2-3-2-5 at the rated 200MHz. Sure enough, the memory was rock solid. The memory pushed an extra 20MHz before coming to a halt. Running at 220MHz with timings of 2-3-2-5 is decent. I loosened TRP to 3 but found no additional help. The only instances when the memory could scale any further was when the latencies were loosened to 2.5-3-3-7. The memory reached all the way to 255MHz. Impressive. I had hoped that the memory could make another good jump with even looser timings, but unfortunately it had already reached its ceiling. Looser timings of 3-3-3-8, 3-4-3-8, and even 3-4-4-8 did not help. Increased voltages had negligible effects as well.

Overclocking Results:

• 200MHz 2.0-3-2-5 1T 2.7v
• 220MHz 2.0-3-2-5 1T 2.7v
• 255MHz 2.5-3-3-7 1T 2.7v

Results

A series of memory intensive benchmarks will be run to test the performance of our sample. The other tests will be based on common benchmark programs, such as 3DMark and PCMark. Real life performance differences will be tested through current games, such as Far Cry and UT2004. Memory bandwidth benchmarks will be based off of SiSoft Sandra and Everest Home Edition. Super PI and PiFast will also be used to test memory performance, as the benchmark benefits largely from FSB increases.

SiSoft Sandra Memory Bandwidth

SiSoft Sandra is the most widely used memory bandwidth test. It can tell you the increase in performance from just lowering the latency timings.

Everest Home Edition

Much like Sandra, Everest Home Edition tests the memory’s ability to read and write data in large chunks. The results show that the lower latencies seem to help just a little with performance.

3DMark2001SE

3DMark is likely the overclocker’s favorite benchmark. Unlike 3DMark2003, which stresses mainly the video card, 3DMark2001SE tests all of the system’s main components. Increasing the CPU speed, memory speed, and video card speeds will result in higher results in the final score.

Results Continued

Far Cry

Since Far Cry is a game, the performance results will be very similar to 3dMark2001. I ran the benchmark at 640x480, so the benchmark would not be too GPU dependent. The tests under 1024x768 and 1280x1024 are an approximation of what kind of frames you’ll be getting. While the results are similar to 3dMark2001 in performance, this benchmark will give more significant results, because Far Cry is a lot more demanding.

Unreal Tournament 2004

Unreal Tournament is another popular game engine to test overall system performance. Here, we can see the same results as Far Cry and 3dMark2001. Like Far Cry, UT2004 was also run at 640x480 to limit GPU dependency. The other resolutions provide an approximation of actual game play performance.

PCMark2002

PCMark is another benchmark created by Futuremark. It tests the memory compression and decompression speeds in small to large chunks of data.

Super PI

Since the value of PI is an infinite value, Super PI is a speed test to find the digit you’re looking for. In this case, we chose the millionth digit. Super PI benefits greatly from higher FSB, as well as low latencies.

PiFast

PiFast is similar to Super PI. The results can be greatly affected by a slight adjustment to the memory megahertz and latency.

Conclusion and Thoughts

Overall, the Patriot PC3200LLK 2GB kit is a good investment given the few 2GB choices. The memory looks great with the matching red aluminum heatspreaders and the red PCB. The memory will not win any overclocking contests, but its affordable price tag definitely deserves notice. There is one thing about the memory that does bother me, however. The use of different memory ICs will leave overclockers playing the trial and error guessing game. If you were lucky enough to get yourself some BE-5, you’ll have some decent overclocking headroom. I haven’t had any hands-on experience with BE-6 or CE-6 ICs so I can’t comment there. If you’re not planning to overclock and are simply looking for a good low latency solution that won’t break the bank, this is it. If you’re looking for a 2GB solution that can overclock well on a consistent basis, the PC3200LLK will leave you asking for more. But all in all, it’s not bad. I just hope that Patriot is planning on introducing a higher speed part solution. Knowing Patriot, they probably already have something in the works.

We would like to thank Patriot for providing us the sample. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to hit us up in the forums. You can also check out more of our latest reviews on the front page.