GeIL has grown to be one of the larger RAM manufactures these days. They mainly cater to overclockers and gamers with their fast memory. They have value RAM, Golden Dragon Series which uses Wafer Level Chip Scale Package chips, and Ultra series which is very high performance RAM. GeIL manufactures SODIMM modules for use in laptops including a Golden Dragon series. They also recently introduced a line of memory designed specifically for Apple desktops and laptops. This particular dual channel kit that GeIL sent over is PC4000 which runs at 500MHz. Below is a table of memory speeds to give you an idea of their rating, DDR speed, and MHz.
| PC2700 | DDR333 | 166MHz |
| PC3200 | DDR400 | 200MHz |
| PC3500 | DDR433 | 216MHz |
| PC3700 | DDR467 | 223MHz |
| PC4000 | DDR500 | 250MHz |
| PC4400 | DDR550 | 275MHz |
| PC4500 | DDR566 | 283MHz |
GeIL’s website offers a good amount of information on their products. Below are some specifications that I pulled from their website. The latency on this RAM is quite high due to the high speeds of the RAM. Normally with faster RAM you are going to see higher latency times to make up for the RAM being pushed so fast when it comes to speed.
Specifications
- 184pin, Non-ECC, Un-buffered, high performance DDR memory modules.
- GeIL 3.5ns 32×8 Density DDR Chip
- 6 Layer Ultra Low Noises Shielded PCB with Gold 30u” Plating
- Optimized SPD for Intel 875/865 chipset Dual Channel DDR motherboards
- Platinum Copper Heat Spreader
- Lifetime Warranty
- CAS 2.5 7-4-4 @ DDR500MHz PC4000
- 2.6V-3.1V
- Retail package with clear acrylic case
- Temperature Thermometer allow users to monitor the temperature of their memory modules
The memory comes packaged in a clear acrylic retail case which is more than enough to keep it protected. Within the acrylic case you can see the modules which are individually packaged air tight inside of anti static bags. There is also foam padding around the RAM to keep it in place providing even more protection. It is nice to see when companies put this kind of care into the packaging of their products.
The modules are very hard to take pictures of because they are so reflective. On the left side of the modules there is the temperature thermometer which acts like look like a mood ring changing color when the heat changes. Though this is a simple idea it is very cool to see implemented on something like this.
The CAS specifications of this memory are 2.5-7-4-4 which is about standard for memory this fast. I was not able to run it at 2-2-2-5 at DDR400, the best I could do was 2.5-4-4-7. Below are two screenshots from the memory section of CPUZ. They are both of the GeIL PC4000, the first at DDR400 and the second at DDR500. I was able to run this memory at the rated 2.5-7-4-4 @ DDR500 however I did need to up the voltage on the RAM +0.3v.
To make sure the memory was stable at DDR500 I ran Prime95 for a good amount of time to make sure there were no errors and that the system wouldn’t crash. I decided to run the Corsair 1024MB PC3200 TwinX at 2-2-2-5 even though the GeIL memory was not able to run with those latencies. I decided to do this since running them with the same latencies would have given almost identical results. I wanted show see the difference, if any the latencies would make in the comparison. So just keep in mind that the Corsair is probably going to perform a little better since it has better timings.
| DDR400 | DDR500 |
I will be using 1024MB PC3200 TwinX from Corsair to compare against this GeIL kit. Benchmarking will be done using the following benchmarks: SiSoft Sandra 2004 professional, Everest Home Edition, dBpowerAMP, and Comanche 4.
Test Bed:
- Albatron PX915G Pro
- Intel 3.6GHz Pentium 4 LGA775 ES
- GeIL 1024MB PC4000 and Corsair 1024MB PC3200 TwinX
- Albatron PCX5750
- Plextor 708A DVD burner
- True Silent 450w PSU
SiSoft Sandra 2004 professional has many different informational modules and benchmarking tools. The DDR400 scores are just about the same with both GeIL and Corsair, with a slight margin of difference. The reason the Corsair DDR400 scores are a little better is because its running at 2-2-2-5 whereas the GeIL is running 2.5-4-4-7. With the DDR500 there is a huge increase in score even in a single channel environment.
Everest Home Edition is system information and benchmarking tool that does quite a lot. One part of the program will benchmark your memory’s read and write performance in the amount of MB per second. The DDR400 testing is similar to that of SiSoft Sandra with the Corsair memory scoring a little higher than the GeIL because of the timings. The scores of the GeIL at DDR500 are much improved also which shows the benefit of having PC4000.
dBPowerAMP allows you to convert from one format to another and just about every audio type is supported: mp3, mp4, wma, and many others. For this testing I converted a 91MB WAV file to MP3. With this testing the lower the seconds the better since it is the amount of time it takes to complete. The DDR400 testing is identical with both GeIL and Corsair taking 27 seconds to finish the conversion. The GeIL memory at DDR500 was one seconds faster which isn’t much, but there is an improvement.
Comanche 4 is a helicopter flight simulator game and the demo has a built in benchmark. I ran all of the tests at 640×480 and left all of the other options at their default. No AA or AF were used during the testing and the Albatron PCX5750 was at its stock speed of (425/500). During the DDR500 testing the benchmark did fail even after trying it a few times. I increased all of the voltages that I could for the motherboard including the DDR, northbridge, and CPU none of these fixed the stability problem. While testing with other games and applications it was somewhat hit and miss. Most applications and games would work just fine while others might crash or lock up the computer.
Overclocking
Overclocking did not go any further than the rated PC4000 at least with the motherboard I was using. I was not able to push the memory any higher than 250MHz even with the DDR voltage maxed out and CPU voltage at 1.6v. I honestly can’t tell if this memory has more in it and the motherboard or processor was just hindering it or if PC4000 is all you are going to get out of it. I know there are more overclockable motherboard on the market than the one I used for testing so maybe those would be able to get more out of this RAM.
Conclusion
After finishing all of the testing and looking back on everything I am quite impressed with this memory. Though I was able to run the memory at the specified speed with little to no problems I wouldn’t say that everything went according to plan.
I was not able to get Comanche 4 to successfully complete even with my DDR voltage maxed out. I do feel that part of the problem in the overall equation was the motherboard being maxed out. I don’t think that my processor had anything to do with the problems since I was using an engineering sample and was able to lower the multiplier.
So with all of these things being taken into consideration I would say this memory stands up pretty well. It would have been nice to be able to run the memory with latencies of 2-2-2-5 at DDR400 however since their specifications say nothing about this I won’t knock it too much.
So I guess my one sentence summary of the memory would be as follows: If you have an overclockable Intel motherboard and processor and want to get your memory to 250MHz or faster this PC4000 from GeIL should do the job.
Since I am somewhat on the line with what the final score of this memory should be I am going to give it an 8/10. I would like to thank GeIL for sending this memory over for review.
Pros
- Very high bandwidth scores
- Works great for dual channel applications
- Heatspreaders with built in thermometers
- Nice packaging
Cons
- Would not run at 2-2-2-5 @ DDR400
- Was not able to push it over 250MHz