Installation and Testing:

Let's Fire It Up!

Ok, there's no high tech job saving method to installing DDR2 memory. If you haven't figured it out by now, it's all as simple as matching up the slot notches and pressing them in to place. With the numbers of more DDR3 motherboards appearing on the market, just make sure you have a DDR2 supportive motherboard. Easy as pie.

There are no surprises in store with the PC2-6400 Viper Memory Kit. Everything should work fine and the system should boot. Now, your motherboard may not automatically configure the memory's timings and voltage properly. Very rarely is this ever a memory problem, but more of a platform setting. All you have to do is simply change the timings and voltage manually.

Clicked In

Final Check

Looks Good In Black

In a new effort to keep things simpler and easier to understand, only three 3D intensive programs and SiSOFT SANDRA's CPU and Memory benchmarks were used in the memory tests. This should give you enough information needed for any recommendations.

CPUZ

Mainboard

3-4-3-8 Timings

SPD Report

First impressions from just the memory benchmarks alone will tell you this memory is designed for top notch data transfer. To give you a better idea of just how CAS Latency or memory timings can effect performance, the memory kit was tested at CAS 5, CAS 4, and CAS 3 at 800MHz. As you can see, the memory performs excellent due to its lower CAS Latency 3 timings.
 

For the extreme users and anyone else curious, I overclocked the memory to see how far the Viper 800XLK would go with the lowest possible timings and tested each to show the jump in performance as the memory scaled in frequencies. Naturally, performance increased across the spectrum.

The memory hit a walls at 835MHz 3-4-3-8, 1060MHz 4-4-4-12, and 1230MHz 5-5-5-15. These timings and frequencies were achieved using a mere 2.3 volts as opposed to 2.4 volts. Some users will be able to utilize 2.4 volts safely, while some platforms will not.

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