Overclocking Results:

2.5-3-3-6 2.5-4-4-7 memory speed: 247 MHz 276 MHz If you're new to Overclocking and not sure what to do, check out these two excellent Guides for some pointers: Overclocking the CPU and Memory Overclocking the Videocard

Before we start with the overclocking, the first thing that needs to be done is test how the Patriot PDC2G4000ELK memory runs with tight 2-2-2-5 CAS latency timings. These timings are considered the best possible for DDR, and it serves as a good indication of how much headroom we have to play with later on.

With the timings dialed all the way down the computer would POST, but it couldn't boot into Windows no matter the voltage that was used. Relaxing the timings to 2.5-3-3-6 allowed the system to load up Windows XP and run benchmarks.

With aggressive CAS Latency timings of 2.5-3-3-6, the Patriot PDC2G4000ELK memory achieved a maximum overclocked speed of 247 MHz. All in all that's pretty good for 2GB memory kit. Next we loosened the timings to 2.5-4-4-7, and that permitted the Patriot PDC2G4000ELK modules to overclock much higher. With the memory being fed 2.8V, the clock speed was overclocked in small 5 MHz intervals.

Ultimately, overclocking the Patriot PDC2G4000ELK memory like this allowed it to just break past the 275 MHz barrier, before maxing out at 276 MHz. Any speeds higher caused stability issues, and increasing the voltage did not help, nor did loosening timings further.

Prelude to Benchmarks

The details of how the Patriot PDC2G4000ELK memory test system was configured for benchmarking, including the specific hardware, software drivers, operating system and benchmark versions are indicated below. In the second column are the general specs for the reference platforms this pair of DDR memory is to be compared against. Please take a moment to look over PCSTATS test system configurations before moving on to the individual benchmark results.

PCSTATS Test System Configurations

test system reference system processor: amd Athlon64 4000+ Clock Speed: 12 x 200 MHz = 2.4 GHz 9 x 276 MHz = 2.48 GHz Motherboards: DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR (NF4 SLI) Videocard: MSI NX7800GTX-VT2D256E Memory: 2x 1024MB Patriot PDC2G4000ELK 2x 512MB Patriot PDC1G5600ELK 2x 512MB Centon GEMiNi PC3200 2x 1024MB OCZ PC4000 Gold 2x 1024MB Corsair TwinX2048-4400 Pro 2x 1024MB Corsair TwinX2048-400PT Hard Drive: 74GB Western Digital Raptor WD740 CDROM: AOpen Combo 52x PowerSupply: PC Power & Cooling TurboCool 510 SLI Heatsink: Athlon64 4000+ Reference Heatsink Software Setup: Microsoft WindowsXP SP2 nVIDIA Forceware 7.40 nVIDIA Forceware 84.20 Benchmarks: Business Winstone 2004 Content Creation 2004 SiSoft Sandra 2005 PCMark05 3DMark05 UT2004 Doom 3 Quake 4 Battlefield 2

Office Productivity	Source: Zdnet

Business Winstone 2004 runs real applications through a series of scripted activities and uses the time a PC takes to complete these activities to produce its performance scores.

Content Creation Winstone 2004 is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a PC's overall performance when running top, Windows-based, 32-bit, content creation applications in Windows XP.

Office Productivity
Business Winstone 2004	Points	Ranking
2x 512MB Patriot PEP5125600ELK PC5600 (200/400)	31.7
2x 512MB Centon GEMiNi PC3200 (200/400)	32.3
2x 1024MB OCZ PC4000 Gold (200/400)	32.5
2x 1024MB Corsair TwinX2048-4400 Pro (200/400)	32.7
2x 1024MB Corsair TwinX2048-4000PT (200/400)	32.1
2x 1024MB Patriot PDC2G4000ELK (200/400)	31.8
2x 1024MB Patriot PDC2G4000ELK (276/552)	33.8
Content Creation 2004:	Points	Ranking
2x 512MB Patriot PEP5125600ELK PC5600 (200/400)	39.7
2x 512MB Centon GEMiNi PC3200 (200/400)	39.6
2x 1024MB OCZ PC4000 Gold (200/400)	39.5
2x 1024MB Corsair TwinX2048-4400 Pro (200/400)	39.5
2x 1024MB Corsair TwinX2048-4000PT (200/400)	39.7
2x 1024MB Patriot PDC2G4000ELK (200/400)	39.8
2x 1024MB Patriot PDC2G4000ELK (276/552)	42.1

At stock speeds the Patriot PDC2G4000ELK memory performs on par with similarly paced modules. It results in Winstone are in line with the other 2GB DDR memory kits.