OCZ 3700Gold Review

[Mikki]

Check out bigtoe's review here (http://www.bleedinedge.com/reviews/ocz3700gold/ocz3700gold_pg1.html) and feel free to comment or ask questions in this thread...:)

[RotorHead]

Awesome results there bigtoe!!

Excellent Reviewage!


:beer:
RH

[Purple Lizzard]

WOW!:eyepop:

[Tony]

For more WOW factor have a look at these screenies...all VERY unstable..just for bragging rights;)
DUAL DDR540
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ad.leach/OCZ/ddr540.JPG
SINGLE CHANNEL DDR550
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ad.leach/OCZ/ddr550single.JPG

[Purple Lizzard]

You have it screaming!

All that with a 2.6C ! Congrats

[Duvie]

ONly a few weeks ago I thought 500ddr was going to be a dream and only achieved with DDr2...Very nice!!!

[JayisunJ]

Some time during the last year, somebody lit a firecracker under OCZ's collective arse. Maybe it was all the bad press they were getting and the threat of bankruptcy? Tremendous job overclocking that memory to its limit Bigtoe. You really need to clip your toenails though! :( :eek:

[LastRide]

OCZ make's some good ram now but I am stilll concerned about their quality control.Preople are getting lots of bad sticks or sticks that won't do spec.It happened to me with the 3500EL DC ram.One bad stick and one that wouldn't do spec.OCZ replaced them and their RMA was great.It just sucks getting bad sticks out of the box.Also,remember the OCZ PC3500EL dual channel ram reviewed last year that did close to 500DDR.Nobody got sticks that come even close,only the review sticks.I an hoping this isn't the same story with the "GOLD" ram.I ordered 2 sticks of 256MB gold.We'll soon see if the stick they are seeling are as good as the review sticks.I'll report back tomorrow when my sticks arrive.

[Eagle101st]

im just about ready to get 2 sticks,ive had corsair xms3500C2
not real happy!
im hoping OCZ pc3700 gold will make me happy?
is this the best of rams out there now?
rig:abit NF7s 2.0 vmod.
prometeia cpu ice cold

[JayisunJ]

It happened to me with the 3500EL DC ram.One bad stick and one that wouldn't do spec.OCZ replaced them and their RMA was great.It just sucks getting bad sticks out of the box. Crap man, I just bought two 256 MB OCZ 3500 EL chips for my brothers new comp. I haven't tested it yet because his rig isn't complete, but now I am nervous. Should I just send it back to newegg and get a different brand? Maybe I will just test it before newegg's return period expires and return it if it doesn't do spec?! Thanks for the heads up! ;)

[prometheus]

Techseekers has just posted a review comparing OCZ GOLD to Corsair 3500 and Mushkin - on both the Intel and AMD platforms. The results are very interesting at http://www.techseekers.net/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=58&page=2

[JayisunJ]

Techseekers has just posted a review comparing OCZ GOLD to Corsair 3500 and Mushkin - on both the Intel and AMD platforms. Sweet. 500MHz w/fairly aggressive timings. Never thought I would see DDR I do that! :wave:

[pointreyes]

There is one board so far that has a problem with the OCZ 3700 RAM. :(

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=472801#post472801 - BigToe being called for help. :)

Sorry Guys- its a BIOS problem

The incredibly helpful and efficient tech at OCZ just got back to me. He tried several sticks of RAM which work fine and to spec on other 875P boards, but with the F5 BIOS on the KNXP he can't get better than 210FSB. With the F6a BIOS I sent him, it goes to 220 FSB. This is exactly what I found. So we have to wait for Gigabyte- OCZ will continue to bug them about it.
Perhaps Bigtoe could produce a modded BIOS.............

BTW: No, I'm not the one trying this RAM. I want ECC RAM.

[Croc]

I am on my second try with OCZ3700Gold. RMA's the first batch.

Paid extra to get the dual channel 2x256 kit this time. They will not do 233mhz at anywhere near 2.3.3.7 1:1. No way above that at 1:1 with either pair.

My friend has an IC7 and is not that happy with 1:1 results either.

I can get 262 at 5:4 OK but the OCZGold I have had bombs on the 1:1 settings.

[Eagle101st]

8332.5 was working good for me 225x11.5 i had it at 230fsb working but no shut down till i went 2.8 volts now it wont start windows rma now they will send new wtf
thanks

[Croc]

OK. Basically I tried every possible combination of things including stripping out the sound and nic cards, etc., to isolate the video card and the ram.

My journey with the P4P800 and OCZ3700Gold has come to this:
I am using the 1008 bios.

Using the 1008 bios I can run single channel 245fsb at 1:1 Turbo and MaM enabled stable and I get about the same as running it dual channel at 5:4 ( 320 ). I did not bother to try but I am relatively certain that 250fsb may be possible with more relaxed timings.

I can't get past 224mhz with the OCZGold in dual channel mode using either the black or blue slots. BigToe's advice is RMA the motherboard because the ram is probably fine.

I am asking in Forum if anybody else has had similar experiences because I am inherently curious? I wanted to know if I just have a bad, weak, or substandard motherboard or is this a typical or common dual channel problem for others out there? Some think it is.

My friend found a similar problem with his Abit IC7 board and OCZ3700Gold although not to the same extent there is still a fairly big gap in dual channel versus single channel stability. My other friend has the same board as me and is doing very well at 1:1 with Corsair 3500C2 version 1:1 dimms and with better timings at 234mhz. If he lived closer I would do swaps to see if it made any difference to either one of us. Something to do with the 4 hour drive I guess.

So at this point I am not pointing to the GOLD as the source of the discrepancy. I will chat with my supplier about a mobo RMA to give both components a fighting chance.

OCZ has been really good about suggestions and generally assisting with this. Apart from the hardware, OCZ beats the crap out of Asus as far as support is concerned. OCZ answers e-mail within minutes and hours. Nothing from Asus of course.

[Dr.2K]

Best way to talk to asus support is by phone from my experience. With ocz both email and phone convo is great.

My experience with the OCZ gold has had no shortcomings so far. Both sets of my ocz gold pc3700 does 2,3,3,6 with GAT at F1 with my 3.0c up to 240FSB max. But if i use both sets at same time i can no longer use F1 only turbo and the overclock max's out at about 230FSB with timings at 2.5,3,3,7. This is on a ABIT IC7-G. But i am getting the asus P4C800 Deluxe-E soon so it will be interesting to see the comparison of these 2 boards.

[Croc]

Thanks.

Yeah I did the phone conversation with Asus and got the usual "we don't support overclocking" plus "it's probably your cpu or the ram, routine.

Tony ( aka BigToe ) suggested going back and flashing every bios including all the beta's to see if that would help. That's a lot of work and a tad risky in my view.

My friend simply RMA'd the ram and the new batch is fine so his mobo was not the problem in his case. I think I will try that again.

Doc, is your 240fsb at 1:1?

[Dr.2K]

yes croc it is. But, i had to rma my first batch tho and the i talked to the ocz guy extensively before sent me my pretested replacement which will do 280FSB 5:4 on a 2.4c cpu. By the way, the only other memory that would even allow me to use similar 2,3,3,5 was Geil Golden Dragon pc3500 at 235FSB/1:1/F1. I can always go a bit higher with 5:4 divider but I found that it doesnt give me the performance as the 1:1 with a lower oc.

[Croc]

Well that is interesting. So I am NOT the only one that has had the problem.

Makes me wonder. I was sticking to the retail channel for the rma service because the supplier is 20 minutes away. I did get the same offer from OCZ but that's a long wait and costs for shipping. Right now I do not have spare dimms to use and my usual supplier os on holiday.

Wonder if OCZ keeps "special" dimms on hand for those direct rma's or if the retail versions have a certain percentage failure rate?

[Dr.2K]

Well, i paid for my shipping to ocz but i would had to have paid that also to the retailer. Also, OCZ sent me my replacement next day! But, i am in the same state as they are also and about a couple of hours away. But you can always email and or call ocz support and ask, it wouldnt hurt.

[Croc]

Roger that.

It never hurts to ask.

[Dr.2K]

good luck, hope you have success :)

[Croc]

Eventually I will.

Thanks Doc.

[Eagle101st]

i have rma 3500 dual gold (amd xp2700 prometeia chilled),they said ship it back they will hand pick for nforce board.so im waiting.
soon ill have ic7-g p43.0....this ram is very very impressive at 225fsb amd nforce......i was using xms3500 corsair ocz beat the crap out of it
thanks guys

[Eagle101st]

3700 dual gold not 3500 (reposting)

[Croc]

Why are you RMA'ing the first batch of OCZ3700Gold Eagle?

Some have got well past 233fsb with tight timings and Corsair3500c2 version 1.1 dimms.

[Eagle101st]

abit nf7s 2.0 full v mod
at 225 fsb 11.5 3/3 i could not shut down w2k
i called ocz they email me in 5 min. goto 2.8v i did that fixed it untill i could not start w2k.
i called tech he said it a bad pair we will give new and test with our abitnf7 1st they said i should hit 233 fsb no problem.....does this sound right to you?
thanks

[Croc]

Yes it sounds disturbingly familiar.

[Eagle101st]

croc this ram kiss ass from corsair....i know its ment for p4 boards
so ill keep it for my new board and 3.0cpu
what will be good for nforce croc im talking top of the line buddy please advise money no problem

[Tony]

Originally posted by Eagle101st
abit nf7s 2.0 full v mod
at 225 fsb 11.5 3/3 i could not shut down w2k
i called ocz they email me in 5 min. goto 2.8v i did that fixed it untill i could not start w2k.
i called tech he said it a bad pair we will give new and test with our abitnf7 1st they said i should hit 233 fsb no problem.....does this sound right to you?
thanks

Can you run these timings and fsb with an other brand of memory on this board..also what cpu are you using?

I have great problems hitting 230fsb or so on all my nforce 2 ultra boards even the 2 that are voltmodded both chipset and memory.

Barton cpu's are the worst with Tbred B's being a little better..Also the chipsets do need quite good cooling especially if you have the chipset voltmod.

[Eagle101st]

abit nf7s-2.0 latest bios
xp2700 tbred chilled by (prometeia,also being modded 404r soon)
i put my corsair xms 3500c2 and could not do what ocz did my cousin whos a tech said 3700 has higher fsb lower multpliers
and corsair 3500c2 reverse of ocz
3700 d gold: 8332.5 no tighter
2.8 v-i did goto 2.9 the same
vantec 5k fan cooled chipset
im just waiting for ocz they have the nf2 board on there test bench they will put my new ram in theres and test it or hopefully max it out stable and then send it to me they have excellent service so far i never waited more than 10 minutes for them to email back approx.
have i helped at all please let me know

[dfehlberg]

I, too, RMA'd my OCZ. 3 times, no less. And then the next set also went. What happened here?

Quite simple. HEAT! After I sent my third set directly to OCZ, they informed me that it was perfectly good. Now that blew my mind. When testing my RAM, how can it be GOOD, turn BAD a little later, only to be tested GOOD by OCZ?

When OCZ sent me the third RMAd RAM, it worked like a charm at 2.0-3-3-6, MAM and PAM set to AUTO. Bandwidth was 2474, already 13% higher than the CAS-3 Crucial I had bought in the interim (and the Crucial was run with PAM at STANDARD). After almost 2 hours of running MemTest86 (11 passes), OCZ let me know I could try settoin PAM to STANDARD as well.

For 2 complete cycles, everything was fine. All of a sudden, Test#5 showed four errors. Running Test #5 only, every cycle produced even more errors. It looked as if the RAM was self-destructing.

Remembering the GOOD RAM gone BAD gone GOOD, I let the machine cool down and reset PAM to AUTO. Lo and behold, the RAM was GOOD again! But would it be GOOD with PAM set to STANDARD? It was! Only to eventually fail again.

The problem appears to be HEAT! Either the P4P800 Deluxe North Bridge is overheating or the RAM is overheating.

I checked the temperatures. CPU 48C (117F). Motherboard 39C (102F). I felt the North Bridge - it was warmer than the CPU, but the RAM was warmer (still not uncomfortably).

OCZ figures it's the North Bridge as they can run at much higher voltages. So it appears that ASUS has a slight problem.

Just how many people would run such extensive tests on their RAM, run across this problem and correctly identify it?

Or did I just get an ASUS lemon? I'm not convinced that a North Bridge cooler will do the trick - stand by for the results.


:wave:
Update:
I installed 2 higher-volume cooling fans into the system and added a CPU fan to the North Bridge. Although the temperatures came down a bit, the problem still resurfaced.

Which means that my ASUS P4P800 Deluxe turns out to be a piece of crap! I can't get the maximum bandwidth out of it by setting "Performance Mode" to "STANDARD"! And that is the reason I bought it!

As for where I bought it (NCIX) they are none too eager to test this motherboard with CAS-2 RAM, just with CAS-3. So much for NCIX and buying online. This has definitely soured me a bit on.
:mad:

[ThugsRook]

those springdales can get hot, very hot.
by comparison my canterwood barely budges past 29*C under full load.
try a thermaltake tiger1 NB HSF and see if that helps.

what kind of case cooling are you using?

:wave:

[Croc]

There have been several threads regarding cooling the Northbridge over at ABZZone. There is one

Here (http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=54038&perpage=15&pagenumber=1)

On both the P4P800 I had and the P4C800E I have now, I used the fan from a Thermaltake Blue Orb. Works very well.