One of the first memory modules to reach stable DDR500 performance levels was OCZ 3700 GOLD. Many of us at AnandTech have been impressed with the performance levels and timings we have seen with this memory. We were a bit surprised, therefore, when we learned that this memory was reportedly achieving these performance levels using Samsung TCB3 memory chips.

The surprise was not that OCZ was using Samsung chips in 3700 GOLD — it is common knowledge that almost every high-end memory manufacturer builds their modules with memory from a wide range of memory chip makers. They may order custom blanks, custom label, or do special "binning" to choose chips for their DIMMs, but virtually all of the custom memory makers use chips from huge memory makers like Samsung, Micron, and Hynix. The surprise in this case was the Samsung chips OCZ was using. We had seen the chips used in DDR333 and DDR400 DIMMs from Samsung and a few other manufacturers. In fact, we had a pair of Crucial DDR333 DIMMs that used Samsung chips with the same ID. We wondered how OCZ was able to get these DDR333/400 chips to perform at the stable DDR466/500 levels, which we had seen in our OCZ 3700 GOLD tests for the upcoming article, 'Searching for the Memory Holy Grail — Part 2'.

A Closer Look
Comments Locked

68 Comments

View All Comments

  • Anonymous User - Sunday, August 10, 2003 - link

    Spme of You people Deserve to get ripped off by This kind of BS Marketing
    & Fake memory "Companies" who do nothing
    but marketing.

    This Thing exists FOR the US market lol.
    No other market would ever buy any of it.
  • Anonymous User - Sunday, August 10, 2003 - link

    What a ridiculous post by #45. Are you really that narrow? This isn't some criminal court case, we're talking about how memory performs and if it's worth your while. Sure, OCZ's past is suspect, but all of that happened two YEARS ago. It's well known that OCZ has been overhauled since then. The fact that HUNDREDS of OCZ users that have posting on Internet message boards have raved about how great OCZ's latest modules have been and how quick and pleasant their tech support and customer service are should be all the proof you need about anything related to OCZ products and OCZ support.

    Who the hell cares about binning, lasering, splitting, or how any of that crap is done. OCZ memory modules work and have worked well for many many months now. That's the fundamental point of this article. If you can't understand that then you just don't know how companies in this industry work, and that's, well, sad.
  • Anonymous User - Sunday, August 10, 2003 - link

    #45 If someone here has a bad ocz product ,or even in the past had one, they can contact ocz to get it taken care of , oczguy@ocztechnology.com and oczguy2@ocztechnology.com they I am sure will be very helpfull

  • Anonymous User - Sunday, August 10, 2003 - link

    If AnandTech wants to make this more believable, they should ask OCZ for an invitation to their "factory" where they bin and send chips to their "third party" lasering people, and where they reassemble things on their PCBs. Find out where they get the PCBs, and have them show you the process of assembly. Ask to see the deed to the building, and verify who the owner is.

    Then find out similar things about these lasering people.

    This is the several dozenth incarnation of OCZ, and their history is all too criminal to ignore. Why are they not standing behind their old products with which they defrauded so many people?

    If you want to earn a good name, you earn it by doing the right thing.

    Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
  • Anonymous User - Sunday, August 10, 2003 - link

    Hey, I hear Communist China has revolutionized the "raising the dead" technology they've been working on so long. I think I'll see if they can raise the grandparents I never met for me. It's only a few hundred thousand dollars each corpse! Just because the same government murdered over 100 million people in the last 54 years doesn't mean anything! This must be true! I want it to be true!
  • Kishkumen - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link

    #11 Apparently you read my post, but don't understand simple senteces very well. Maybe if you read it slower next time you'll realize that when I say "I'm sending it back" I probably mean to say "I'm sending it back". You must have the comprehension of a two year old.
  • Anonymous User - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link

    OCZ gold is returnable , if you bought the wrong products on accident or have any trouble you should email them , oczguy@ocztechnology.com or oczguy2@ocztechnology.com are always helpfull, really nice folks

  • Anonymous User - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link

    hi all,
    Just a tip for all those like myself who bought an Msi 865PE motherboard. I wanted to get the pc 3700 gold ocz, but ocz reps emailed and told me MSI motherboards don't work well in async mode (>400MHz ram). Please remember to email your ram manufacturer before purchasing because ocz gold is not returnable. Hopefully, MSI will make another BIOS release to work well in async.
  • Anonymous User - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link

    I heard OCZ had a pact with satan , how else could they make the memory run so fast. :-D
  • Anonymous User - Saturday, August 9, 2003 - link

    Think I will be picking up a pair of these, I have been a fan of OCZ memory for some time,

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now