Introduction

While DDR3 has been touted by Intel to be the memory of choice for the Intel platform, Intel still hasn’t given up on DDR2 which is pretty evident in their last three major chipsets. P35, X38 and X48 chipsets all have dual band memory controllers in them, that being they can support either DDR2 or DDR3 memory, depending on what the motherboard manufacturer decides to support. Some have placed both DDR2 and DDR3 slots on their boards for easier upgradability; this helps users who want the latest chipset motherboard but don’t want to change their memory right away.

DDR2 is still a big player with all the big names still whipping out newer and faster modules based around the DDR2 standard; this is because of a two-prong attack. First is Intel’s continuing support for DDR2 on its high-end chipsets, and secondly AMD’s reliance on DDR2 for its AM2 and AM2+ based CPUs. Since AMD can’t change memory standards like Intel can by simply changing a chipset, AMD’s own CPU memory controller makes it a lot harder to simply swap standards, which has been the biggest problem with AMD’s on-chip memory controller.

DDR2 is still kicking, and today we have a new kit from Patriot memory who have come through with a bang in the last six months with new modules hitting the shelves. We have been given their latest PC2-6400 4GB kit with low latency timings on offer. How does it fair compared to our tried and true Geil modules? Let’s move on and see.