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Introduction
 The
best software out these days seems to be the most expensive in terms of
RAM consumption. Which means, there's always going to be a place for RAM
upgrades. The increased demand paves the way for many computer component
companies both new and old to venture into this area. ULTRA is a new company
both to this market and the computer component market at large. Their
focus is on upgrade components for PC's. You might be asking "what
makes this new company any better than the other countless new companies
these days?". It's simply their dedication to providing consumers
a top quality product at an unbelievably low cost.
The product under review, the Ultra DDR RAM 512mb pc2100
comes with a lifetime warranty, free technical support, and GARUNTEED
compatibility. However, like I said, with their ULTRA quality none of
this will be needed.
Here are NextGen Electronics we have a lot of respect for
companies boasting such quality. For that reason were very excited to
have the ability to review this RAM, and very eager to put it, as well
as the ULTRA company to the test.
The Installation
There is nothing tricky about RAM installation. The Ultra
RAM stick installs snug like most quality RAM sticks. It snaps in fairly
easily, and the PC does the rest when you turn it on. It actually comes
with very thorough instructions for the complete Newbie, which might be
a first for RAM companies. If you are new to memory upgrades don't be
intimidated by this, I assure you it's very simple.
Performance Testing
To get a good idea of how Ultra RAM compares to other RAM
on the market I used SiSoftware's Sandra Standard. It's the preferred
method for benchmarking because of it's graphical representation of results.
The first test illustrates the RAM at the normal Clock
2 (CL2) setting against the top 4 pc2100 configurations available. As
you can see it performed very well; exceeding 3 of the 4 comparisons in
both Integer STREAM and Float STREAM.
The next test shows the true benefit of this RAM. In the
bios I changed the RAM clock speed from CL2 (or auto) to CL 2.5. This
is a simple way to over clock RAM without changing your FSB speed. The
Ultra DDR Memory does not advertise on the package that it supports CL2.5.
However, I'm proving that it does right now as I use it to write this
review. The second benchmark illustrates Ultra's comparison against the
same 4 configurations this time with the 2.5 configuration. As you can
see, the bandwidth has greatly increased. The competition stands no chance.
This might seem a bit unfair because there isn't a CL2.5 setting for those
other setups, but that's what you get with THIS memory.
However, I was able to find 4 other configurations with
the 2.5 speed clock. I compared them all and the results are our third
benchmark. Again you can easily see that it's right in line with the top
of it's class. Because I'm running with an Intel P4 background the most
concrete comparison from this benchmark is the last one, with the other
Intel P4 background. The results are virtually incomparable, with the
Ultra RAM performing over 25% above the other.
Value
After testing the performance of the RAM, the next logical
step is to see how much it costs. I was shocked to find that it's available
for only $59.99 from Tiger Direct.
Eager to see if the market for RAM suddenly dropped since my last purchase
I quickly checked the price of the competition. With all of the diversity
in the memory market I expected there to be a few suppliers at least within
reason. My expectations were wrong though. The top names in the memory
business are all at least $25.00 more. In fact the only company that even
comes close is K-byte at $64.99.
Longevity
With the daily increase in technology for memory who's to
define the longevity of a product? Chances are great that within a few
years the memory available will be faster, larger, and for the same price
if not cheaper. However, the ability to increase the performance of this
RAM to the equivalent of the pc2700 RAM is what gives this product the
increased longevity when compared to it's equals in the market today.
Overall Impressions
We all already know that the most expensive isn't always the best, but
who would have thought the cheapest available would perform so well?
I was very please with the results of the tests, and even
shocked at the incredibly low price. I was able to change the RAM speed
from 266 mhz to 333mhz without any complications. That puts it's performance
in the range of the pc2700 caliber. For the adventurous PC users these
tests show that this product can even be pushed further by changing the
FSB speed. However, I wouldn't recommend it with this product for the
simple reason that there is no heat shield. ULTRA offers a pc2100 product
with a heat shied for $74.99 which is still lower than the top names'
product WITHOUT the shield. With the upgraded pc2100 RAM you should easily
be able to perform at 366 mhz or even 433 mhz, if your Motherboard can
handle over clocking of that magnitude.
If you are among the many people desperately looking for
an affordable solution to memory upgrades LOOK NO FURTHER. This is the
ULTRA combination of affordability and performance. The only drawback
is that you might have troubles finding this product in stores. However,
if you're nervous about buying things online it's time to dispel that
with the purchase of this product. It can be found at TigerDirect.com
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10 / 10 |
OVERALL SCORE
98%
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10 / 10 |
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10 / 10 |
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10 / 10 |
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9 / 10 |
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9.8 / 10 |
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