With the current spike in RAM pricing, choosing the right RAM for your system has become more important than ever. Walking the thin line between price and performance can not only be costly, but confusing as well. Do you buy 533, 667 or 800 DDR2 for that fancy new motherboard you have picked out? What's a JEDEC standard and do I have one? Which is faster? DDR2-800 or DDR2-PC2-6400? Today we will look at a no-frills approach to the RAMdilemma.

Transcend has been in business since 1988 and produces thousands of memory products. Like many sites, we are recommending 2 GB as the new minimum standard for new computers and Transcend was kind enough to provide us with that. We will be looking at the "Standard" class DDR2 240Pin DIMM DDR2-800 Unbuffered Non-ECC Memory module.

I could tell you..

"The TS128MLQ64V8J is a 128M x 64bits DDR2-800 Unbuffered DIMM. The TS128MLQ64V8J consists of 16pcs 64Mx8bits DDR2 SDRAMs in 60 ball FBGA packages and a 2048 bits serial EEPROM on a 240-pin printed circuit board. The TS128MLQ64V8J is a Dual In-Line Memory Module and is intended for mounting into 240-pin edge connector sockets.

Synchronous design allows precise cycle control with the use of system clock. Data I/O transactions are possible on both edges of DQS. Range of operation frequencies, programmable latencies allow the same device to be useful for a variety of high bandwidth, high performance memory system applications."

But you're eyes would probably glaze over and you'd wake hours later in a puddle of your own drool. Let's not go there.

What's Important

• Lifetime warranty
• Runs at the highest officially supported RAM speed on modern chipsets
• 2-Gigs
• RoHS compliant (saving the planet, one chip at a time)
• Widely validated as compatible by motherboard manufacturers such as Intel, Gigabyte etc.
• Offers plenty of over clocking room for the enthusiast

Specs

Here are the specs as taken from the Transcend product page and the detailed spec sheet (pdf):

• RoHS compliant products
• JEDEC standard 1.8V ± 0.1V Power supply
• VDDQ=1.8V ± 0.1V
• Max clock Freq: 400MHZ; 800Mb/S/Pin.
• Posted CAS
• Programmable CAS Latency: 3,4,5
• Programmable Additive Latency :0, 1,2,3 and 4
• Write Latency (WL) = Read Latency (RL)-1
• Burst Length: 4,8(Interleave/nibble sequential)
• Programmable sequential / Interleave Burst Mode
• Bi-directional Differential Data-Strobe (Single-ended
data-strobe is an optional feature)
• Off-Chip Driver (OCD) Impedance Adjustment
• MRS cycle with address key programs.
• On Die Termination
• Serial presence detect with EEPROM

When run at DDR2-800 speeds the SPD timings are 5-5-5-15

Package

The package arrived quickly and undamaged. The retail package is bright and colorful, but if you shop where I do you'd never get to see it unless you actually buy it first. Retailers tend to be very paranoid with items costing hundreds of dollars that can fit into a pocket. Inside is a brief description of how to install the modules and a warranty card.

The Transcend DDR2-800 Sticks

The RAM modules themselves are very unassuming. No colored PCB's, no blinking LED's and no heat spreaders. It's just basic RAM sticks with no gimmicks. Even Transcend's JetRam line of products differentiates itself by performance alone rather than marketing fluff. The DRAM used is Samsung K4T51083QC-ZCE7, the same chips are used by Kingston, TwinMOS, Wintec and no doubt many more manufacturers.