Intro

Anything through the post is worth having a look at. Even if its about 8 million computer-years (about 1000 for every earth year at the rate technology is going), its still going to upgrade one computer in the world...somewhere...somehow. This is no expection. There are plenty of 1999/2000 PCs out there still marinating form the millenium bug scare, most of which have been upped to XP standards. One critical flaw that most people forget to upgrade the memory...and that 128MB memory stick that you though as pimp just isnt going about its business like it used to.

Enter the 256MB PC133 form Crucial. These sticks will phase out in the next 2 years or so, but can still pack a punch when required. Ill show you round, then compare it to an OEM equivilant (256MB PC133).

Delivery!

Arrived this morining before I even got up. Arrived Ebuyer style in a bubble pack, and the standard Crucial cardboard packaging, with an improved label from previous Crucial orders I've made.



Everything was in good condition, and appeared to have no holes, scratches or dents in the packaging throughout.

Contents and Appearance



The memory comes in your average small cardbaord box about 6"x2.5"x1". Inside is the ram, static bagged, a reference guide in many languages, and an angled area of cardboard where the memory is inserted...possibly for safer transport.



The memory itself is a low level 1.25" high green PCB, smaller than most common day sticks. Single sided, the chips are 8x 32MB manufactured by the main company of Crucial - Micron, and ofcourse, 133MHz bus speed with CL3 timings that will not be altered in this review (as the memory has to be working for a customer!)

Testing

For testing, the Crucial went up against a similar single sided Generic stick of 256MB PC133, with Infineon Labs chips, again, PC133 CL3 and 32MB per chip. The only difference between the 2 PCBs is that the OEM has ready-soldered contacts in the blanks side. The crucial has only bare copper points:



The test system isnt mine....but the length of time I've had it, it should be. The system expiriences freezing at high temperatures (around the 50C mark, and believe me the case gets rather warm)....I have been in the process of increasing airflow in the system with good results - it crashes every 24 hours (on idle for 24hours) instead of every 3 .

Specs are as follows:



The video card is a GeForce2 MX w/64MB memory and AGP4x.
Windows XP Home SP1 build 2600

For testing, SiSoft Sandra2005 memory benchmark and comparisons to similar benches, and CPUz screenshots.

CPUz:

CPUz picked up the microm manufacturing tag form the Crucial Memory, but failed to see Infineons make of memory (sounds like another phantom to me ). All details are exact according to CPUz :



Sandra:

Sandra was used to benchmark the memory bandwidth and nothing else. This is a quicky review, so I'm not going to test every dodad on the entire motherboard in relation to the memory:



The crucial memory picked up a good bandwidth of 961/973 MB/s. This is on a 100Mhz bus, and is slightly above the 845 stock benchmark. Just 40MB/s under the 1012/1003MB/s of the highest benchmark for PC133.



Above is the system information with the Generic installed. Again, like the CPUz differences, the results are the same. Lets see what the benchmark says:




The OEM just doesnt cut it against Micron/Crucials' own brand. Fore comparison, the first reference is the Crucial benchmark results. Theres a 1MB/s difference on the Float result, with the Generic benching in at 961/972MB/s. Whne you look into the detailed area however, theres more than meets the eye. Crucials' Assignment result is 3MB/s faster than Crucials. This may well be to do with chip construction, wafer fabrication, or date of manufacturing.

Conclusion

All in all I'm impressed with the Crucial even though the results were effectivly level pegged. Generic memory is a 50/50 success rate at best. Some sticks work very well, others wont even POST. Everytime I've personally bought Crucial memory, its worked everytime without fail. So, for all your 1999/2000 systems, I recommend Crucial PC133 memory.

So to the PIMP and the GIMP:

PIMP:

- Good packaging idea.
- Its Crucial memory! What more can I say?
- Clear Instruction guide, and usefull for Global Districution.
- Stable benchmarking, and instant detection by system. No BIOS saving required.

GIMP:

- Very little information on specifications in guide or on packaging

Over all I give 8/10 pimp hats. Nothing special, but gets the job done no end.