UTT Memory IC's Explained

[Apoptosis]

This is a must read for anyone in the enthusiast market. We take a look at UTT memory IC's and see what they are all about! UTT's based memory modules are the latest trend in the memory market and we see what they are all about.

A Couple UTT IC's:


"For startes do you know what UTT stands for? It stands for UnTesTed memory IC's. This means that after the IC's were packaged they were NOT speed binned and offer no ratings from the factory. This is done so..."

Article Link

[infinitevalence]

Always some good information, i was looking at getting some UTT but when i was shoping for memory the only UTT options out were Twinmos SP and OCZ VX nither of wich seemed like real options for me as the twinmos was hit or miss at the time and the OCZ VX was very expencive so i ended up geting some second hand BH-5, wich is basicly the same chip only on an older MFG processes.

[LVCapo]

Often imitated, never equaled, Nate has cooked up another great memory article....maybe nothing groundbreaking like his look at memory companies last year
Legit Reviews - Behind Closed Doors @ Corsair Memory, Inc.
http://www.legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=32

Legit Reviews - Behind The Scenes: DDR2
http://www.legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=37

[Apoptosis]

hey you forgot the article where i broke the PCB selection and showed the performance difference by using Brain Power PCB's...

Memory PCB Selection Matters:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=53

[LVCapo]

you are so sorry....here, let me pat you on the back a little more.
Seriously, we need more memory articles from yuo, especially with the migration to DDR2, some people aren't familiar with it.

[infinitevalence]

I aggree you are the athority when it comes to memory in the industry, people look here before all others for memory information.

[LVCapo]

......even if another site wants to steal your information and ideas...............

[HKPolice]

Legit Reviews is hitting over 600MHz at 2-2-2 timings on some of our testing samples and are impressed by what can be achieved from UTT IC's.

Please post a screenshot of this. I don't think any Winbond based IC can ever reach those speeds stable. I think you might have run into the "A64 4x multiplier" bug where using a CPU multiplier of 4x forces you to use a memory divider of 5, but ALL programs are fooled and think that a /4 divider was used instead.

Example: 4x300 = 1.2Ghz CPU
1200Mhz/5 = 240Mhz memory.

[LVCapo]

(Rolls eyes) Here we go again....sounds suspiciously like "Marc", the guy who has that website in Europe, who always trolls these forums but never posts other than to try and poiint out flaws....BTW, where did he disappear to after he was punked on that issue with CPU-Z?

[-mogwai]

what do "ic," "jedec," and "pcb" stand for?

that corsair article makes me want to buy from them...

[LVCapo]

IC= Integrated Circuit

JEDEC= Makes up the standards for the industry. Like every other industry in the world, the Tech industry needs someone to spell out standards for everyone to adhere to.
JEDEC
http://www.jedec.org/

PCB= Printed Circuit Board. Ever look closely at your motherboard or video/sound cards? Really fascinating and I highly recommend doing it sometime.

Oh, and as far as Corsair....you really can't go wrong with any of their stuff.

[-mogwai]

yeah, i kinda could infer what each thing was... i just wanted to know what it meant. thanks, cap.

yeah, i looked closely at one of my motherboards and thought "man, i wonder how they even thought to do that..."

[LVCapo]

I'm sorry man. I wasn't trying to imply anything, and i know my definitions were a bit simple. I'm just tired and didn't have the time or energy to do a comprehensive explanation of each, but wanted to kind of give you an idea of what they were.

[-mogwai]

oh, no no... that's fine there's nothing to apologize for. i appreciate your post, dude hehe... i wasn't trying to be an ass or anything. thanks again :D

[eva2000]

need some clarification on this statement

What consumers don't understand is that Infineon recently DUMPED these IC's on the market for a number of reasons.

DUMPED by definition do you mean

1. the ended UTT CH production
or
2. the released to the market UTT CH/BH

which is it ?

[-mogwai]

i would guess he means released... not just because the article was about how companies just kinda throw their ram out to the public without fully knowing their capabilities, but because it says "on the market" rather than "from the market"

[Reefa_Madness]

(Rolls eyes) Here we go again....sounds suspiciously like "Marc", the guy who has that website in Europe, who always trolls these forums but never posts other than to try and poiint out flaws....BTW, where did he disappear to after he was punked on that issue with CPU-Z?

Hi guy, first post here but have read many an article from this site. Have especially enjoyed the cpu and memory related articles.

I don't know anything about this "Marc" guy or if he is HKPolice or what, but the point he's raised about the 4x multi is very valid and a known A64 bug. It should not be so quickly dismissed with the roll of the eyes.

I just read in the Memory section of this forum where eva2000 raised the very same issue (in the DDR600 at 2-2-2 thread). So the question remains, was DDR600 actually achieved with 2-2-2 timings using UTT based ram or not? If it was "achieved" using the 4x multi, then in fact, the memory was not running at DDR600 speeds as was noted above.

[Apoptosis]

We are currently testing new platforms on the bench right now and as soon as we get back around to this cpu/mobo/memory for an upcoming OCZ VX memory article it will be better addressed. In the meantime it is being removed from the article. I have changed 600 to 500 in the article, as that can be reached at almost any multi on our setup.

Thanks for pointing it out.

As for dumped these UTT IC's are more available on the market now than ever before and at really low price points. So in a sense the term dumped it justified. If you throw enough parts on the market at a super low price point someone is going to pick them up and use them. Hince why I used "dumped"

[Apoptosis]

I got some time tonight to sit down and overclock some different UTT modules and this is what I came up with.

1) There is a bug at lower multipliers for sure.
2) Good DDR1 memory IC's can reach 2-2-2 speeds up to around 550MHz
3) Extreme Voltage is needed (3.5-3.7V)
4) Air Cooling is a must (bring out the 80mm fans)
5) DFI's 316/410/427 BIOS's have equal results when it comes to memory overclocking
6) BH-5's, CH-5's, & UTT's can all hit 550MHz @ 2-2-2 1T

Here is some UTT memory in action:

CPU-Z 1.28.3


Sandra 2005 SR1 Memory Bandwidth


I stand corrected in my article, but DDR550 2-2-2 is still very impressive! These numbers were done with a Venice core CPU, so Winnie numbers will be about 150MB/Sec higher.

Here is something that is also interesting... some OLD OCZ Platinum Limited Edition modules running Brainpower PCB's with Winbond BH-6 IC's.

1GB Kit OCZ PT LE PC-3200 @ DDR550 2-2-2

[Reefa_Madness]

I've been having a good time with some of that bh6 myself.

It plays real nice with the NF3/NF4 boards and high voltage.