Category: Memory Manufacturer: OCZ Product: OCZ SLI-Ready DDR2 800MHz Gallery: Click Here Price: $109.99

Intro
OCZ recently shipped SLI-ready RAM to us here at FPS Labs. On the table, or should I say in the system, is 2GB kit of DDR2 800MHz memory. Last year memory manufacturers announced plans to release SLI-ready memory sticks. The main difference between such RAM and your standard memory is 'extended profiles' in the RAM which will auto-overclock when set up in your BIOS on some NVIDIA-based motherboards. An interesting feature at first glance - but is it a good choice overall? We shall find out.

The Packaging

OCZ hasn’t differed much in the style of their memory packaging over the years with their tried and true clamshell design with a cardboard back. It gets the job done while at the same time really showing off the ram. The back of the package talks about the SLI feature and highlights many of the awards OCZ has received. Simply pop open the clam shell from the top, pull out your memory and away you go.

The RAM
Specifications

• Model Number: OCZ2N800SR2GK
• Type: 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM
• Capacity: 2GB (2 x 1GB)
• Speed: DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
• Timings: 4-4-4-15
• Max Voltage per Warranty: 2.3V

First impressions are impressive when taking a peak at this RAM. The color scheme featuring a green PCB and the black honey comb heat spreaders gives that NVIDIA vibe and of course it features the NVIDIA SLI-ready logo on the front and back. The front side features the standard OCZ label featuring the part number, timings, speed, and mentions “SLI-ready EPP”.

As far as the SLI feature this is what we pulled up from the NVIDIA site: “NVIDIA SLI-Ready system memory certification ensures compatibility and system stability with the rest of the SLI ecosystem components including NVIDIA nForce SLI motherboards, NVIDIA GeForce GPUs, and SLI-Ready power supplies. SLI-Ready memory also supports Enhanced Performance Profiles (EPP). When paired with NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI, 680i LT SLI or 590 SLI AMD edition-based motherboards, SLI-Ready memory exposes advanced performance memory settings.”

In essence this allows you to overclock your CPU and memory at the same time without fiddling with timings or bus speeds, etc. When using one of the above mentioned boards and capable RAM like this OCZ, your BIOS will recognize it and allow you to use one setting to bump up your overclock via a percentage-based system. This is a great feature for the less experienced users out there looking to overclock their system. However, average to more experienced users will probably skip over this feature, preferring to manually tune their bus, CPU, memory speed and timings, and voltages manually. When testing we want to push the memory independent of the CPU to find out just how well the memory performs without any ties to other areas of the system being overclocked.