Introduction

Is DDR era going to end soon? Probably. But if you are using the AMD Athlon 64 or an older Intel chipset, you will probably still need some decent low latency PC3200 memory modules.

When the famous Winbond BH-5 chips were sold out, there was little hope for a worthy replacement because most memory manufacturers were moving on to DDR2. Until Samsung turned up with their superb TCCD chips, that is! If you recall, we first experienced the capabilities of the Samsung TCCD chips in our review of the 1GB Corsair PC3200 XLPRO TwinX memory kit.

Now, Mushkin is utilising the same Samsung TCCD chips in their own ultra-low latency memory modules called the Mushkin PC3200 222 Level II V2. Confusing name, isn't it? But if you buy it directly from Mushkin today, you will see that they only have a single PC3200 ultra-low latency model to choose from.

In case you are still puzzled by Mushkin's naming conventions, let us clear it up for you.

There are two types of PC3200 memory modules in their High Performance Black lineup - Level 1 and Level 2. The former supports slightly looser timings, while the latter supports the ultra-tight 2-2-2 timings. Let's take a look at the table below.

Basically, the only difference between the two types is the RAS Precharge timing. Level 1 modules support a RAS Precharge of 3 cycles while Level 2 modules support a RAS Precharge of 2 cycles.

For more on RAS Precharge, please click here - http://www.techarp.com/showFreeBOG.aspx?Lang=0&bogno=241.