The Era of Cheap, Highspeed DDR2 is Over
02.27.08 - 10:14am
You heard me right, it is officially over. Micron, the manufacturer of our favorite 2×1GB DDR2 modules that featured D9GMH and D9GKX modules has switched their commercial line of Ballistix over to D9HNL. This is also bad news as the 2×2GB kits on the market have these same ICs and have shown to clock badly for the voltages given. All of this is bad news for us as DDR2-1200 will become a thing of the past for your average sticks. D9HNL is great news for Micron though as they will see profits jump as it takes half the ICs to manufacturer a stick of ram. Gone are the days of $50 2×1GB kits capable of DDR2-1200 with 2.2v, it’s a valid comparison to drop Ballistix performance into the crowd of ProMos and Elpida chips that dominated the budget market. If ever there was a reason to migrate to DDR3, this would be it as DDR2 performance will continue to average out with fewer and fewer high-clocking kits. I suspect within the next three to six months we will see decent 2×1GB DDR3 kits drop below the $150 price barrier. Already there are some decent DDR3 kits hitting $190 with some fantastic results. Now we need the P45, X48, and 790i motherboards to launch for some serious DDR3 clocking. So long D9GMH and D9GKX, you had a killer run.
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