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Results

The frustrating thing about testing memory is that there is not too much that can be said about the outcome, it is either a "yes" or a "no". There are a few things that need to be mentioned, the tests were conducted at ambient 15 centigrades, and, no matter of how you look at it, the test system did not like too much the 140 MHz bus speed. However, bus frequencies that do not fall within the first or second order harmonics of 33 MHz are always a bit more problematic and often slower than multiples of 33 or 17.7 MHz. This is a matter of resonance problems and optimization for a given speed. In addition, ASUS may have tuned down the 140 and 150 MHz bus speed, honestly, we don't know. What we do know is that we were not able to push the HSDRAM over their limitation since even at 140 MHz the system was performing flawlessly with CAS-2 settings. We ran out of luck with the 150 MHz bus but in this case we are simply not able to determine the source of the problem, most likely, it is the bus threshold of the CPU used. In addition, we have learned that in ASUS' test labs, HSDRAM DIMMs have been running at 150 MHz bus speed at CAS-3.

Winstone98 scores achieved at 100, 133 and 140 MHz bus speed, CAS-2 and CAS-3
note that the scores at 3x140 (420) MHz are lower than at 3x133 MHz.
Still, CAS-2 is faster than CAS-3

Conclusion

Anyone knowing the crew at LostCircuits also knows that rarely, if ever, we are using the term "the best" because in most categories there simply isn't such a thing. In this case, we have to make a honorable exception based on the fact that out of several hundreds of memory modules tested there is none that even comes close to the performance and stability of the Enhanced HSDRAM. The question, of course is, who will be able to profit from such superior hardware. There are quite a few things to consider, though. The first thing is that the 100 MHz FSB era is approaching its end and anyone who remotely considers upgrading his or her system within the second half of 1999, also needs to be aware that the implementation of the 133 MHz FSB will be there. In view of this, the question again is how much do you expect from your upgrade. If it is just a step up from the obsolete 486 machine, the difference between CAS-2 and CAS-3 or 133 vs 150 MHz bus speeds probably would even go unnoticed. Yet, there are enough of us out here who want the best and highest performance and in this scenario, the performance increase achieved from stepping up from CAS-3 to CAS-2 can make quite a difference. Moreover, whatever happens to overclocking when the standard FSB is already set at 133 MHz? With the CPU multiplier locked there is not much to do, unless there is a way of exceeding the default FSB once more. In other words, the only chance is to get up to an FSB of 140 or above, more likely 150 MHz.

My favorite quote from Germany's former Chancellor Otto von Bismarck is "We are too poor to buy anything cheap". Sure there are cheaper memory modules out there but DIMMs are not usually upgraded every other quarter. HSDRAM is not yet commercially available but will be within the next 4 weeks. If you are planning on upgrading this is definitely the one to wait for just a little bit longer.

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