GEIL Black Dragon 4GB PC6400 kit review

An accessible dual-channel kit from GEIL, targeted at gamers.

This dual channel kit is available at around $60; this particular kit was purchased in eBay a while ago.

These are the specifications:

• 2x2GB
  
• DDR2-800MHz, JEDEC PC-6400
• Timings of 5-5-5-15 @ 1.8v (CAS, Trcd, Trp, Tras)
  
• Lifetime warranty
  

Not an extraordinary package, nor specifications, this is targeted at gamers, although case modders might also enjoy the package. As you have seen above, there is a dragon drawing on the PCB with red LEDs as eyes.


Chips are GEIL rebranded, which doesn't manufacture chips itself. There's no way of knowing what is the origin of the chips.


The backside, much more simple.


This is what you get to see inside a computer case, mostly. The first picture of the post is not mine, hence the difference in the surroundings.

Testbed and software:

• AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2MB L2 @ 2GHz (10x, RAM synced)
  
• Jetway M25GT6-SGE AM2 (nForce 550, MCP55)
  
• Enermax Liberty 500W
• OEM ATX case

Since this particular CPU doesn't clock the RAM at 800MHz when used with the default 13x multiplier - something common on K8 cores - it was backed down to 10x, 2GHz.
Memtest86+ was used to confirm stability, with particular enphasis given to the test #5, which is always the most demanding on the memory modules.

Timings at default clock and overclocking:


The overclocking results weren't mind blowing but were not bad either. While at default timings just 10% was achievable, this was with the stock voltage of 1.8v, at which value no damage will result to the chips. In fact, increasing the voltage has not provided any improvement in the overclocking capabilities of these memories.
It was good to see that they can work at 5-4-4-12 when run at the stock clock of 800MHz, since this does yield some slight improvements in bandwidth, as checked in Memtest86.
I didn't tested with more relaxed timings since it would drop the performance considerably, the usual step would be to increase the voltage but it didn't turn anything good on these chips.

Conclusion:

The 4GB Geil Black Dragon Dual channel kit is indeed a memory kit to consider. It provides good timings and is not expensive. At the same time, CAS 5 for DDR2-800 is nowadays getting less common for this price range, as most DIMMs are moving to CAS 6 as standard - like with Kingston DIMMs. If you're an overclocker, perhaps it may be better to look elsewhere.
Geil also sells an 8GB kit, composed of four 2GB DIMMs, based on the same memory modules.