Mushkin Ascent 2x2GB DDR2 Dual Channel Memory Kit Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2010-05-08
·
770 words · ~3 min read
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now I haven't unboxed a whole lot of memory on my show in general and there
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is a reason for that uh so first of all actually I should start with my intro
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I'm going to be unboxing a mushkin Blackline kit of memory today so this
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features their Ascent heat spreaders and
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that is one of the key differentiating factors which leads me to why I don't
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really unbox a whole lot of memory there's not much to it you find a good
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reputable manufacturer that offers good support mushkin in this case offers
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lifetime warranty on all of their memory sticks
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then it comes down to a few key things you get the right kind of memory so if
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you have a ddr2 system you buy ddr2 DDR3 DDR3 and so on and so forth then you got
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your capacity this is a 2x2 gig or 4 gig kit and so you can actually find that
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along with capacity one of the ways you increase capacity is to have more sticks
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so you might have a dual Channel kit with two sticks or you might have a triple Channel kit with three sticks
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depends what kind of a system you're running so memory comes down to voltage
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and speed that's pretty much it so a kit
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that runs at a reasonable voltage and runs at a good speed and that speed can
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be both in megahertz as well as in terms of timing uh one general rule that you
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can use when you're picking out a memory kit is that every speed bin increase in
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the frequency of the RAM so that means if you go from PC2 6400 up to PC2 8500
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is worth the same as about across the board a one reduction
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in the latency so a PC2 6400 C4 kit is
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about equivalent to a PC2 8500 C5 kit
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which is what we have here today wow that was a long intro I'm terribly sorry
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why don't we just have a closer look at these modules and then we will be on our
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way so first of all the back of the box has uh instructions on how to install
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mushkin memory watch closely and then
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thumbs up win okay awesome so let's get the box
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opening
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okay and the first module I love their
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Ascent heat spreaders I mean these things are actually like they're heavy
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they have some real weight to them even though they're made out of aluminum so
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you can look down the heat spreader so you can see that the fins actually go up
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quite high from the top of the module now these aren't like Corsair dominators
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in that there's actually another level of PCB that goes up higher than the
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module so they're not quite as high profile and they're going to have
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overall better compatibility with most motherboards and coolers as a result of
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that now um why don't we turn it around to the side so you can see there's a
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nice brushed aluminum finished on the heat spreader itself you got a little
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sticker there telling you that your warranty is void if you remove it oh it
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doesn't even say that well your V warranty is void if you remove it and it
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also tells you the speed that your module is running at as well as the
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latency so that means that if you ever get confused you can just check right on
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the side of your module and you can set the appropriate settings in the BIOS now
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now if you actually look down into the I don't know if you can see that or not
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but if you look kind of into the module you can see that there's actually a um a
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copper layer under the aluminum so that's where you're going to get some of
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the cooling from this particular uh heat spreader I believe the ascents use like
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a vapor chamber design in order to get maximum cooling for the modules so why
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don't I just grab the other one just for the sake of completeness and showing it
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to you together and that pretty much concludes my unboxing of the mushkin
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Blackline PC2 8500 4 gig C5 RAM kit now this is going to be
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kind of an overall unboxing of their Ascent heat spreader so take it for what
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it is and these guys just get into everything look at
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this