HotHardware reviews OCZ Reaper HPC Performance DDR2 Memory
For the last several months, DDR2 memory development has been largly stagnent. The fastest DDR2 memory kits from last summer were, for the most part, still the fastest DDR2 memory kits this spring. We haven't seen any truly significant developments in DDR2 since Micron stepped up to the plate with their D9 chips. Although manufacturers continue to release new DDR2 memory, speed increases are fewer and harder to come by. It seems that even the mighty D9 has run out of headroom and it's becoming very difficult to produce faster DDR2 memory while still maintaining acceptible production yields.
With the relative standstill in DDR2 development, manufacturers determined to keep pushing DDR2 speed boundries have resorted to increasing voltage and improving cooling. Voltages on performance DDR2 modules now far exceed JEDEC's specification of 1.8v and values of 2.2v and higher aren't uncommon. As a result, these modules need better cooling and the standard heatspreaders that we've seen on performance RAM since the hayday of DDR are being replaced with more effective cooling methods...
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