A-Data Vitesta M2OMIDG 3I4720INC5Z

Verdict: Overclockable and EPP-compatible, but outpaced by cheaper kits.

Prior to this Lab's test, A-Data's PC2-8000 Vitesta RAM, which combined excellent overclocking with a reasonable price, managed to hold on to its place on the CPC Elite for almost a year. We were therefore eager to see if this higher-specced, slightly more expensive kit could pull off the same trick, and offer even higher levels of performance.

This is a PC2-8500 overclocking kit, so it's rated to run at 1,066MHz, which means that it should be attractive to overclockers. With this in mind, the Vitesta's ability to hit high clock speeds is the crucial factor. Even though the A-Data kit boasts relatively unremarkable 5-5-5-15 latency timings, the kit requires a fairly hefty 2.3V in order to boot at its rated speed. Leaving these timings untouched and upping the voltage slightly to 2.4V allowed the RAM to hit 1.2GHz, however, which is very good going. The fact that the RAM refused to go any higher when the latencies were slackened to 6-6-6-18 attests to the fact that this is already a blisteringly fast speed for DDR2 memory.

Priced at £142, the A-Data isn't particularly cheap, but it offers plenty of overclocking headroom and EPP compatibility. With such tough competition around, though, it's beaten to the finishing post by cheaper kits.