At the same time, I don't really see a vast amount of A64 enthusiasts moving over to AM2 just yet. Early previews from reliable sources show socket AM2 offers little extra in terms of performance (1~3%), and those with tweaked Opteron based systems running at 2.8GHz+ just won't risk the move, and i don't blame them. There are always those hardcore types who will jump right in, but the level headed enthusiast will most likely be content to wait.

Still, socket AM2 is not meant to offer performance leaps and bounds from the get go, it is a forward looking technology destined for great things, but that time isn't now, and isn't on current single and dual core A64's, of which are not inherently bandwidth starved designs. Once dual and quad core chips become useful from a software standpoint (the move from single to multithreaded) we'll need all the bandwidth we can get a hold of. But for now, DDR actually suits A64's rather well. DDR has a long life a head of itself and to be perfectly honest, 1GB DDR DIMMS are just starting to get tasty! My 'uneducated' guess is that DDR will be important for some time to come and those memory manufacturers who have continued to produce high quality DDR will continue this trend probably up until the end of the year.

If the above is true then s939 will not all-of-a-sudden be relegated to the budget system sector, and so 2x1GB DDR kits will be highly sought after. As already noted, many have cutting edge systems based on s939 that could benefit immensely from 2GB of system memory, and i assume those who haven't moved to 2GB yet will pretty much all be making this move soon.

Of course, i'm talking from a gaming perspective here. Titles such as Battlefield 2, Quake 4, and more recently Oblivion are setting an obvious trend that will only continue. If you are a serious gamer then you really should have 2GB of fast system memory, and if you currently have 2GB of ' value' stuff but are looking to upgrade, then the kits on test today are perfect replacements.

I'm going to take a look at three kits in this roundup with more to follow in the next few weeks. The three kits on test are:

• 2x1GB Corsair XMS 4400 Pro TwinX
• 2x1GB Mushkin XP4000
• 2x1GB OCZ PC4000 EB Platinum

I'll be looking at overclocking performance across the board from 200MHz with tight timing up to the maximum overclocks with timings around 3.0-4-3-8, anything looser would be too detrimental to performance.