Reviews - Pro-Clockers! PC Reviews One MegaHertz At A Time

G.Skill, the makers of some of the most sought after memory on the planet, was kind enough to send over a version of their low voltage memory kits aimed at the Cougar Point chipsets. The sample kit they sent over heralds from their famous RipjawsX line and is rated at 1.5 volts operating at 1866MHz. Specifically, ours is model F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL, consisting of two 4GB modules for a usable total of 8GB. Read on and find out how these perform.

Heading the charge is Corsair, a company you all are likely familiar with as they are one of the industry’s leaders in DIMM manufacturing. Corsair recently released the new Vengeance line of high performance DDR3 just prior to that of the P67 chipset. Thanks to Sandy Bridge being built with a much better memory controller than the socket 1156 and 1366 processors, the socket 1155 variants are capable of improved memory performance and running a higher frequency, all the while doing so with out breaking a sweat. The kit we will be taking a look at from Corsair today is the Vengeance model CMZ8GB3M2A1600C9. When broken down this equates to being an 8GB  kit(2x4GB) of DDR3, running at 1600MHz, with a CAS latency of 9. 

EDITOR'S UPDATE: This kit is the standard "Reaper HPC", and not the "ReaperX" edition. All mentioning of "ReaperX" have been corrected to "Reaper HPC". We sincerely apologize to both our loyal readers, OCZ and especially to any guests who were linked in. We assure you all that this is not a typical occurrence here at Pro-Clockers. Again we are sorry for this mix up! -Clint/Formula350 

OCZ have given us the best of both worlds with their latest addition to the enthusiast Reaper HPC line of memory kits, giving us 8GB of usable memory under a 64-bit operating system. At the same time it operates at a high enough frequency to achieve some excellent performance! How does 2133MHz sound?

OCZ's newest member to their Platinum series is the Extreme Low Voltage kits. The revised Platinum line consists of thirty-nine kits ranging from 2GB to 6GB kits and running speeds up to a blistering 2133MHz. It seems that OCZ knows how to get the most from a mere 1.35 volts. The kit we will be reviewing today runs at 1600MHz with 7-8-8-24 timings. We know the kit will run these speeds at the default voltage before we even put them in a motherboard, but how high can they run beyond the stock 1600MHz at those volts? That is one of the things we are going to find out.

The new OCZ AMD Black Edition is aimed at the die-hard AMD fan who wants something configured just for them and these modules are. These sticks can be simply optimized with the AMD’s OverDrive application and overclocked through the same app. We will be taking a set of Black memory and a Black processor through our typical courses just to see what they have in them.

OCZ has sent of one of the fastest kits from their Platinum lineup, the 1866MHz triple channel kit. Since its introduction, the world has been gaga over the Intel Core i7. With its ease to overclock, forums are filled with people trying to achieve the magical 4.5MHz on the CPU and 2000MHz on the memory. We achieved both with the OCZ Blade series, but what if you are not willing to pay the $200 for such high end memory? OCZ has the trusted Platinum series which look to get the same high levels as the Blades. Read on.

The Kingston Hyper DDR3 2000MHz 3GB ram kit is all that and a bag of chips. This kits will give you blistering speed you want when mixing ram overclocks with CPU intense frequencies. Yeah you may look down at the 3GB amount of ram here but you most remember that you need an 64-bit operating system to support anything over 4 gigs. The chances are most readers are still sitting on the XP OS. Many have not elected to jump on the Vista wagon. So this kit is ideal for many including someone like me. So, sit back relax and read on as we take a look at the latest kit from Kingston.

One of the first companies to put forth a good set of triple channel memory was OCZ. Surprised? Probably not. We tested their 3GB 1333MHz kit some time back. But in the quest to get all you can get from a lonely 920 you need some massive bandwidth. That is why we are taking a long look at OCZ's newest series of triple channel memory, the Blade. The Blades sports new heat spreaders and some incredible timings to go along with the 1600MHz of bandwidth.

We all know OCZ as the company that never stops. It seems like every day I am receving some kind of press release from them. Just recently there was a P.R. notice to introduce a new line of ram kits under the Fata1ty branding. Yet another line to add to their vast array of memory. That is good news for some as you can continue that black and red theme you have going on. Our test subject today is from a more familiar line know by OCZ fans, which is the Reaper series. The Reapers are known by its trademark black heat spreaders and copper heat pipes. Today we will take the Reaper PC3 12800 for a ride on our test bench and see what kind of potential they have.

Qimonda was nice enough a few months ago to let us play around with a set of XTune DDR3 PC-1333MHz. They were not too bad of a kit and did pretty well in our round of tests. As things progress and the need for more is there we asked to review a bigger and faster kit. We were granted permission to do so and received a set of 4GB of AXH860UD20-16H which is rated at CL9 at 1600MHz. We all know there is faster out there but this kit operates at only 1.5 volts. Not too bad for some one that doesn’t want to put an unnecessary load on their system. We will now stop rambling and get on with the testing.