I recently received a specially tuned set of ram for the AM3 platform from OCZ Technology.
What this means is they are guaranteed to work on your AM3 platform and users do not have to buy an extra stick of ram in a 3×2g kit that may or may not work well at rated speeds and or timings.
Essentially, OCZ was nice enough to cater to the AMD crowd and take the guess work out of the equation for AMD users.
The stars of the review.
Test setup
MSI 790FX-GD70 and Gigabyte 790FXT-UD5P
OCZ PC3 12800 1600LVAM4GK (1600MHz 7-7-7-24 1.65v)
PC P&C 750w Silencer
Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme and Prometia Mach 1
Testing
Because the integrated memory controller (IMC) is so finicky, I decided to test true stability with this set of ram in two modes that most will benefit the average user. ( 1333 6-6-6 and 1600 7-7-7)
MSI board on air, timings set 7-7-7-24-28-1T with everything else set to Auto.
1333 6-6-6 1600 7-7-7
Next I tested OC potential and again, due to the finicky IMC, I used 32m PI to verify that the ram was still stable.
6-6-6 1333+1.71v 7-7-7 1600+1.71v
After finding my max memory speed I decided to push the CPU a little more to see how performance scaled with a multitude of benchmarks.
Having reached the max I could get on air cooling, I wanted to see how the sticks would perform on my Gigabyte board under phase change and hard core memory benching, so I tackled 32mPI to test efficiency.
Conclusion
Well, what can I say? It appears OCZ has a winner here. The ram fits in all banks even with popular heat sinks like the TRUE 120 and Xigmatek 1284EE. This RAM has great overclocking potential and what makes it even sweeter is they do so with reasonable voltages that can be used for 24/7 configurations and still feed the need for those hardcore benching sessions. If I had to find one fault with this ram, it would be the availability as searches for it turn up slim results at best. Luckily, you can get this kit at Amazon for a steal; looks like they have them in stock.
I’d like to thank OCZ Technology for the review sample. If you’re looking for a nice set of memory that’s guaranteed to work well on your Am3 platform, look no further than the OCZ1600AM4GK.
CATEGORIES: 
TAGS: 
News Headlines
Categories
Tags
Links
Archives
Thanks for the great review Chew*!!!
and the link! I just ordered a kit, I was gonna get some cheap ram for my brother but this stuff looks sweet and its the right price.
cheers,
-Ian
Thank you Chew. This is just what I needed. I’m on the fence waiting for deals on AM3 motherboard, cpu and memory prices to fall.
Cheers,
John
I have a msi 790fx-dg70 and I have 6 gigs of this ram but can not get it to run at 7-7-7-24 1600. Any tips on how you got it to run at these setting?
This kit was never sold as a tri chanel 6 gig kit, my guess is you do not have the same exact modules.
I built two computers and bought 3 of the modules which have 4 gig in each from Newegg that gave me 6 gig in each computer. I also have just purchased 1 more module so I will have 8 gig in each on Monday. but to get it to run at 1600 I had to set the ratio on the motherboard to 4:1 and when I tried to adjust timing it would blue screen especially when I tried to adjust the case latency. My 790fx-gd70 sets the case latency to 9 the others to 11 and the last is 24 as it is supposed to be. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Ok, next question would be what cpu you are using?
The ram may be able to do the spec, the cpu’s memory controller may not however…….
I also assume you are using 64 bit with 8 gigs which is even harder on the cpu’s IMC.
I have phenom 2 x4 955 BE and have vista home premium 64bit operating system.
The issue could be the 64 bit OS is harsh on the cpu’s memory controller then. I have seen some chips capable, however many are not. I would refer to OCZ support forums for support with 64 bit OS and 8 gigs.
I only have 6 gig in each right now. Will that matter? won’t have 8 till Monday. I did notice that 2 of the ram slots are black and 2 are blue right now am only using one of the blue ones. Forgive any stupid questions, these two computers were my first build and I had to have some help with that. So just learning.
Well the IMC is a dual channel IMC, it is not specced to run 2 sticks in dual channel and 1 in single channel.
I guess you can try to run like that but i would not be surprised if you have issues trying to do so.
I have not tried these settings with 8 gig in each so maybe what you said has been the problem. I will try on Monday once the other ram comes and let you know. Thanks for your advice and time!
Dale