OCZ PC3-12800 1600LVAM4GK AMD Optimized Kit Reviewed!

Chew — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:17:36 +0000

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.

TechREACTION » 1600LVAM4GK

OCZ PC3-12800 1600LVAM4GK AMD Optimized Kit Reviewed!