Established in 1989, G. Skill is synonymous with memory modules that deliver great performance and have very impressive overclocking capabilities. What stands out with G.Skill memory is that for modules that can overclock the way they can, the price of their memory is often lower then similar modules offered by their competitors which don’t nearly have as good overclocking potential. G.Skill’s latest memory entries – the RipJaws and Ripjaws X series – have been praised by many memory enthusiasts.

Today we are fortunate enough to bring to you a review of the Ripjaws X series’ latest DDR3 8GB (2×4GB) kit. Let’s take a closer look.

Packaging & Aesthetics

The packaging is the normal hard plastic packaging used by most RAM manufacturers. The default speed of 1866MHz, timings 9-10-9-28, command rate of T2, and recommended DRAM voltage of 1.5v are all shown on the sticks themselves.

The Ripjaws X kit we received is a 2 x 4GB kit with red and black aluminum heat spreaders, which protect the black PCBs. The look of the RAM as a whole is something we feel would look especially great in a board like the Asus Rampage IV.

As with many high end memory modules, the heat spreaders themselves can be removed and replaced with third party heat spreaders of your liking.

Next Page: Stock & Overclock Tests

Presentation

The kit is composed of three 4GB memory sticks packaged in the familiar box format most RAM manufactures use. Each stick comes in its own hard plastic casing, instead of one large single hard plastic encasement which seems standard for many memory kits. This choice in packaging is a plus in our eyes. It adds a sense of extra care for each stick.

The sticks themselves show the rated timings, which are 10-10-10-27 2T, and the recommended DRAM voltage of 1.5v.

The modules are on a green PCB and sport the same type of aluminum heat spreaders their little brother, the Vengeance 12GB 1600mhz kit, comes in. It would have been nice, aesthetically, for the sticks be on black PCBs instead of green ones, if only to match the color scheme of the heat spreaders, but this is purely cosmetic, and has no bearing on performance.

The sticks themselves are light in weight compared to similar modules whose heat spreaders use copper, such as the G-Skill Trident or Patriot Viper. Some would form the opinion that the Vengeance heat spreaders are not sufficient to keep this sort of high performance RAM cool. The truth is, RAM modules, while some would disagree, simply do not generate enough heat during normal usage to warrant extreme heat spreaders. Extreme heat spreaders are usually needed when the RAM is being highly overclocked while being used on hours on end. That said, Corsair’s choice of spreaders with this kit is not a bad one, as these modules are not claiming to be extremely high overclockers; in addition, the lower voltage required for them will generate less heat. However, if the stock heat spreaders aren’t to your liking, rest assured that you can replace them with heat spreaders that are more to your fancy.

Next: Bench Testing & Overclocking

The second generation of i7 processors have taken the PC world by storm, with many users switching over to the current P67 chipsets, and even more (yours truly included) anxiously awaiting the upcoming Z77, and Z78 chipsets.

A majority of PC enthusiasts feel the X58 platform is dead, and that it is time to move on. It’s hard to argue against that thinking, as Sandy Bridge has proven to be a faster and better-overclocking chip then its older brothers. Some companies, however, like Asus and Gigabyte, seem to be believe it is premature to start playing “Taps” for the X58 chipset. So much so that they are planning to release new X58 motherboards. As these companies seem to be attempting to extend the life of the chipset, it seems likely that at least some type of X58-specific memory would be released as well.

Patriot Memory steps into this niche with the Viper Xtreme DDR3 2000MHz 12GB kit. Released towards the end of 2010, these memory modules have received generally good reviews from both review sites and customers alike. Today, we will be giving you our own take on this kit.

Next: Packaging & Aesthetics

The performance memory market has continued to push the performance envelope over the last few generations of hardware, each new development ushering in more speed and better performance.  But beyond speed, memory has not yielded much material to the marketing departments.  We all know that the marketing departments are tasked with getting products on the market and into your hands. But other than performance, the only marketable aspects in the segment are fancy heat spreaders, cooling fans and the occasional LED strip. So with this we had to ask, has innovation hit a roadblock?  I thought so, but then I’ve never been a huge fan of gimmicky marketing. If you read my last memory review about the Corsair Dominator GTX3 DIMMs, you’ll see why.

However, this review has left me wondering if I was wrong.  Crucial has been kind enough to supply one of their latest and greatest Ballistix memory kits for our review today.  Are they bucking the trends and actually packing some real innovation into their latest products, or is it just a bunch of fluff?  We’ll soon find out, read on!

Crucial Ballistix – The Hardware:

The kit we have here today is based on three BL25664FN2139 2GB DIMMs for a total of 6GB of memory.  These DIMMs are rated at DDR3-2133 (PC3-17000) with 9-10-9-24 timings running at 1.65V.  The kit shipped in an unassuming brown cardboard box with a generic Crucial label sealing it shut.

Ballistix box

The box contained the three 2GB DIMMs  as seen here.

Ballistx back

The rear of the DIMMs have a small sticker attached with a serial number displayed.

Ballistx front

The front of the DIMMs are quite unique.  The heat spreaders are black anodized aluminum and attached to the memory ICs with thermal tape. The PCB does not make contact with the heat spreaders.

Ballistix PCB

Upon removal of said heat spreader we get a clear look at the PCB, which is average height and matte black in color.  I’m not personally very concerned about “bling” in my computer builds, but I am becoming a little more picky about color coordination and I’m a big fan of the black PCB here, which is visually a nice upgrade over standard green.

Ballistix IC

If you are not aware, Crucial is the direct retail arm of Micron, so the best of Micron technology goes directly into Crucial’s premium products: Ballistix & Ballistix Tracer being premium.  As you can see here, the IC’s used in these DIMMs are marked with the Ballistix name, which clearly illustrates this relationship.  Embedded somewhere in this PCB is a piece of temperature monitoring hardware, the only obvious extra logic on the PCB is shown in the upper left corner of the last image, but I cannot say for sure if this houses said hardware.

Next: Crucial Ballistix – The Software

On the test bench this week is the Kingston HyperX Genesis Special Edition Grey Series 2133MHz 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 Memory Kit (KHX2133C9AD3X2K2/4GX). A real mouthful of a nomenclature, so in the interest of brevity, X-Files fans might appreciate this reviews short name for them “The Greys.” These sticks might not be from “out there” but they do support blistering fast speeds and are designed for use with the second generation Sandy Bridge microprocessors. Dual XMP profiles capable of speeds up to 2133MHz at 9-11-9-27-2T timings with 1.65v provide the Sandy Bridge IMC with enough speed to support all of your memory needs.

*NOTE: Grey/Gray. Gray is the American spelling of the color grey in British English. When referring to the name, the spelling grey will be used. The two different spellings are merely regional differences and are not typos.

Super fast RAM is not always what a user needs, however, at times tighter timings suit the bill. The second XMP profile supports 1866 MHz (WAY slower) at the more standard timings of 9-9-9-27-2T. HyperX is designed for the enthusiast, so we will look at both XMP speeds timings and dig a little bit into the Sandy Bridge IMC as a result.

About Kingston:

Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston® now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones. In 2009, the company’s sales reached $4.1 billion.

With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,000 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the “Best Companies to Work for in America” by Fortune magazine, Kingston’s tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in its people is essential, and each employee is a vital part of Kingston’s success.

Kingston serves an international network of distributors, resellers, retailers and OEM customers on six continents. The company also provides contract manufacturing and supply chain management services for semiconductor manufacturers and system OEMs.

Kingston is the largest producer of Memory modules in the world and can be found anywhere including your local Staples Office supply store. A pioneer in the memory field they also brought USB sticks into popularity way back in the booming 90s. Kingston has expanded their role over the last few years to cater to the enthusiast market as well.

Quantity is nothing without quality and Kingston sticks pack a life time warranty. The customer service department is also extremely helpful. During a recent RMA experience with a set of Elpida Hyper based sticks (that are EOL obviously) the product was deemed not repairable and the status was changed to replacement. The product received however was not a suitable replacement, and a quick email to their customer service department had everything sorted out within a few hours. It is very nice to see a company that cares about its consumers.

First Look:

RAM only comes in one basic shape and size for DDR3 platforms, with the exception of elaborate heat spreaders like on the HyperX T1 series, and as such packaging is almost universally similar. A clam shell plastic case is enough to hold the pair of sticks, display the model number and hang nicely on an end cap at your local computer supply house.

The Greys use the same basic design as other HyperX memory modules except instead of Kingston Blue as a basic spreader color they use Reticulan Gray. Perforated around the top for better air flow, the heat spreaders work very well. Barely noticeable, but warmer than ambient, the spreaders were even in temperature without hot spots. The standard-height heatspreader design is enough to keep the memory at a comfortable temperature while easily fitting on a Sandy Bridge board with even large heatsinks like the Megahalem.

Kingston, like any memory company, will use a variety of memory ICs across their model range. HyperX will usually get the best available. The Elpida BASE Hypers were fantastic ICs, but unfortunately had a tendency to die, similar to the Micron D9 rage just a couple of years ago. Excellent speed and timings capability but not very long lasting. So memory manufacturers did what they had to do to push high speed RAM out onto the market.

They learned what many enthusiasts already knew. Relaxing TRCD and command rate allowed higher memory speeds with significantly less voltage. PSC ICs became prevalent on budget sticks, allowing them to market 1866 or 2000 MHz RAM and listing only the CAS rating of 8 or 9.

The only way to tell what makes a good set of sticks now is actually using it. Looking at the XMP profiles for The Greys, initial impressions were that this was RAM that was not going to perform well at all. Jaded maybe, having just RMAed a set of sticks that ran stock at 2000 8-8-8-1T, the thought of gaining 133MHZ with a lot of latency was not appealing. Sandy Bridge is a new platform however, and speculating too much will make you go blind. (Or is that something else?)

Many manufacturers have started gluing heat spreaders to the ICs so that any attempt to remove them with out proper tools leads to ripping the ICs right off of the PCB. As such, heat spreader removal was saved until all testing was completed. Kingston uses a standard thermal tape solution and pads to disperse heat, so heat spreader removal was actually quite simple. Having already spent a lot of time testing and tweaking the RAM, it was no surprise to see Elpida BDBG ICs on the PCB.

*NOTE: Removing the heat spreader may damage your memory and will definitely void your warranty. It is not recommended for the end user.

BDBG ICs first gained notice about 8 months ago when Benchzowner started posting results of his Kingston HyperX. They have been included on many models of Kingston sticks since that time with speeds at or above 2000MHz. The difference in speeds and timings comes from binning and marketing. As such, purchasing a cheaper set of sticks that use the same IC is no guarantee that it will perform like the more expensive kit.

Next: Testing & Analysis

If you haven’t already seen our complete Asus Maximus IV Extreme (MIVE) motherboard review, Parts ONE and TWO, you’re missing out. Part 1 covered synthetic testing with the i7 2600K CPU at 5.1GHz to give an idea of the power that this platform contains. Part 2 was a full blown comparison between X58 and Sandy Bridge, with a helping of AMD Thuban for good measure. We also awarded the MIVE the TechREACTION.net Gold Silicon award for its outstanding performance.

Today, we’ll give you a look at another top P67 choice; the Gigabyte P67A-UD7. Currently it is the top choice for Sandy Bridge users looking for Gigabyte flavor in their builds. This will be a true head-to-head comparison between the two motherboards’ performance, overclocking, and ease of use factors. All of these things are important for enthusiasts in this market, so with luck, Gigabyte will meet and exceed our expectations in regards to these features with the UD7. Read on…

Gigabyte P67A-UD7

V.S.

Asus Maximus IV Extreme

Both of these boards represent each company’s premier P67 offering at this time. They each support numerous USB3.0 ports, dual NICs, triple SLI and top quality components. Each company has attempted to infuse a plethora of overclockinging features to keep all enthusiasts, from gamers to hardcore overclockers, happy and…well…enthused. Each claims to be the best, but there is only one problem with that; they both cannot be the best. This statement creates a conundrum, but never fear; TechREACTION is here!

Next: A Closer Look At The P67A-UD7

I did not expect these results at all, actually I did not expect my IMC to allow speeds this high. Turns out I have a great hardware combination. When I was in the BIOS the speeds just kept going up and up. I eventually tightened the timings down to CAS8…which I thought was amazing for a frequency of 2240MHz.

2240MHz Mushkin Ridgeback W/ Phenom II X6 1090T & 890FXA-UD5 – Video

Validated

My Personal Blog

Originally, I planned to test the memory kit subjectively with many benchmarks reflecting more real-world benefits of the high speed memory.  Based on similar tests published around the net in the past, I didn’t expect to see a huge increase in overall, everyday type performance.  So I also planned to test the memory in extreme conditions to give a better idea of where the memory should truly shine, with extreme benchmarking.

Well, as I wrote in the review, my testing was met by so much difficulty getting the DIMMs to run at rated speed on various CPUs.  The Bloomfield testing I knew didn’t have much hope, but after I got the i7 970 operational with marginal success, I was fully expecting the DIMMs to be stable in dual channel mode on the P55 platform with the Lynnfield CPUs.  I knew that Corsair only expected them to operate on Lynnfield, so after having tested two, and seeing that neither was capable…I had to give up on the the “everyday testing”.  (All these CPUs were paid for out of my pocket, and I could not afford anymore.)  The single run with the Xeon CPU was completed earlier and was my only chance to test the DIMMs with a sub-zero IMC.  Having troubles with that also discouraged me from trying again.  In the interest of getting the info to you in a timely manner (and knowing that 99% of my readers do not overclock with LN2), I decided to forgo further testing and get the article to press.

Well, in response to all the feedback, I’d like to clarify that these DIMMs are clearly capable of incredible performance.  But the purpose of yesterday’s article was not to just show off what an extreme overclocker could do with the right conditions….I wanted to give the bulk of my readers the more valuable information about the truth of high end memory.

I had the i7 970 under LN2 tonight while testing a graphics card on LN2.  The 3D testing ended prematurely, and I had a few liters of LN2 leftover, so I threw the GTX3 DIMMs back in the rig and spent about two hours trying to maximize memory speed for SuperPi 32M testing.  I was finally met with success in reaching the DIMMs rated speeds and timings, and in fact I was able to do a bit better.  I hit DDR3-2430 8-11-8-27 88 1T in triple channel mode…pretty impressive stuff.  I think there is still more in them with more time (and LN2) and a better CPU.

*The CPU was not maxed out for this run.

SuperPI 32M with DDR3-2430

When I got down to the last few drops of LN2, and didn’t have enough to attempt another 32M run, so I spent the last few minutes pushing the speeds up with PiFast.  This was not the max, only the second attempt, then the pot got too warm as I ran out of LN2 and I had to call it quits.

PIFast with DDR3-2500

This doesn’t change anything about my conclusion yesterday, I knew these DIMMs were special….that point was never argued!  The problem is that you’ll need a special CPU and possibly even some extreme cooling to get what you paid for.

i7 970 under LN2 & Dominator GTX3 DIMMs

Thanks again for all the great feedback!

The Packaging

Here we can see the packaging which OCZ keeps rather simple:

Here is a close up shot of the sticks and the specification of the modules.

With these particular DIMMs, clearance will be a non-issue as any intrusive intrusive heatsinks will easily fit over them.

Here is one last shot of the RAM installed in the board. No fan is included, so we did not actively cool these modules during the review.

Continue to page 2 for testing and conclusion. >>

Corporate Info:

Super Talent Technology Corporation, headquartered in San Jose, California, designs and manufactures a full range of DDR, DDR2, and DDR3 memory modules and Flash based storage solutions for Enterprise Servers, Workstations, Personal Computers and Consumer Electronics. An ISO 9001 certified company, Super Talent utilizes its state-of-the art factory and leading-edge components to produce award winning products with exceptional performance and outstanding reliability. Super Talent is an active member of JEDEC, ONFI and USB-IF standards bodies, and holds over 200 patents in Flash and DRAM technology.

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Preface:

I’ve recently picked up my own pair of this aggressively priced entusiast DDR3 by Super Talent. Located on 2077 North Capitol Avenue, San Jose, CA and founded by Abraham Ma, founder and CEO of MA Labs, Super Talent started itself as a US company offering Value RAM at low prices. When DDR2 rolled around, Super Talent stepped up to the plate and offered some very enticing DRAM offers using enthusiast-loved Micron D9 IC’s. Super Talent made it’s name known. DDR3 appeared and Super Talent quickly took the lead with it’s screaming fast “Project X” modules. The company has now designed low-voltage enthusiast modules based around Elpida Hyper for Intel’s P55 platform.

This is one of those kits.

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Test System:

AMD Phenom II 965 BE  C3 @ 3.4-3.6 Ghz
ASUS M4A89TD Pro/USB3
4GB Super Talent Speed Series DDR3-2200 CL8 at CL6-6-6-18 1T
Two Sapphire HD5770 Vapor-X in CrossfireX
OCZ GameXStream 700w
Intel X25-V
Two Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB in RAID 0
Custom Water Loop

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Testing methodology:

 
In this review, I will test this kit at 4 different voltages (1.5v, 1.6v, 1.65v, 1.7v) at CL6-6-6-18 1T for maximum stable frequencies in Prime95. CL6 is chosen due to Integrated Memory Controller constraints of my CPU. Each test will last one hour, and then I will turn it off and move to the next voltage.

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Testing Results:

 1.50v: 1512 Mhz

1.60v: 1621 Mhz

1.65v: 1670 Mhz

1.70v: 1718 Mhz

Final Result at CL6: 

Rating:

Asthetics: 9

Functionality: 8

Performance: 7

Value: 8

Final Score: 8/10

Conclusion:

These sticks can be had in the US for a mere $219.99 on Ewiz.com at time of writing. While not up to par as most Elpida Hyper Sticks, these sticks do exibit a much smaller price. Performance per price is outstanding and this kit is perfect for anyone who runs a normal everyday machine. Even that bencher on a budget would love these sticks. Be it a cruncher, folder, gamer, or multitasker, this kit will get the job done without leaving too big a hole in your wallet. Thanks for reading!