G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3-1600 8GB CL9 Dual Channel Memory Kit Review

[siopao1984]

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Today we take a look at a very well priced 8GB dual channel memory kit from G.Skill. This kit has decent timings for an 8GB kit, and we will put it through its paces in terms of overclocking and tweaking. Follow us as we test this memory and see how it does.

G.Skill is well known for making great memory, not only some of the best overclocking memory, but also memory at a great price. They are a company that prides themselves in the quality of their product, from their high-end to the mainstream products they don't fail to please their customers. Today is no different as this sub $50 8GB memory kit has some decent characteristics, timings of 9-9-9-24 1T and an operating voltage of only 1.5v.

Specifications:

Model Number	F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
Density	8GB (2x4GB)
Timings	9-9-9-24 1T
Speed	DDR3 1600MHz
Type	Unbuffered Non-ECC
Voltage	1.5v
Certified	XMP Z68/P67

Read more: G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3-1600 8GB CL9 Dual Channel Memory Kit Review by VR-Zone.com

[siopao1984]

The kit is pretty standard, a blister pack and the modules, nothing fancy.



The package distinctively says designed for P67/Z68 Sandy Bridge, which is something to expect. 8GB dual channel kits are all but very common, and made for the Z68/P67 chipset platforms. Sandy Bridge is very good with memory, 8GB in dual channel; is not much for it to handle and 1600 MHz is a walk in the park.



The modules are pretty nice, their color might seem odd for memory modules, but you are forgetting the plethora of boards with red and black color schemes. Just think about how good these would look with a ASUS ROG board or an ASRock Fatality series board. The heatinks almost look like shark fins, and their design is easy on the eyes. The PCB is black, and the heatinks aren't too tall as to cause issues with larger heatsinks. This kit, at under $50 carries the Ripjaw X name, so it carries styling that is hard to find on such an affordable kit.



An up-close shot of the specs on the sticker. I was pleased when I saw 9-9-9-24 at only 1.5v, but then when I loaded the XMP profile and saw it was 1T I was shocked. Most 1600MHz kits rated at Cas9 either have 2T command rate, or require 1.65v, or even better have TRCD of 10 or something. This kit could cost twice as much as it does now and people would jump on it.



We do these shots to see the internal design of the heatsinks. Most designs are made to trap air and then release it, which this design does very well. Blown air flows in through the slots, bounces around internally, and then goes out another slot.



This shot is to tell how good the contact is between the ICs and the heatsinks. We can see that a thin layer of thermal tape is used, and that it seems to have settled evenly. Contact looks great.

[siopao1984]

When we go to overclock a memory kit we first toss it into a system that is known to OC well, then we make sure it runs at the standard timings, next we start lowering the timings to see how low we can get with stock voltage and frequency. We go from there increasing frequency, lowering timings, and increasing voltage until we find stable overclocks that we can test. In the case of this kit that was a bit hard. We decided to use an X79 test bed, and we weren't getting anywhere, so we felt like maybe it was hampering us as this kit was designed for Z68 platform. We proceeded to change test beds. We ended up, surprisingly, with the same overclocks. We decided to just use our X79 data, so please be aware that the Z68 platform will have better performance and the same OC.

Test Setup:

Motherboard Gigabyte X79-UD7
CPU Intel i7-3960X
PSU Corsair AX1200
HDD WD 80GB SATA
OS Windows 7 Standard no Tweaks

When we loaded our X79 system, we loaded optimized defaults and we were surprised that it automatically set to 1600mhz, but with very loose timings.



So then we went and loaded XMP:



Here is the SPD table:



This was our best OC: (1866MHz, at 11-11-11-28 T1 1.65v)



Voltage didn't seem to help at all, except when we went for 1866mhz, where we used 1.65v.

So after we got the highest MHz and we couldn't tighten timings we decided to reduce the frequency to 1333 and see how much we could tighten our timings:



So for our performance tests we will use the following configurations:

1600MHz 11-11-11-24 1T-Stock

1600MHz 9-9-9-24 1T-XMP

1866MHz 11-11-11-28 1T

1333MHz 8-8-8-24 1T



1333MHz with those reduced timings seems to be better than 1600MHz at stock.

[siopao1984]

This kit is really one heck of an excellent value, 1600MHz for a 8GB kit is pretty good, then add in its timings and rated voltage and its even better, then add in the fact that it only costs $43 and its amazing. Only G.Skill could offer a kit with such specs at such a good price. Let's not forget how sleek the kit looks with its black PCB and red heatsinks.



When we got the kit and ran it at stock it seemed like it was a perfect product, but then we tried overclocking it. We learned that no product is perfect, and that in all the ways this kit rocks with its price and its specs, it lacks in overclocking. It isn't really easy to overclock this kit either, but it should do 1866MHz at the timings we used. The timings we used really aren't all that great, and that is the problem. If this kit did CL10 instead of 11 at T2 it would have been fine, but to not even do that is a bit strange. Yet we were impressed by how it did 1866 at T1, yet weirded out by how changing the command rate didn't affect the OC at all. Even odder is that voltage didn’t help us much, other than to stabilize the OC. If the OC wasn’t going to work, Windows would hang at the same point in the loading screen, on both the X79 and Z68 platforms! G.Skill must bin these kits pretty hard, but what do you expect from a $43 kit?

If we learned anything from previous reviews it is that memory speed and overclocking have very small benefits to the real-life scenarios of normal users, and thus this isn't a huge issue. Density has much more of an overall impact, and thus this kit is still very close to a perfect value.


Pros
Good Speed with Good timings for 8GB kit
Worked at 1T instead of 2T at stock
Only 1.5v
Great Price (US$43)

Cons
Little OC Potential





Read more: G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3-1600 8GB CL9 Dual Channel Memory Kit Review by VR-Zone.com

[sioti49]

in my experience wala pako ka kita ram na mas nice sa gskills

[akomao]

kani akong gamit nw. but 1333 ra hehehe. nice jd kaau

[keropi]

Sniper 2x4gb 1600 1.25v @ 9-9-9-24 which costs $46.99 is a better value. Able to run 1600 8-8-8-24 @ 1.5v.

This Ripjaws is a good value nonetheless..

[fearnel]

yeah. ripjaws sad ang ako gamit. hindi lang pang pamilya pang sports pa.

[dhekoy33]

i have 4x2gb ripjaws X b4 works fine on my phenom II x2 555be.