When Intel officially launched its Skulltrail platform in February of this year, many enthusiasts and members of the tech press scoffed at its requirement of FB-DIMMs, or fully-buffered DDR2 memory modules. At the time, even the fastest FB-DIMMs available were rated for only 667MHz—a far cry from the 1.8GHz+ DDR3 memory available for other high-end desktop platforms. Another complaint was that Skulltrail, which consists of Intel’s D5400XS motherboard and two Core 2 Extreme QX9775 processors, officially supported memory speeds of up to 800MHz, even though 800MHz FB-DIMMs weren’t available yet.

Kingston, however, was at the ready. A few weeks after Skulltrail hit, the company launched a dual-channel 4GB DDR2 FB-DIMM kit rated for operation at 800MHz. The KVR800D2D4F5K2/4G kit comprises a pair of 2,048MB FB-DIMMs with latencies of 5-5-5 at 1.8V. Each 2GB FB-DIMM is adorned with simple, flat, black heat spreaders that were adequate, although FB-DIMMs do run relatively hot because of the advanced memory buffer that resides on every stick.

To test the Kingston KVR800D2D4F5K2/4G kit, I installed it into a Skulltrail-powered system, equipped with a GeForce 8800 GTX and running Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit. According to SiSoft Sandra XII SP2′s memory bandwidth benchmark, the kit mustered 4.85GBps of bandwidth and 116.7fps in a low-resolution/low-quality Crysis benchmark.

Although these relatively low-clocked FB-DIMMs can’t put up the same kind of memory bandwidth scores as highend DDR2 or DDR3 desktop memory kits, they’re a perfect fit for Skulltrail-based systems.

KINGSTON VALUERAM 4GB DDR2 SDRAM MEMORY MODULE – 4GB – 200MHZ DDR2-400/PC2-3200 – ECC – DDR2 SDRAM (KVR400D2E3K2-4G)

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With DRAM prices approaching historic lows and an ever-growing installed base of 64-bit operating systems, 4GB memory kits are becoming more prevalent. Corsair, for example, now offers an assortment of DDR2 and DDR3 memory kits with 4GB capacities, whereas just last year 2GB was the norm.

The Dominator XMS3 TW3X4G1600C9DHXNV G is one of Corsair’s premium 4GB (2x 2,048MB), dual-channel DDR3 kits, targeted at users of Nvidia’s nForce 790i SLI platform, as the “NV G” in its product name suggests. The NV G also indicates that this memory kit is EPP 2.0-compatible, which makes configuring the kit to operate at its rated frequency of 1,600MHz quick and easy, and users won’t have to risk overclocking their processors to hit those speeds. And the Dominator branding means the kit is outfitted with Corsair’s excellent DHX cooling technology that cools not only the underlying DRAMs but also the PCB.

The 1.6GHz kit requires 1.8V to operate and offers 9-9-9-24 latencies. Latencies that high may be disappointing compared to some lower-capacity DDR3, but they are not out of the ordinary for high-capacity DDR3 kits such as this one.

We tested this particular Dominator memory kit in an nForce 790i SLI Ultra-based Asus Striker II Extreme motherboard, equipped with a Core 2 Extreme QX9650 processor, GeForce 8800 GTX, and Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit. With the RAM running at its rated frequency of 1.6GHz, it offered up 8.4GBps of memory bandwidth in SiSoft Sandra XII SP2 and 132.6fps in a low-resolution/low-quality Crysis benchmark. With a bump in voltage to 1.9V, I was able to overclock the kit to 1,820MHz, which resulted in 9.5GBps of available bandwidth and 134.8fps in Crysis.

These sticks make yet another quality memory kit from Corsair.

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Kingston’s KHX14400D3K2/2G kit couldn’t be more different. The most obvious is the KHX14400D3K2/2G kit’s rated frequency of 1,800MHz, with default timings of 8-8-8-24 at 1.9V. It’s equipped with the company’s latest heat spreader design (Kingston also ditched the Elpida chips from its earlier kits in favor of Micron’s) and has plenty of overclocking headroom. Whereas the 1,375MHz KHX11000D3LLK2 and ULK2 kits weren’t capable of hitting the 1.5GHz mark, the KHX14400D3K2/2G soared to 1,940MHz with a slight bump in voltage to 2V.

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With an Asus P5E3 Deluxe motherboard and a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo E6750 processor, the KHX14400D3K2/2G kit offered just over 8GBps of bandwidth, according to SiSoft SANDRA XII, when running at its rated frequency. Once overclocked the kit to 1.94GHz, however, the kit’s peak bandwidth shot up to 9.2GBps. The experimented with different CAS latencies and found that the Kingston kit was capable of hitting slightly tighter 7-7-7-24 timings, when cranked its voltage to 2V.

With a street price is quite reasonable and performance that’s on par with competing offerings, the Kingston KHX14400D3K2/2G looks quite attractive. It’s still expensive relative to highspeed DDR2 memory, but compared to other 1,800MHz DDR3 kits, the KHX14400D3K2/2G is a bargain.

Read more at Kingston HyperX – Memory – 2 GB ( 2 x 1 GB ) – DIMM 240-pin – DDR3 – 1800 MHz – CL8 – 1.9 V – unbuffered – non-ECC

DDR3 is the third generation of double-data-rate (DDR) memory, promising record speeds and a host of improvements over the now-ubiquitous DDR2. While it’s true that the hottest DDR3 modules are reaching hypersonic speeds, their prices are currently stratospheric.

The OCZ’s DDR3 PC3-14400 Platinum Edition includes two 1GB DDR3 modules that are guaranteed to run at up to 1,800MHz. OCZ’s heat-sink-equipped modules have a latency rating of 8-8-8-27, which is better than many slower 1,333MHz modules currently available. They’re backed by a lifetime warranty.

To reach 1,800MHz, however, you’ll need to overclock your motherboard’s front-side bus (FSB), and the rest of your system may not be able to reach fast-enough speeds to max out the memory’s performance. We reached 1,800MHz on an Asus P5K3 Deluxe motherboard, but on the Gigabyte P35C-D3SR we used for comparative testing, we could only push the FSB far enough for the memory to reach 1,740MHz.

The OCZ DDR3 memory showed a clear win in video editing. Our multi threaded MPEG-2 rendering test using Sony Vegas 7.0 dropped from 8 minutes and 18 seconds to 7 minutes and 22 seconds when we swapped in the DDR3 RAM. iTunes audio conversion saw a slight speedup, dropping from 6 minutes and 45 seconds to 6 minutes and 24 seconds. Most other applications, however, showed only negligible increases.

We did see speedups across the board in our tests, but only video rendering and similar memory-and-CPU intensive tasks are likely to make you feel like you’re getting enough bang for your buck, at the moment. Still, it’s clear that DDR3’s additional performance will make it the standard for performance oriented machines, once prices drop.

Click here to find out more: OCZ Platinum Dual Channel Kit – Memory – 2 GB ( 2 x 1 GB ) – DIMM 240-pin – DDR3 SDRAM – 1800 MHz / PC3-14400 – CL8 – 1.95 V – unbuffered

It’s only been a few short months since Intel’s P35 chipset arrived with DDR3, and already memory manufacturers are cranking up the heat and releasing high speed DDR3 memory kits targeted squarely at enthusiasts.

Thanks in no small part to Micron and its Z9 DDR3 chips, a number of memory manufacturers were able to quickly introduce DDR3 memory kits rated for speeds in excess of 1.33GHz. One such kit is Super Talent’s W1600UX2G7. The W1600UX2G7 is a 2GB memory kit rated for operation at 1.6GHz with a CAS latency of 7. At the time of its introduction, these specs made the W1600UX2G7 the fastest DDR3 kit available. During testing, however, Super Talent tested its own speed record by releasing a 1.87GHz kit. The modules themselves feature cast aluminum heat spreaders, but only on one side; these modules are single-sided.

The W1600UX2G7 kit was tested on an Asus Blitz Extreme motherboard with an Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor. Because no P35 board officially supports 1.6GHz memory speeds, it was resorted to a little overclocking to hit the kit’s rated frequency. With the memory and CPU humming along at 1.6GHz and 3.2GHz (8x 400MHz FSB), respectively, SiSoft SANDRA XI reported available bandwidth of 7.9GBps. A low-quality F.E.A.R. benchmark yielded a frame rate of 344fps. I also spent some time overclocking the memory further and hit a stable 1.9GHz by setting voltage to 2.1V.

DDR3 system memory is currently much more expensive than DDR2 and only supported on a few Intel chipsets, but Super Talent’s W1600UX2G7 kit is a
clear sign that the technology is maturing nicely. By the time DDR3 system memory goes mainstream, enthusiasts will have plenty of worthwhile products to choose from. For now, though, Super Talent’s 1,600MHz DDR3 kit should definitely be on everyone’s short list.