4GB DDR3 Memory Roundup - Part 1

G.Skill F3-12800Cl7D-4GBPI

Manufacturer: G.Skill
UK Price (as reviewed): £190.82 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): $249.99 (ex. Tax)

G.Skill, based wholly in Taiwan, is almost exclusively a memory company that while not as large as the likes of Corsair and OCZ, has certainly been around long enough in the performance DIMM market. With a very small UK presence and currently limited distribution, our US friends should be far more familiar and will often get better deals (particularly with Newegg). If we just take a look at this 1,600MHz CAS-7 kit it's only $5 more than Corsair's CAS-9 kit - that's an unavoidable upgrade and some tremendous value.

However, in the UK it's a little different and £190 makes for quite a considerable investment so does it make a difference over CAS-9 or does it overclock that much further?

The heatspreaders are unique to G.Skill - the Pi series has an extended set of fins that alternately bow and interlock at the top. To some degree it does separate G.Skill from mainstream memory companies and provides a unique differentiation for its performance products that are easy to see - something that Corsair doesn't really do so much any more. However, on the face of it if you only ever shop for performance memory then despite the fact they correctly apply to the notion that "bigger is better" for many, they could look like any other tall heatspreader on the market.

G.Skill does have the advantage of being in the performance business long enough for people to know it'll be around for a while longer, making its lifetime warranty a worthwhile feature. However the difference in support between Corsair or OCZ and G.Skill is quite significant, and while the two former companies have prolific and extensive community support, G.Skill does have its own forums but they're unfortunately not that great, with responses often very poor if you get one at all. If you don't care about that, then you're more or less buying exactly the same memory as elsewhere and like others, G.Skill does make the effort to secure better ICs.

Features

Kit: 2 x 240-pin DDR3 Double Sided DIMM
Module Size: 4GB Dual Channel Kit (2 x 2GB)
Module Code: F3-12800Cl7D-4GBPI
Rated Speed: 1,600MHz
Rated Timings: 7-7-7-18
Rated Voltage: 1.9V
Memory Chips: Samsung HCF0
EPP/XMP: No.

7-7-7-18 at just 1.9V is pretty damn good, but for Samsung ICs we've been told it's the upper limit of their sweet spot. However, over at XtremeSystems, many overclockers seem to push between 1.95-2.15V for very heavy overclocking (as expected) which is heavily on the side of crazy. But then again, with a lifetime warranty, who cares?


What did become immediately obvious once we had installed the memory though is how it'll appear from the outside of a case. Should you use a case window to show off your new performance memory, for example, naturally you'll be looking at it from the top down - what do you see? Simply a big fat metal bar, rather than the tops of fins, LEDs, heatpipes or other cool stuff.

The benefit of the Pi-spreaders though is that each side is just one bit of aluminium - they aren't screwed or soldered together anywhere so the transmission of heat is very good. In addition, there's only a very thin thermal transfer material used so the heat reaches the aluminium easier rather than having to traverse through several millimetres of sticky foam.


However, another aesthetic downer is the fact that the PCB used is a very generic green - rather than a more coordinated black or special blue or red. This is something motherboard companies readily consider, and Corsair and OCZ (albeit with access to greater resources) have their own branded black PCBs for performance parts.