Holiday Memory Guide

DDR3-1066 Tri-Channel Kits

Kingston 3GB DDR3-1066 Kit (KVR1066D3N7K3/3G) - This $99 kit offers timings of 7-7-7-20 with 1.5V at DDR3-1066. We hit DDR3-1333 at 9-8-8-20 timings on 1.6V or 6-6-5-15 at 1066 on the same voltage. If you are on a budget after spending $600 for an i920 and X58 board, this kit will get you by for the time being plus you have Kingston's excellent customer service and support backing it.

Crucial 6GB DDR3-1066 Kit (CT3KIT25664BA1067) - Priced at $155, this 1066 kit provides 7-7-7-24 timings at 1.5V. We eventually hit DDR3-1333 at 9-9-8-24 timings with 1.6V or a slightly better performing 6-6-5-18 setup at 1.6V at 1066.

DDR3-1333 Tri-Channel Kits

G.Skill 6GB DDR3-1333 Kit (F3-10666CL7T-6GBPK) - This category was going to be a hotly contested group with excellent entries from Corsair, OCZ, Super Talent, and Patriot. However, after a recent price drop, our number one selection is now from G.Skill. This $180 kit is only $15 more than their CAS9 entry and is priced about $25~$40 under the other CAS7 kits. Running at rated timings of 7-7-7-18 required 1.55V for 24/7 stability compared to 1.5V on the Corsair and OCZ kits, but a slight change in timings to 7-8-7-18 got us down to 1.5V with an unperceivable difference in performance. We hit a final speed of DDR3-1520 with 9-9-9-24 2T timings at 1.65V. Our best timings at 1333 were 6-6-5-18 1Tat 1.6V.

Another kit that caught our eye was the Super Talent 6GB DDR3-1333 CAS8 1.5V kit at a wallet friendly (in this grouping) $165. We hit a final speed of DDR3-1520 at 10-9-8-20 timings at 1.65V. We just received a CAS6 kit from Mushkin that is geared to the enthusiast along with a revised kit from Corsair. We highly value customer support and hassle free warranties when buying memory and will generally pay an extra amount for that peace of mind. We think the tradeoff between the G.Skill pricing and performance compared to the customer support staff provided by Corsair, OCZ, and others in this particular case outweigh the cost differential.

DDR3-1600 Tri-Channel Kits

Corsair Dominator 6GB DDR3-1600 Kit (TR3X6G1600C8D) - This is the memory we utilize for our X58 motherboard testing and it is well worth the $260 price. Featuring DDR3-1600 speeds with 8-8-8-24 1T timings at 1.65V, we are able to run this memory at the rated timings and speed at 1.56V on the majority of X58 motherboards. We had no problems with 7-8-7-20 1T timings at 1600 on 1.64V and eventually hit DDR3-1744 at 9-9-8-24 2T timings with 1.70V on the ASUS Rampage II Extreme board. Corsair provides some of the best customer support in the industry along with almost universal compatibility.

Mushkin XP3-12800 6GB DDR3-1600 Kit (998679) - A recent arrival in our labs is this 7-8-7-20 1T kit rated at DDR3-1600 on 1.65V for $261. We ended up running this kit at the rated timings and speed on 1.54V and could do 7-7-6-20 1T at 1600 on 1.64V on our ASUS Rampage Extreme II board. We eventually hit DDR3-1780 at 9-9-9-24 2T on 1.72V.

G.Skill 6GB DDR3-1600 Kit (F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ) - For those on a more modest budget and not wanting to squeeze out the last tenth of second in SuperPI, we think this 9-9-9-24 kit from G.Skill is an very good value at $199. We were able to run the rated speed and timings at 1.54V on all of our X58 boards and could do 8-8-8-24 1T at 1.65V. Our memory topped out at DDR3-1720 at 10-10-9-24 2T on 1.70V so overclocking headroom is minimal even with relaxed timings.

We still have DDR3-1600 6GB kits arriving in the labs. If you are a fan of mail in rebates then we highly recommend the OCZ Gold 6GB kit. It had nearly the same results as the Corsair kit at stock speeds but ran out of steam at DDR3-1720 with 10-9-9-20 timings at 1.72V. We have had excellent results in 12GB testing with the Patriot Viper PVT36G1600ELK kits. Performance is similar and at times better than the G.Skill CAS9 1600 kit but the pricing is slightly higher at $215 with the included rebate. Patriot also offers the PVT36G1600LLK kit that is priced similarly to the Corsair Dominator kit and offers almost identical performance.

We have not had enough test time with a couple of new DDR3-1866 kits that just arrived so we will have to discuss those in a future system guide. Also, for those that like to overclock and benchmark, we have had great success with the Kingston KHX16000D3K3/3GX kit in reaching speeds right above DDR3-2000 with CAS9 timings at 1.65V. Other high performance kits are arriving shortly, even 6GB kits rated at DDR3-2000, so the serious enthusiast will have numerous choices in early 2009.

That is it for today. We will be back in the near future with a couple of memory roundups and to answer that age old question of what suites your system best, 3GB, 4GB, 6GB, 8GB, or 12GB depending on the platform.