Introduction

Having large amounts of memory installed in ones computer system is very beneficial in all daily tasks. Choosing the right memory though can prove tricky when trying to match the consumer’s needs. Speaking for the overclocking community, one must find memory that not only runs at high speeds with tight timings, but can also push beyond its stated specifications for finding that sweet spot. Overclocking your memory is rarely worth the effort and doesn’t really yield noticeable results in day to day tasks. However, not having the biggest budget to spend on memory can result is purchasing lower speed RAM and romping it up to speeds of a much more expensive product. Today this reviewer will be looking over at G.Skill’s corner with their Trident CL9 2000Mhz Triple Channel RAM for the X58 platform.

About G.Skill

G. SKILL has one of the widest breadths of products available in the memory industry and will continue to develop new storage products based on the cutting edge of technology. “G. SKILL”, established in 1989 by enthusiasts, is a leading memory module manufacturer based in Taipei, Taiwan. With traditional strengths, they have built an excellent reputation by meeting market demand and fostering business competitiveness both locally and internationally with their dedication to providing competitive prices, on-time delivery, assured quality, customer-oriented services and diversity of products.

Meet Trident

You know when you see memory with big black tall heatspreaders  that;  (a.) it’s going to be over-rated (not to mention over-priced), or either (b.) something special. Taking a look at the pictures (see below) G.Skill’s Trident memory really does grab your eye and moreover is very striking.

This 6GB (3x2GB) kit certainly matches its name in both aesthetics’ and graphics. We’d of preferred a black PCB rather than the dull dark blue to match the black heatspreaders, but to be honest the heatspreaders covers both front and back with hardly any of the inner coat showing. The memory modules themselves are quite weighty per stick due to the heat spreaders, but will they cope with the overclocking or is this just for show? These modules are rated at 9-9-9-24 at 2000Mhz with 1.65v. How much potential overclocking headroom is there? – Read on.

How We Test

As most modules are designed to run at high speeds, our tests look to show off what they can do both stock and overclocked. We use a variety of software to find the maximum clocks and timings each module can run at. Today we shall be using Everest, SiSoftware Sandra, and MAXXMEM². CPU-Z shall be playing a part in denoting what results we get. All overclocking is done within the BIOS and no overclocking software used in the Windows environment.

We will be looking at Read, Write, Copy (all MB/s), and Latency (ns) with regards to the applications used to test the memory. Each test was run 10 times and only the best results are represented.

Our Test System

- Intel Core i7 930

- Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7

- G.Skill Trident 6GB (3x2GB) 2000Mhz 9-9-9-24

- Zotac GTS 250 1GB AMP! Edt.

- Cogage Arrow CPU Cooler w/ San Ace H1011

- Fractal Design Newton R2 800W

- Intel X25-M Gen2 80GB

- Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit

*All testing was done open bench.

Overclocking

We went ahead and looked at what we could do from stock specifications of 9-9-9-24 w/ 1.66v at 2000Mhz. We tried to keep the system at 4.2Ghz with the Intel Core i7 930 wherever possible. Our stock QPI/VTT voltage was set at 1.45v with the system at an overclocked speed of 4.2Ghz. The vCore used was 1.325v stable.

We first went ahead from stock speeds of 2000Mhz at CL9 to see what it could be tightened to. We first found that at stock voltage (both vDIMM & QPI/VTT), we could easily reach timings of 8-9-6-24 @ 2000Mhz.

Secondly, we then increased the VTT to 1.55v & vDIMM to 1.7v and managed to obtain 7-9-6-21 @ 2000Mhz. See the screenshot below.

Our second task was to push the memory faster than its rated speed. We increased the VTT to 1.65v & vDIMM to 1.78v where we managed to secure timings of 8-9-8-24 @ 2100Mhz. This was our limit. See the screenshot below.

Lastly, we wanted to down clock the speed by dropping the memory multiplier by one and seeing what timings could be obtained at 1600Mhz. Both vDIMM & VTT were returned to stock settings. We secured timings of 6-7-6-18 @ 1600Mhz. See the screenshot below.

The Results

Settings Used:

-          2000Mhz 9-9-9-24 w/ 1.66v vDIMM & 1.45v VTT @ 4.2Ghz i7 930

-          2000Mhz 7-9-6-21 w/ 1.7v vDIMM & 1.55v VTT @ 4.2Ghz i7 930

-          2100Mhz 8-9-8-24 w/ 1.78v vDIMM & 1.65v VTT @ 4.4Ghz i7 930

-          1600Mhz 6-7-6-18 w/ 1.66v vDIMM & 1.45v VTT @ 4.2Ghz i7 930

Lavalys EVEREST Ultimate Edition

Lavalys EVEREST Ultimate Edition is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings. CPU, FPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems.

Read | Write | Copy

Latency

MaxxMem²

The MaxxMem² benchmark tests your computer’s raw memory performance, combining copy, read, write and latency tests into one global score.

Read | Write | Copy

Latency

SiSoftware Sandra

SiSoftware Sandra is a 32- and 64-bit Windows system analyser that includes benchmarking, testing, and listing modules. It tries to go beyond other utilities to show you more of what is really going on under the hood, so you draw comparisons at both a high- and low-level in a single product.

Memory Bandwidth

Latency

Conclusion

For a kit costing (at the time of writing) £176.24 Inc VAT from Aria PC Technology, they are rather pricey but such are memory prices at this time. However, from the results we have achieved today, they are well worth the punt. With stock voltage and speeds, the Trident kit could be tightened to CL8 which is mighty impressive. Better still with a voltage increase we could run these modules at CL7 perfect for benchmarking as seen from our results. Of course Read, Write and Copy remained almost similar and more due to the fluctuations of the OS than anything, but taking a look at our latency testing, we can see how much benifit the tigter timings were giving the end user. According to Everest, our latency for stock was 43.6ns compared to CL7 timings at 35.6ns!

Pushing the memory even further than it’s rated specs (albeit with a voltage bump), we obtained 2100Mhz with CL8 which we find mighty impressive. Our benchmarks conclude how much of a benifit this is accross the board. We couldn’t seem to get past 2100Mhz no matter what voltage or timings we set. However in hindsight, this may well be due to our motherboard limitations. Backing down the memory to 1600Mhz, we achieved CL6 timings with latency timings (with regards to Everest) close to CL7 at 2000Mhz (35.6ns) but better than the 40.9ns score obtained by CL8 2100Mhz as we hit 38.1ns with 1600Mhz CL6. This was done on stock voltage which this reviewer finds to be the sweet spot.

Pros

- Aesthetics

- Overclocking both stock voltage and increased voltage

- Serious performance

- Heatspreaders keep cool

- Lifetime Warranty

Cons

- May have height issues with some heatsinks

- Expensive

G.Skill’s Trident 2000Mhz CL9 3x2GB Kit recieves our highest award for such fantastic performance and overclocking potenial. A Gold Award with 9.5/10!