DDR3 On A Budget: Six 6 GB Memory Kits

Features
By Thomas Soderstrom
published

Patriot And Super Talent

Patriot Viper Series DDR3-1333 CAS 7

Patriot Viper Series Extreme Performance Low Latency PC3-10666 (DDR3-1333) tops the industry for superfluous naming, though its model number PVT36G1333LLK is actually decrypt-able into something that makes sense: DDR3, 6GB, 1,333 MHz, Low Latency Kit.

Rated at DDR3-1333 timings of 7-7-7-20 at 1.65 V, Patriot includes a matching XMP value that our motherboard was able to interpret exactly as advertised. Anyone who isn’t able to get the right settings through XMP can manually configure these in BIOS on nearly any DDR3-supporting performance platform.

One of the last holdouts of June's low prices, Patriot’s DDR3-1333 CAS 7 price has increased from $90 to $115 in the past two weeks.

Super Talent Chrome Series DDR3-1600 CAS 9

The second of only two kits in today’s roundup manufacturer-specified for DDR3-1600 operation, moderate timings for Super Talent’s part number WB160UX6G9 should have given it an extra-low price. However, better availability of its CAS 8 part number WB160UXG8 at discount venders has made the quicker parts slightly cheaper than these.

Rated at DDR3-1600 timings of 9-9-9-28 at 1.65 V, the WB160UX6G9 6 GB triple-channel kit includes an XMP value with slightly better-than-rated tRAS. A listing of “XMP-62” appears to have been misread by our motherboard, again showing the inconsistency of XMP technology on some platforms. Those unable to use XMP appropriately can instead set the correct voltage and timings manually.

Part number WB160UX6G9 is available online for as little as $111, though its quicker CAS 8 sibling can be found for $105.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
58 Comments Comment from the forums
  • aspireonelover
    Great review, this helped me determine with determining about DDR3 6GB kits. Since I'm in the middle of building my core i7 rig. thx!
    btw, isn't there any cheaper ram on the way as well?
    Reply
  • Crashman
    These were all available for under $90 at the July 3 price deadline. Amazing what's happened since, eh?
    Reply
  • pirateboy
    rather silly not to include any gskill ram
    Reply
  • neiroatopelcc
    Is 1.65v really needed?
    I recently built an i7 mashine with 2x6gb ocz gold modules.
    Instead of running them at their rated 1600mhz @ 1.65v I decided to go for 1333 @ 7-7-6-17 - and that @ stock 1.5v ; I don't really get the point of feeding them more juice just to get timings a tad lower, or frequency a tad up.
    Reply
  • hixbot
    With the minimal performance gains from high-end RAM, glad to see an evaluation of the "cheap" stuff. Good work.
    Reply
  • bk420
    I wish these came in 2 or 4 packs also!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Reply
  • inmytaxi
    OCZ DDR3 3x 2 GB kits, the Gold and the Plat at 1333 and 1600, dropped below 100 bucks at NewEgg and ZipZoomFly three months ago. They've been $89 - 99 PLUS a 20 rebate with FREE shipping there on and off since April.

    The statement at the heading is inaccurate.
    Reply
  • monkeysweat
    what about kingston ram?
    Reply
  • itadakimasu
    I picked up some 12gb ocz platinum 1333 kits for $135, and 140 off of amazon. Found them using bing.com/cashback.
    Reply
  • xanubisx
    do not use ocz's xmp set the memory yourself. On my memory the 1600mhz with xmp i tried the xmp 1600 setting and it cooked my i7 cpu. After the shitty rma process i installed the memory and set all the timings myself and found out that the xmp profile set the qpi voltage to 1.4 when it runs fine on 1.105 (i think) the default qpi voltage anyways i learnt my lesson ocz might have cheap memory but dont use the xmp.
    Reply