Patriot And PNY
Patriot DDR3-1600 CAS 9
A long-time favorite among several editors for low-cost overclocking, Patriot Memory from PDP Systems was the only brand to offer DDR3-1600 within our price range at the time we placed our order. It has since climbed a few dollars, but remains affordable at $86.
Read Customer Reviews of Patriot's 4GB DDR3-1600 CAS 9 Kit
Rated at the same 9-9-9-24 timings as most of this roundup’s DDR3-1333, Patriot’s part number PVS34G1600ELK DDR3-1600 kit is spec'd at a Core i5/Core i7 memory controller-busting 1.80V to reach its rated speed. Fortunately, we’re going to test it at far more reasonable settings.
Patriot uses the same SPD timings of 7-7-7 at DDR3-1066 as previously mentioned for OCZ, yet our hope is that these higher-rated modules might still yield greater speed in spite of our tighter voltage limitation.
PNY DDR3-1333 CAS 9
PNY has always provided us with solid, reliable memory at moderate prices and performance levels, yet the firm also produces a low-cost line that doesn’t get a lot of marketing attention. This low-cost roundup is a great opportunity to expose the capabilities of parts that many buyers may otherwise overlook.
Read Customer Reviews of PNY's 4GB DDR3-1333 Kit
Like many of its competitors, PNY puts heat spreaders on nearly every memory speed, even though these have little to no benefit at moderate speeds and voltage levels. Yet, we’re hoping these particular heat spreaders are attached well enough to provide some improvement when using our own custom-overclock settings.
This is the third memory set to be misreported by CPU-Z version 1.52.2, though that might be a software compatibility issue with our particular motherboard. The motherboard itself sets these properly to DDR3-1333 at 9-9-9-24 timings using the industry-standard 1.50V.
