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Although 7 months ago I did come to the conclusion that those looking to build a Core i7 system should consider buying low-latency DDR3-1066 memory, or at most 1333MHz memory, this opinion was largely influenced by DDR3 pricing at the time. The memory bandwidth available to the Core i7 processor will naturally increase with the memory frequency. The problem is, while we do see quite a large increase in available memory bandwidth when going from triple-channel DDR3-1066 to DDR3-1600 memory for example, this bandwidth does not necessarily make for better performance. Games for example, will see just a frame or two extra when jumping from DDR3-1066 to DDR3-1600. However applications such as WinRAR do see decent performance gains, so really it depends on what your requirements are. Based on our findings over the past 7 months or so, it does seem as though DDR3-1600 memory is ideal for the Core i7 processors, and it will unleash their full potential. That said, DDR3 memory clocked at 1066/1333MHz is not a great deal slower and will deliver practically the same experience. Today there is as little as $20 US difference between DDR3 clocked at 1066MHz and 1600MHz, so picking between the two is becoming less of an issue.  For roughly $100 US it is possible to purchase DDR3-1333 memory that can work with CAS7-7-7-18 timings or DDR3-1600 memory that works at CAS9-9-9-24. So really they are very much the same these days. However if you spend a little more, around $140 US, the OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Reaper HPC memory kit is an interesting option, as it offers low latency timings at 1600MHz. There are plenty of DDR3-1600 memory modules that support CAS8 timings for around $20 US less. However few modules that work at this frequency can match the impressive timings of this OCZ memory. Therefore, if anything the OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Reaper HPC memory is a unique product. Additionally, it is also quite an exciting looking product, and the Reaper HPC heatsinks do help keep this memory cool when overclocked. When fine tuning these memory modules we were able to reach a maximum stable frequency of 1822MHz, which is a decent 14% overclock. Furthermore, when operating at 1333MHz we were able to tighten the timings up to CAS6-6-6-16, which was quite remarkable and showed the OCZ Reaper HPC memory to be highly flexible.
Reviewed By Steven Walton |
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