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Packaging and
Installation
The memory comes
in plastic bubble packaging. This packaging is
slightly wider than the standard size, due to the Viper
Fins. Nothing
fancy, but it serves its purpose.
The Patriot PC3-12800
features green Viper Fin ACC (aluminum
copper composite) heat spreaders. DDR3 uses less
voltage than DDR2, but it still puts off heat. The
Viper Fin heat spreaders
should help dissipate that heat. You may also notice
that the PCB is black. In my experience, the best
memory that I've used always comes on a black PCB.
Also the Green and Black color scheme is obviously a tribute
to the ClubOC website. :)
The ACC Viper Fins
are a lot lighter than other finned memory that I've played with.
This memory is designed to operate at 1.9v and that's a little higher
than the run of the mill DDR3. Typical DDR3 operates at 1.5v, but
to get 1600MHz, patriot had to bump the voltage up a bit. I have
ran into issues with finned memory and certain CPU heatsinks, so be
aware of the clearance before running out purchasing any memory with
fins.
Testing and
Overclocking
I chose to use the Asus Striker II Extreme motherboard which
has the nvidia 790i chipset. The
790i has independent FSB and Memory settings. Here is a basic rundown of the test system:
| Hardware |
Model |
| Motherboard: |
Asus Striker II Extreme 790i |
| CPU |
Intel
C2D Q9550 E0 |
| Video Card |
Sapphire HD 4870 Toxic |
| Storage |
2 x Seagate 500GB SATA
Raid |
| Optical |
Lite-On 16X DVD+/-RW with
Lightscribe |
| Memory |
Patriot PC3-12800LLK |
| Cooling |
Corsair Nautilus 500 Water cooling
kit |
According to Patriot's website, it's safe to run the memory at
1.9v. For overclocking, I used 2.1v. This
probably voided the warranty, but it's not too high to be
unsafe. Just remember that all memory is different and
yours could fry if you increase the voltage.
Results
Patriots DDR3 is already overclocked pretty high for a 4GB kit. I was able to increase the speed
from 800MHz (1600DDR) to 1000MHz (2000DDR). This
was a pretty sweet overclock. However, to get the
extra MHz I had to loosen the timings to 9-9-9-24.
This is the same timings as the Patriot DDR3 2000 kit that
sales for $370. Man I love overclocking. Anyway,
even with the extra MHz the memory couldn't overcome the
loose timings and the benchmarks suffered. Sandra and
Everest had lower scores while SuperPi liked the extra MHz
more than the timings and improved.
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