DDR4 done right, done cheap
Now that Skylake and its hunger for high-speed DDR4 memory is here, it’s time to ditch those shabby old DDR3 modules and upgrade. The thing is, at Skylake’s default memory speed of 2133MHz, it’s not actually that much faster than DDR3 in real world scenarios. Enter kits like this one from memory masters Geil, which promises an easy 3000MHz frequency, without costing the Earth.
Considering most 2133MHz kits with twin 4GB sticks cost around $130, the fact that Geil can deliver such speedy memory for the same price is simply incredible. Factor in the weak Aussie dollar, and we’re not sure how the company is doing it. Installing the kit into our Skylake testbench was easy enough, though the modules are rather high, something worth bearing in mind if you’ve got an overly large heatsink. It’s partially due to the pulsing lights on top of the memory, that pulses faster as the temp increases. We immediately hit the 3000MHz memory ceiling with utter ease. Even better, the timings to do so remained relatively tight, at 15-17-17. You can buy a faster kit that’ll do the same 3000MHz overclock at 15-15-15, but we’re not sure how much it’ll cost.
Once again Geil has delivered the goods. This kit is fast, affordable and looks damn sexy. Best of all, if our experience is anything to go by, extracting the maximum performance out of this memory kit and hitting its 3GHz memory speed won’t take hours of tweaking – just whack it in, change the timings and away you go.
We’re not sure how Geil did it, but this kit combines blazing performance with rock-bottom pricing.