G. Skill TridentX DDR3-2400 32GB Kit Review - PAGE 3

G. Skill's 32GB Trident X 2400MHz kit will be put to the test on our benchmarking system using the following hardware configuration.

Test Setup:

• Processor: i7 2600k @ 4.4GHz
• CPU Cooler: Enermax ETS-T40-TB
• Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD65
• Memory: 32GB G. Skill Trident X DDR3 2400
• Hard Drive: Seagate barracuda 1TB 7200RPM
• Optical Drive: ASUS DVD
• Graphics Card: XFX 7970 3GB Black Edition
• Power Supply: Corsair AX1200 Professional 1200 Watt
• Case: Cooler Master HAF 932
• Operating System: Windows 7 64-Bit

Graphics Card Drivers:

• AMD 13.1

Benchmarks:

• Battlefield 3
• Dirt 3
• Sisoftware Sandra 2012
• PCMark Vantage
• Handbrake & Winrar

Comparison Kits:

• Corsair XMS3 2000MHz
• Corsair Dominator GT 2133MHz
• ADATA XPG Gaming Series V2.0 2400MHz
• Patriot Viper III Black Mamba 2133MHz
• Corsair Dominator Platinum series 1866MHz

Overclocking:
To ensure system stability, all memory overclocks will be tested for 1 hour. If any errors occur, the memory will be adjusted and retested until a stable overclock is reached.  To overclock G. Skill's Trident X kit, I started out by enabling the XMP profile and rebooting, then entering the BIOS again to see the memory running at 2133MHz at 1.65v. Knowing this is well under the rated speed of the Trident X 2400MHz I began to increase the bclk, with everything still going smoothly at a bclk of 104. I continued to increase the bclk with no adjustments to the timings or voltages, but at 105 the system began to suffer from stability issues. Relaxing the timings and pushing the voltage up to 1.67 failed to produce a stable overclock. So the final overclock was bclk 104 with a memory speed of 2218MHz at 1.65v and timings set at 10-12-12-31 2T.