G.Skill Flare DDR3 2000 MHZ C7 AMD kit review - Specifications and Features

Posted by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 08/08/2010 01:00 PM [ 0 comment(s) ]

F3-16000CL7D-4GBFLS (2Gx2)

So the memory kit tested today come from that Flare series armed with PSC ICs, which relates (Flare) to the heat spreader design of the DIMM module.

Main Board	AMD ( For Phenom II x6 only )
System	Desktop
System Type	DDR3
M/B Chipset	AMD 890 Series
CAS Latency	7-9-7-24-2N
Capacity	4GB(2GB x 2)
Speed	DDR3-2000 (PC3 16000)
Test Voltage	1.65 Volts
PCB
Registered/Unbuffered	Unbuffered
Error Checking	Non-ECC
Type	240-pin DIMM
Warranty	Lifetime

Judging from the specifications provided by G.Skill, they really do recommend this memory to be used with AMD's six core processors only, preferably in combo with one of the following motherboards:

ASUS M4A89TD PRO
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO
ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3

The motherboards recommendation is there because G.Skill and ASUS worked really hard together to maximize the utmost stability and a user friendly experience. Now that doesn't mean that this memory won't work at other motherboards, contrary, we gave it a try and if you manually tweak the BIOS settings yourself you can achieve advertised frequency and performance quite easily.

Why then is one of the above motherboards so much recommended ? Well, we wanted to figure that out for ourselves and asked ASUS to ship in a M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 (which we'll be using for this review). We flashed the latest BIOS in there and from there on, it's all easy. Simplicity at it's best. In the BIOS you go towards the Ai Tweakers section, hit CPU overclocking and select D.O.C.P. (D.O.C.P. relates to memory overclocking via the baseclock frequency).

Once D.O.C.P. is selected, then one tab below it you'll find the option DRAM O.C. profile, you select profile #1, save and boot into Windows with your memory completely configured at 2000 MHZ CAS 7 1.65V. The way it works is that the baseclock is increased a little to 250 MHz, your multiplier will run at 13 and then the profile tweaks everything that needs to be tweaked including voltages.

Overclocking memory to 2000 MHz CAS7 has never been this easy really ... this literally is 3 seconds work. Seriously, for AMD platforms it's one of the few memory kits we have seen we consider to be extremely uber cool.

G.Skill likely produced a limited number of these kits, but look around and you will find them in the stores.

The Flare kit is US$ 179.99 on newegg.com, in for example Germany it is 177 Euro. But head on over to the next page where we'll startup a product photo-shoot after which this article will dive into a benchmark session. Hey, we know you like it !

G.Skill Flare memory kit

14 pages 1 2 3 4 next »

G.Skill Sniper 8GB CL7 DDR3 memory review
G.Skill designed another 8GB low voltage DDR3 kit (2x 4GB) that can be set at 1600 MHz yet still run a CAS latency of 7. And that is truly interesting because the denser the ICs get, the higher latency typically gets.

G.Skill 2x4GB CL7 1600 MHz Trident DDR3 review
We feel that more memory is rather important, and in that trend memory manufacturers have started to increase the density of DIMM modules. Where 1 and 2GB DIMM modules have been the standard, we now see very good progress in 4 GB DIMM modules. Today we\'ll do things a little different, G.Skill designed a 8GB low voltage DDR3 kit (2x 4GB) that can be set at 1600 MHz yet still run a CAS latency of 7. And that is truly interesting because the denser the ICs get, the higher latency typically gets.

G.Skill Flare DDR3 2000 MHZ C7 AMD kit review
We test and review the G.Skill Flare DDR3 2000 MHZ C7 AMD kit. These kits are optimized for AMD platforms preferably with the new six-core X6 processors, and in specific some ASUS motherboards. The kit we'll be testing today obviously comes from that series and is a 2,000MHz CL7-9-7-24 1.65V 4GB (2GBx2) DDR3 kit with its latest Flare heatsinks.

G.Skill Phoenix PRO 120GB SSD review
The SSD tested today once again is the Phoenix series from G.Skill. After we tested their 100GB Phoenix SSD (which received a very positive review) G.Skill instantly requested if we would like to review the 120GB PRO model. Both drives pretty much are the same thing, same controller ... The 100GB Phoenix uses Samsung memory though but the trick is that there is 20GB extra volume space available on the new 120GB Pro (compared to the 100GB model) for nearly the same price. A new Firmware for the SandForce 1200 based controller that is inside this 120GB model simply reserves less NAND flash memory for its data-compression scheme. As a result the overall write performance could be a tiny bit slower, but only a few percent as best. It however will give you 20 GB more space to play around with at the same price. And since price per GB is everything in the land of SSDs -- this certainly is a significant for any vendor and for you as an end-user.