Closer Look:

Not much as changed in terms of the Platinum Series heat spreaders. They still come extremely well polished and fastened to the memory modules. It's pretty much suicide to try and remove the spreaders since OCZ has slowly improved the adhesive that holds them in place. And if you do manage to remove the spreaders, they will no doubt end up dented or possibly, permanently bent due to the very small mesh construction. Still, who would want to do such a thing? And who would want memory modules with spreaders that can easily fall or be pulled off? If that ever happened, your computer most certainly give up the ghost.

Front

Back

The newest DDR3 Platinum Series kit comes in two different flavors. The standard Platinum Series kit comes with 7-7-7 memory timings, while the Enhanced Bandwidth has 7-6-6 memory timings. Past test experiences have shown that while those are impressive timings, there isn't a great amount of performance gains. If anything, the biggest gains are often seen as you start to overclock the memory. It can hold better timings as the frequencies are increased due to the better ICs used to build the kit.

1600MHz Needing Cut Loose!

Platinum Sinks

As with most every OCZ heat spreader, the polished finish is top notch and down right sexy. The main change to the spreader is big Z with a very small 3 to the upper right. This is obviously intended to signify that the modules are all out DDR3 and ready to put the smack down on your latest computer build. You'll also appreciate that this great look will give the onlooker something to "ooo" and "aah" about when they see what kind of Memory you're running. It's a lot like seeing to similar Pontiac GTO cars sitting side by side, with one sporting a stock hood and the other a massive chrome intake and blower. Get the picture?

Platinum Spreaders

Z-3 Up Close

The most obvious and important feature of the OCZ kit is the 1600MHz of raw memory bandwidth that it can produce with 7-6-6-24 memory timings. These are no slouch timings at all! Similar kits out there are happy to offer 7-7-7 timings as a standard whether at 1066 or 1600MHz. This kit uses choice Micron to provide such good timings and happen to be the more expensive ICs around. Micron ICs are also very, very dependable and have never failed to perform on this test bench despite the random abuse they have to go through.

Enhanced Timings

So, I can see a couple readers scratching their heads wondering what the big deal is about memory timings. To sum it up for you so it can easily be understood, the lower the numbers are in the memory timings, the faster the memory can read and write. This in turn produces the fastest performance results and will most likely never change until we see a new form of memory interface. If you are shopping for computer memory, other than making sure it's the correct memory you need, you should really consider the lower timings if the price isn't too drastic for you or your budget. You won't regret it.

If you haven't noticed already, the modules have ICs on one side only. The heat spreaders are basically doing their job on one side and mainly stick around on the other for the balanced look. This should give you an idea of how small they are able to keep the ICs and that 2GB sticks should soon grace the shelves for the server or Jedi elite power users.

Single Sided PCB

One final note to touch on is the memory's voltage specification. It comes ready to operate with a meager 1.9 Volts which is more power than the slower 1066 or 1375MHz kits on hand which use 1.7 Volts. That extra voltage is necessary to keep those choice Micron ICs in line and maintain those low latencies. Sometimes, it's possible to increase a memory kit's voltage to achieve lower latencies, which I will no doubt check later on in the testing. At 1.9V and 1.95V EVP, these modules won't be generating much of any heat. Outside of 1.95V, you'll tread on OCZ's manufacturer warranty which is never any good if you're concerned.

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