Installation and Testing:

To really appreciate the memory's 1600MHz frequency, you really want to install it on a very capable motherboard such as the ASUS P5K3 Deluxe WiFi Deluxe motherboard. The reason being, slower chipsets with a less capable BIOS won't be able to offer much stability when set to 1600MHz. And that's 'if' the lesser motherboards can even support such a memory frequency. If your motherboard's memory and CPU are linked in the BIOS, it won't get very far on a lesser chipset. For instance, the ASUS P5B vanilla raises the memory frequency automatically as the CPU's 266 Bus is increased. At some point, the motherboard won't be able to push the CPU Bus any higher and the memory will still be short of 1600MHz.

OCZ & ASUS P5K3 Deluxe

If your motherboard is something along the lines of a 650-SLI chipset, you will be able to increase your CPU Bus independently of the memory frequency, but will quickly hit a limit as well usually around 300 to 330MHz Bus. You can set the memory to 1600MHz alone, but it won't be quite 1 to 1 memory divider ratio. Thus, you won't have reached the memory's true potential. The higher the processor's Bus scales, the closer to the memory's 1600MHz true frequency you will get. Performance gains will undoubtedly be experienced with a much more capable motherboard.

Goes Nicely with Black PCB

Installation is simple as reading the motherboard box you intend to install it in. If the motherboard you're looking at buying supports DDR2, this kit won't work since the modules will only fit in a DDR3 supported motherboard. There isn't much you have to worry about other than that. Everything went as we've come to expect and encountered no issues what so ever. Press the modules in place and get ready to fly! I just love a flawless, stable installation right from the start. It's never any fun when you experience the difficulties some sort of budget unknown or damaged memory kit can cause. You won't find anything other than success with the OCZ PC3-1600 Kit.

CPUZ

Mainboard

Memory

SPD

All tests were performed at stock and overclocked settings keeping the processor and memory as close to a 1 to 1 ratio. Think of it in terms of matching the Core 2 Duo 1066Mhz Front Side Bus with a 1066MHz memory frequency. This is where the best performance results can be obtained most accurately. Overclocking the processor alone won't allow the system memory to really show what it can achieve.

Stock memory performance isn't much off par from that of DDR2, but does benefit nicely from the lower 6-6-6 timings over the stock 7-6-6 timings. The main reason DDR3 memory can't completely beat out DDR2 memory is due to the higher timings in the DDR3 modules. Many of the performance oriented DDR3 kits can operate at 6-6-6 at lower frequencies than it's specified rating. Fore example, the PC3-1600 and Hyper X PC3-1375 kits can operate at those lower timings when matched to a 1066MHz FSB processor. Sisoft's Memory Bandwidth test allows us to see how 7-7-7 timings and 6-6-6 timings compare.

Looking back on the SPD report, you realize that it's actually very conservative. Usually, it's easy to figure out what a memory kit is capable of if the SPD information is accurate. Since this isn't the case, the memory was tested with various timings. The timings could be set to 6-6-6 up to 1400MHz. From 1600 to 1700MHz, the modules could be kept at it's default 7-6-6 timings using a bit more voltage at the top. The modules topped out at 1760MHz using 7-7-7 timings using some more voltage which were a little high for my own use. In the end, the PC3-1600 kit was operating at 1820MHz using 8-8-8-24 timings. This frequency offered up another top SANDRA memory benchmark of over 11,000 MB/s. For AMD users, this is actually a low number while INTEL users should be happy with their new gains.

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