Introduction

I would like to thank ASUS for providing the CPU, motherboard, and graphics card used in this review. This review would not have been possible without their support. Also, many thanks to Avexir for providing the memory.

Founded in 2006, Avexir is a new company in the grand scheme of things, and while many might have been unaware of their existence before, Avexir caught the attention of many enthusiasts, mine included, after introducing the Core Series for gamers and overclocking enthusiasts in 2011, which had their reach expand pretty quickly from then on out through Core Series and BLITZ products. Each year before Computex, W1zzard asks me who he should visit on my behalf since my family life makes getting to events like Computex impossible. Last year, I asked W1zzard to visit ASRock, and since then, we have seen quite a few ASRock products for review, with several more still waiting for their turn. This year, the company I asked W1zzard to see first was Avexir, as some of their pre-development pictures of sticks on Facebook really intrigued me.

A few weeks ago, my first product sample from Avexir arrived, and since then, I have been playing with Avexir's latest Core Series modules built specifically for Intel's Z87 platform using Haswell-based CPUs. The crazily fast 3100 MHz modules they sent me feature 12-15-15-35 timings at a voltage of just 1.65 V. Each Core Series module also features fancy lighting Avexir dubbed "The Spirit of Gaming". What makes these modules really special is the ability to order custom modules directly from Avexir for some reasonable "boutique" prices, including custom heatsinks and custom SPD programming (when Avexir has staff available), which extreme overclockers and extreme enthusiasts looking to make a hardcore statement cannot overlook.

These particular sticks hit retail shelves recently, and their price is going to make most people die. The sticks currently go for just under $2000 on Newegg. Yes, you read that right: This 8 GB kit nearly costs more than any other PC part on the market today. While it may seem high, you are paying for the wage of a real person hand-building these boutique sticks for you, hand-sorting through hundreds of thousands of memory ICs to find the few that meet the specification you require. Doing so reliably takes a well-trained hand and a huge amount of patience. As a guitar player, I completely understand how boutique hardware reaches its high value, and there is a well-hidden market for such products too.

This will definitely not be your normal memory review, and I am left in the tough position of showing you guys why paying so much for what I know many are going to call "very little" is worth it. Let us now take a look at Avexir's Core Series 3100 MHz C12 modules.

Specifications