A couple of questions related to test setup and custom settings. Your SOC, IOD, CCD and VDDP voltages are insanely high. 1.2, 1.15, 1.15 and 1.1, is this auto setting? Surprised that they are that high, 1.15, 1.05, 0.95 and 0.9 should be more than good enough making IO-die use less energy and letting cores boost higher
As for tuning, when testing B-die I think you should lower RFC. This is the big edge B-die has vs all other dies. At 4000 even poor binned B-die at 1.5V can run RFC at 300 or below, this will improve performance by several percent
1.2 V for SoC is more or less required for 1T with GDM disabled on the MB I use. It will vary per vendor of course, but really I would say 1.15-1.2 V is within the ball-park. The rest of the voltages are a saved profile so I don't have to play with it every time I want to do the overclocking portion. Dual Rank 1T/GDM Disabled - these are the voltages I need for 100% stability.
I agree B-Die
can have lower tRFC, it is also very temperature sensitive. A direct fan or waterblock will keep you stable for long up-times, but no it is guarantee. tRFC 560 is the safe "OC" value. You can type that in and have little to no problems (with the correct voltage of course). tRFC is just the refresh of the banks in clock cycles. Shorter times, means it has more opportunity to obey commands. We are talking about nanoseconds. The tradeoff is, that if you go to low, you straight up lose the data in the cells or get the "silent errors" that over time will corrupt things one bit at a time. The solution to this of course, is to run your favorite memory test program for 6+ hours to make sure its stable for long term use. This will also be case by case per DIMM as not ICs are made equal. To get to the point I'm trying to make is that while tRFC can be lower, 300 is iffy for the average user. I wouldn't want them to copy/paste my overclock and have instant crashes. Or even worse those silent errors.
Run of the mill mediocre Samsung B-die. Not even a 4000MHz+ bin, let alone 2x16GB. And these deserve an award?
It's 2022, we have high-capacity high-bin Micron E-die DDR4, DDR5 and your "good enough" DDR4-3600 Hynix.
Samsung B-die is an antiquated IC for 2022 from a capacity standpoint. What's next, revival of Winbond BH-5?
Yes it deserves an award. If you are looking at it strictly from a consumer point of view that wants the "best" retail has to offer. You can get cheaper memory with looser timings. You can get 32GB kits as well from HP, though that is CL16. This shouldn't be directly compared to 32GB/64GB kits, because that is Apples to Oranges. It seems from your statement higher the density, the greater its value. I guess my AMD Threadripper with 64GB @ 2933 CL12 is superior from that prospective.
As enthusiast level consumer DDR4, it fills out the checklist.
1) Low RETAIL timings
2) phenomenal RGB implementation
3) 3600 MT/s XMP, which is great for plug n play for Intel 11th, 12th Gen and Ryzen Zen2/3 to keep that 1:1 memory ratio
4) Samsung B-Die that is already well binned if your into light overclocking.
If you know what you are doing, other kits exist that are cheaper. In the past I've bought 4400 CL19 B-Die that half the price of all B-Die a the time (when it was easy to find). Tuned it to 4000 CL15 and made out like a bandit. Very few people overclock memory and most do it wildly incorrect, leaving the memory unstable and the user unaware. Just because it boots into windows, does not mean it is stable. This memory is marketed for the PC enthusiast consumer with guaranteed B-Die ICs and it delivers on the that promise. That is why it was given an award.
I could easily push this kit to 3600 13-13-13, 4000 14-14-14, or 4800 17-17-17 on MSI Z590I Unify when I was testing it last month. Of course, these settings require 1.5V+ but this is normal for Samsung B, regardless of RAM brand.
If your going down to odd numbers, Gear Down Mode must be disabled for AMD. At least the CAS value needs to be a even number or it is ignored. Secondly, B-die is temperature sensitive. Going below CAS14 will be per case basis.
Re cons in the review. How the SPD profile can be a con? This is how this specific Samsung B IC is specified.
Yes SPD is a con. A fallback of 2133 MT/s is a joke for 2022. Usually memory will have 13 JEDEC profiles, so the MB can pick the "highest" one it is programed to accept in the event that either XMP does not work or not an option. In this case, the highest available is 2133 MT/s. A second XMP of 3200 CL14 would be ideal. Second best is to have the JEDEC up to 3200 MT/s.
Surprised the article doesn't mention this, but these are actually made by a Chinese company called BIWIN, they also make these with Acer branding. The warranty isn't even covered by HP, but by BIWIN.
BIWIN is the official licensee. The box does not say BIWIN on it. Besides the product page being on BIWIN website, it is a HP product. They give the stamp of approval, at the end of the day their company brand is on the line, not BIWIN. So its a HP product regardless of the OEM. Would you say Foxconn is the really just Apple in disguise? of course not. But mostly everything from Apple is made by Foxconn.