A Closer Look

Colorful CVN series has a few different variations to the design and type of heatspreaders used, with the "ICICLE" and DDR5-6600 being the only combination found on the product page.


Colorful has placed the CVN branding on both sides of each memory DIMM.


On one side of each DIMM module is the identification sticker listing the product number, rated XMP operating frequency, and primary timings. No voltage is listed for the DDR5-6600 memory profile.


Viewing these DIMMs from the side, the CVN (memory series) logo can be found in one corner. This lettering is a cutout from the plastic clip, allowing the RGB lighting to pass through.


Colorful CVN ICICLE DDR5-6600 kit weighs in at 68 grams on the scale. For Z-height, it comes in at 43 mm rounding down.


After taking the heat spreader off, we see that these are single-sided DIMMs with eight 2 GB ICs. This is as expected for a DDR5 32 GB kit since densities increased with DDR5. The thermal pad covers all the memory ICs. This particular kit does not have any coverage for the PMIC and surrounding components. This will become important for those who do heavy overvolting! Though it should be mentioned that any overclocking beyond the binned XMP profile does void the warranty, as with any brand.


A closer look at the ICs shows that these are SK Hynix (H5CG48AGBD-X018). Currently, Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix are the three suppliers of DDR5 ICs. When it comes to higher frequency memory, SK Hynix is currently unmatched and without a direct competitor. Micron's first DDR5 iteration, Rev.A only reached a mere 5600 MT/s, with the recently released Rev.G coming in at 6600 MT/s. Samsung has been mostly absent so far, with Samsung B-Die (DDR5) rarely seen in retail kits above 6400 MT/s. While both companies have more revisions in the works, SK Hynix's new A-Die memory is currently the only one breaking the 8000 MT/s retail barrier.

The kit we have here today uses SK Hynix A-Die. It will overclock the highest of all the current memory ICs offerings. New 3 GB ICs from Micron and SK Hynix are also available to consumers, but lag behind from looser primary timings and sub-timings due to the increase in capacity.


With DDR5, one of the major changes is how the motherboard directly provides 5 V to the memory module's PMIC, which is then stepped down and split accordingly. No longer is the motherboard responsible for regulating the voltages, as with DDR4. The PMIC has the part number "0P=AC" Software reports this as Richtek being the manufacturer.