Test System and Max OC

Test System

Testing Rated Speeds

I recently built a new system for memory testing, and I spent about eight weeks playing with multiple Haswell CPUs and multiple Z87-based motherboards before settling on the configuration used for all testing in my recent memory reviews. Due to memory overclocking in part being limited by CPU speeds, I have chosen to run all testing with my Intel Core i7-4770K running at default speeds, although I enabled ASUS's performance-optimized turbo profiling feature. All kits are tested by simply enabling XMP in the BIOS after clearing the CMOS fully. I also clear the CMOS when I swap kits to ensure all reported numbers are identical to what end users can obtain using a similar configuration.


The G.Skill 2400 MHZ C11 ARES kit booted up without any problems in my Haswell-based system. I simply had to enable XMP. The TRFC values are a bit high due to the density of the stick's ICs, but the low tWCL value of "7" really offsets those high TRFC values well.

Maximum Overclock

Unfortunately, I was not able to get much of an overclock out of my ARES kit, but that is not exactly the focus of the ARES line. I did manage to tighten timings to 10-12-12-31, however, which did offer a bit of a performance boost, although not one worth mentioning as only synthetic benchmarks will actually benefit from such a boost. I was also able to hit 2500 MHz with some BCLK changes, so if that is your fancy, you will likely have some room to wiggle out some additional performance there, though it will not be much.