Introduction

I would like to thank G.Skill for providing the review sample.

About G.Skill
Most of you probably know G.Skill and their memory. The company is one of the few still focusing on memory products in form of RAM or SSD instead of diversifying into numerous directions. G.Skill was founded in 1989 and their mission statement sums their intend up quite nicely:

We are here to provide superior memory products and satisfactory services in order to keep pace with our customers' growing needs, and help our customers in adding value to their products. And we pledge we will continue to do so and enable both sides to obtain significant competitive advantages in the market segments.

G.Skill was kind enough to send us one of their new Ripjaws series kits. This time around we get to take a look this dual channel kit, running at 1600 MHz CL9. While this does not really seem like something extordinary, remember that this is an 8 GB dual channel kit - not one with only 4 GB capacity. This kit is intended for LGA 1156 and LGA 1155 systems, requiring only 1.5V to achieve the rated speed.

Specifications:

• Speed: DDR3-1600 (PC3 12800)
• CAS Latency: 9-9-9-24
• Capacity: 8GB (4GB x 2)
• Voltage: 1.5 Volts
• PCB: 6 Layers
• Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
• Error Checking: Non-ECC
• Type: 240-pin DIMM
• Warranty: Lifetime

Packaging

The memory ships in a simple blister pack. You can clearly see the memory along with the Ripjaw logo on the very top of the package. Turning things over we have a fairly simple backside with some marketing text on there. Overall not the craziest presentation, but luckily the inner values are what count anyways.


A large sticker in the back lets the user know what memory is sealed within the plastic shell. In our case, it is the F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL.

A Closer Look

Taking a closer look at the modules, they are covered by red aluminum heatspreaders. It looks like G.Skill is going the very colorful route again, as their recent memory line-ups are available in different colors under the same family name. This tends to confuse the customer, since each different color is perceived as a different family and the user looks for specific differences. That said, if you want blue or black heatspreaders, they are available in various capacities with CL8 or CL7 for example.


Both sides of the memory are identical. There is a large sticker running across the entire side of the headspreader. Overall these make a good impression, just the green PCB does not really go well with the red - but that is just a personal opinion.


The company and memory name has simply been printed on these large stickers. They are both red to match the color of the heatspreaders.


There is also a white sticker with all the technical information of the kit itself. You will find everything you need on there: speed, capacity, CL rating and the required voltage to run the sticks at these settings.


Pulling the heatspreader off the module is not very hard, as the thermal tape does not make full contact with some of the ICs. Interestingly enough none of the memory chips have a label, so I could not tell who makes these. But, it does look like these chips were manufacturered in the 42nd week of 2009, yes - not 2010. I may be wrong, but generally "0942" tends to mean that.


There is a tiny black sticker on the edge of the PCB with the G.Skill logo. Nosy as I am, I peeled it off, destroying it in the process, but there is nothing to be found unterneath it. So the only reason for such a sticker is branding of the PCB itself, something that is not really necessary in my humble opinion.