It is not by accident that I end up using G.SKILL memory in all of my review systems. Every time before a platform comes out, I get an email saying, "try this kit with the new stuff", and year after year, those kits have truly held their own, and many of those kits I still have today, too. It's not like memory devices are that complicated, so it is extremely important that they are reliable and built to last longer than you need them to, and that is exactly what G.SKILL's TridentZ sticks have always been about and still are. With the numerous systems I build for reviews and the punishment these sticks have taken, subject to all those installations, overvolting and outright abuse, certain kits live and certain kits fail, but never G.SKILL.

I've always been one to recommend that if you are buying memory, buy the exact speed you want and don't count on overclocking headroom. There used to be a time when we could do so, but those days are long gone. Now, we have RGB LEDs as well as crazily high clock speeds in memory kits all over instead, yet there is most definitely a line in the sand when it comes to what is too much, and we can clearly see that by simply looking at motherboard memory specifications across the board; many simply don't go over 3600 MHz for the Z270 platform. Then we have ASUS's ROG motherboards...

ASUS's ROG motherboards, especially ones like the FORMULA, have been around for ages, and the features they offer are well known. One of those is an extremely capable BIOS for memory overclocking, so much so that finding a memory kit that cannot be maxed out by an ASUS ROG FORMULA motherboard is a rare thing. That reputation made it an easy choice for my Z270 memory review platform. It's just a matter of finding a really good CPU, and your memory clocking adventures with such a combination are endless. A big part of that is due to these motherboards having a set of pre-defined memory profiles for nearly every stick type, broken down into capacity, IC brand, and such other details, so you can tune whatever sticks you have to sky-high limits. Sometimes, you try those profiles and your sticks fail to meet the mark. Not so with these G.SKILL 3866 MHz C18 sticks, however.

This kit was supposed to be "that kit" and as always turned out to be. You want to pick that perfect trifecta of components to have a good time when overclocking, and these sticks have proven themselves exactly as I expected them to and then some. If you want that kit whose XMP profile is so powerful it makes some motherboards crumble to their knees, this is it. If you want to clock them up or down, this kit is ready and screened well enough that those few added dollars you're paying for it are worth it without question. Now to find that perfect kit for Intel's X299...