The design of the Team Group T-Force Dark Zα is classically familiar, harking back to kits from 5–10 years ago in the best-possible way. The heat spreader is beautifully stamped, and the anodized black finish will let this kit blend into almost any build. The accents, like the mirror silver T-Force logo, complete the look rather than clashing with it. I am a big fan of the RGB LED trend in the market, but for its emphasis on greater consumer choice, I can also appreciate an old-school design.

The Team Group T-Force Dark Zα performed well in testing, especially on the AMD test bed. For overclocking, the Team Group T-Force Dark Zα proved to have a fair margin of overclocking headroom, reaching 4100 MHz stable with my ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 7 and Intel Core i9-9900K combo. That's a good result, but my Ryzen testing was even more fruitful. The Team Group T-Force Dark Zα achieved 4266 MHz with the stock XMP timings on my MSI MEG X570 ACE paired with a Ryzen 5 3600X. I was also able to dial the timings in a fair amount, though only marginal gains showed in my testing.

Finally, we come to the price. The Team Group T-Force Dark Zα comes in at around US$90.00. That is a great price for this specification. As to where the T-Force Dark Zα differs from its Dark Z cousin other than in color, it really comes down to peace of mind. Team Group has worked to ensure broad compatibility on Ryzen systems with the Dark Zα. Frankly, given the similar price points, you can't go wrong with either the Dark Z or the Dark Zα.