DDR3 1,333MHz and 1,600MHz
DDR3-1,333 (PC3-10,666)
2GB kits (2x 1GB)Crucial DDR3-1,333 - CL9 - 1.5V - no heatspreaders - £32.19 at Crucial.com/uk (£49.57 - Jan '09, £49.51 - Nov '08, £55.21 - Sep '08).
3GB kits (3x 1GB) - Core i7-optimised
Crucial DDR3-1,333 - CL9 - 1.5V - no heatspreaders - £48.29 @ Crucial.com/uk (£76.36 - Jan '09, £81.24 - Nov '08).
4GB kits (2x 2GB)
Crucial DDR3-1,333 - CL9 - 1.5V - no heatspreaders - £56.34 @ Crucial.com/uk - (£79.34 - Jan '09, £108.09, Nov '08, £114.70 - Sep '08).
6GB kits (3x 2GB) - Core i7-optimised
Crucial DDR3-1,333 - CL9 - 1.5V - no heatspreaders - £85.09 @ Crucial.com/uk (£142.72 - Jan '09, £163.70 - Nov '08).
A clean sweep for Crucial, with aggressive pricing across the board. Corsair, OCZ, Kingston, and others all have packs with the same frequencies, but cost around 25 per cent extra.
DDR3-1,600 (PC3-12,800)
The Intel X48 chipset and NVIDIA's nForce 790i Ultra both support DDR3-1,600 memory natively, using pre-programmed SPDs - XMP for Intel and EPP2.0 for NVIDIA - that are activated by a one-click BIOS setting. XMP and EPP2.0 memory is actively marketed as such by vendors.
Now, though, most Core i7 X58 boards are advertised supporting DDR3-1,600MHz+ speeds out of the box, and that's also true of the select few AMD AM3 boards that support Phenom IIs.
DDR3 natively operates at 1.5V, but DDR3-1,600 may require 1.8V to function at its rated speed, although the Core i7 will be limited to 1.65V.
Only enthusiasts that want the very best performance - and are willing
to pay for it - should look at this frequency, we feel.
2GB kits (2x
1GB)
Corsair
TW3X2G1600C9DHX - 9-9-9-24 latencies - 1.8V - DHX
heatspreaders - £48.44
@ Scan.co.uk (£50.74 - Jan '09, £73.54 -
Nov '08, £83.30 - Sep '08).
3GB kits (3x 1GB) - Core i7-optimised
OCZ Gold XTC PC3 - 8-8-8-24 latencies - 1.65V - XTC heatspreaders - £64.99 @ ebuyer.co.uk. (£94.44 - Jan '09, £106.10 - Nov '08).
4GB kits (2x 2GB)
Corsair
TW3X4G1600C9DHX - 9-9-9-24 latencies - 1.8V - DHX
heatspreaders - £92.91
@ Scan.co.uk (£115.51 - Jan '09,
£133.95 -
Nov '08, £145.20 - Sep '08)
6GB kits (3x 2GB) - Core i7-optimised
OCZ Gold XTC - 8-8-8-24 latencies - 1.65V - XTX heatspreaders - £120.00 @ ebuyer.co.uk (£168.04 - Jan '09, £241.02 - Nov '08).
Even DDR3-1,600 has seen a reasonable snip in pricing, with a 6GB pack currently available for around £120.
