The G.SKILL ARES 2133MHz 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 memory kit is one of the fastest kits we have tested to date. See how it fairs against other 16GB memory kits available…
Product on Review: G.SKILL ARES F3-2133C9Q-16GAB
Manufacturer and Sponsor: G.Skill
Street Price: £138.37 inc. VAT (At time of review)
G.SKILL are no newbies when it comes to producing some of the finest memory kits available. Indeed, they have been doing exactly that for over 20 years! From their humble beginnings in Taipei, Taiwan as a group of enthusiasts, they are now one of the biggest names in the memory business. G.SKILL will openly admit that their success is owed to meeting growing customer demands by creating products that are both cost effective and innovative, backed up by a service that is second to none. Quality assurance is a top priority of theirs so when we received the 2133MHz kit, we could be assured it would work at this frequency straight out of the box. At this frequency we were worried that their wouldn’t be a great deal left in the tank for us overclockers but as we will see later in the review, our worries were unfounded.
Managing quad channel memory is down to the new x79 chipset and Sandybridge-E memory IC and the higher the frequency/lower timings, the more strain is placed upon these components. Up to now, 8GB 1600MHz and 1866MHz kits have been the norm. Should you have had the cashflow, a 16GB kit was the Holy grail but often this meant accepting lower frequencies to keep costs under control. With memory prices dropping to an acceptable level, 16GB kits are now increasingly popular and G.SKILL being who they are, are pushing the envelope by releasing some seriously fast pieces of kit.
Enter the ARES 16GB kit(F3-2133C9Q-16-GAB). With a blistering 2133MHz frequency this is the fastest kit we have tested to date. Couple this with relatively tight timings of 9-11-10-27 and the news just gets better. To run at this speed and latency, the DRAM voltage is increased from 1.5v to 1.65v but it is a small sacrifice to pay for one of the fastest 16GB kits available today.
Our History
“G. SKILL”, established in 1989 by enthusiasts, is a leading memory module Manufacturer based in Taipei, Taiwan.
With traditional strengths, we have built an excellent reputation by meeting market demand and fostering business competitiveness both locally and internationally with our dedications to provide competitive prices, On-Time Delivery, Assured Quality, Customer-Oriented Services and Diversity of Products.
Mission Statement
We are here to provide superior memory products, with satisfactory services in order to keep pace with our customers’ growing needs, and help them by adding value to their purchases. We pledge we will continue to do so and enable both sides to obtain significant competitive advantages in the market segments.
“G. SKILL”, established in 1989 by enthusiasts, is a leading memory module Manufacturer based in Taipei, Taiwan.
With traditional strengths, we have built an excellent reputation by meeting market demand and fostering business competitiveness both locally and internationally with our dedications to provide competitive prices, On-Time Delivery, Assured Quality, Customer-Oriented Services and Diversity of Products.
Mission Statement
We are here to provide superior memory products, with satisfactory services in order to keep pace with our customers’ growing needs, and help them by adding value to their purchases. We pledge we will continue to do so and enable both sides to obtain significant competitive advantages in the market segments.
Technical Specification
Model Number: F3-2133C9Q-16GAB
Series: ARES
System: DESKTOP
System Type: DDR3
Main Board: INTEL
M/B Chipset: Z77 / X79 / P67 / Z68
Capacity: 16GB (4GBx4)
Multi-Channel Kit: Quad Channel kit
Tested Speed: DDR3-2133 MHz (PC3-17000)
Tested Latency: 9-11-10 2N
Tested Voltage: 1.65V
Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
Error Checking: Non-ECC
Type: 240-pin DIMM
SPD Speed: 1600 MHz
SPD Voltage: 1.5V
Height: 33 mm / 1.30 inch
Warranty: Lifetime
Fan lncluded: No
Features: Intel XMP (Extreme Memory Profile)Ready
Packaging & Closer Look
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Packaging
The ARES kit comes in a bland blister pack with press studs to open the package. Inside there is a basic inlay card which separates the two pairs of memory modules. Perhaps the most important aspect of the packing is the product sticker which appears added to the package more of an afterthought or indeed to keep product costs down. On this sticker you will find the frequency, timings and voltage specifications of the memory kit inside. G.SKILL clearly like their stickers as they have also included one to be used as a case badge if you so desire.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with the packaging, the recent memory kit we reviewed from Patriot put this products packaging in the shade and while it is only a minor criticism, it is one worth mentioning when the competition are much better in this department.
ARES Quad Channel memory kit
At first glance, the memory modules look very attractive. The low profile, electic blue heatsinks contrast well with the black PCB hidden beneath. Even the product stickers is colour coded to complete the visual appeal of the ARES memory kit.
Front
The Heatsink on the front of the module has a variety of cut-outs and folds in the metal to assist with heat dissipation.
Rear
the rear of the modules feature the same product sticker as found on the front but there is another decal added over the top which displays the products specification, manufacture date and individual serial number.
Height
Measuring just 33mm in height, these modules are ideally suited to sit beneath large CPU heatsinks.
HYNIX
The memory IC’s used hail from HYNIX with a product code of H5TQ2G83CFA H9C which tells us each module is formed from 2 banks of 8x256MB 1333MHz 9-9-9 IC’s.
Let’s take a look at how these modules overclock with our test setup…
Test Setup & Overclocking
Test System
Motherboard MSI X79 Big Bang X-Power II
CPU Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition @ 4.5GHz
Power Supply ANTEC High Current Pro 1200W
Hard Drive Kingston HyperX 240GB
Cooler Corsair H100
CPU Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition @ 4.5GHz
Power Supply ANTEC High Current Pro 1200W
Hard Drive Kingston HyperX 240GB
Cooler Corsair H100
Memory kits on test:
G.SKILL ARES 16GB 9-11-10-28 2133MHz
Patriot Division 4 Viper Extreme 16GB 9-11-9-27 1866MHz
Corsair Vengeance 16GB 9-10-9-27 1866MHz
G.SKILL RipjawsZ 16GB 9-10-9-28 1866MHz
Overclocking
Above are the SPD settings of the memory kit in today’s review.
Enabling XMP saw the timings and frequency correctly set to 9-11-10-28 at 1.65v.
Overclocking the ram was as easy as raising the multiplier a notch. This gave us a blistering 2400MHz. We did try lowering the timings at this frequency somewhat but sadly without any notable success. 1T was also unachievable but putting the kit back to 1600MHz we managed to lower the timings a little to a respectable 8-8-8-20 so whatever your preference, be it latency or bandwidth, the ARES kit can cater for both tastes. For our run of benchmarks we ran the kit at the maximum overclock of 2400MHz.
Let’s see how these results translate to performance…
Super Pi & Hyper Pi
In August 1995, the calculation of pi up to 4,294,960,000 decimal digits was succeeded by using a supercomputer at the University of Tokyo. The program was written by D.Takahashi and he collaborated with Dr. Y.Kanada at the computer center, the University of Tokyo. This record should be the current world record. ( Details is shown in the windows help. ) This record-breaking program was ported to personal computer environment such as Windows NT and Windows 95 and called Super PI. In order to calculate 33.55 million digits, it takes within 3 days with Pentium 90MHz, 40MB main memory and 340MB available storage.
The HiperPI front-end is basicly a program which allows selecting multiple threads of SuperPi to be run at the same time so you can test the stability and performance on multi-core machines.
AIDA64
AIDA64 is the successor to Everest ULTIMATE. This application not only details every component within a system but it also incorporates a comprehensive memory benchmarking tool that will ascertain bandwidth and latency figures.
Sisoft Sandra 2012
SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but I believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.
Futuremark 3DMark 11
Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.
DiRT 3
As players race to elevate their global standing, DiRT 3 is back delivering mud, sweat and gears world over: from the intense weather-beaten rally stages of Europe, Africa and the US, to executing performance driving showcases and career challenges where car control is pushed to spectacular limits.
Conclusion
The G.SKILL ARES is a great kit that impressed us from start to finish. It looks extremely good with it’s Royal Blue heatsinks which might I add also come in a very fetching bronze colour at the same frequency but with slacker timings. The blue kit is the premium choice however and boy can it move! It took apart the competition in the majority of benchmarks at stock speed so I have little to add about just how fast they were when overclocked (easily) to an amazing 2400MHz.
The price of this 2133MHz kit matches some other premium branded 1866MHz kits so it really should be a ‘no brainer’ which kit to go for. G.SKILL RMA support is excellent. They also offer a lifetime warranty. The ARES kit is low profile too which is so important for anyone air cooling with a large heatsink on an X79 platform due to the DRAM layout.
In short, G.SKILL offer some of the fastest memory kits available for both X79 and Z77 foundations and while this kit resides in the middle of the pack, it offers copious amounts of bandwidth and tight enough timings for most enthusiasts and at a very competitive price point. The only negative about this kit is the packaging which is not bad, it’s just not as good as the competition. Also, you may not like this kit if you have an aversion to blue. Other than that it is pretty much a perfect product with no major faults found.
What are you waiting for? Go buy some!
Pros:
+ Good looking, well vented heatsink
+ 2133MHz stock speed
+ Great overclocking potential
+ Tight timings
+ Black PCB
Cons:
– Blue may not suit everyone’s tastes
– Basic Packaging
+ Good looking, well vented heatsink
+ 2133MHz stock speed
+ Great overclocking potential
+ Tight timings
+ Black PCB
Cons:
– Blue may not suit everyone’s tastes
– Basic Packaging
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net. Thanks to G.SKILL for providing today’s review sample.
