Memory

Topower Black-X 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 Review

vortez
June 8, 2012 8 Min Read
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A 4GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 memory kit is under the spotlight and tested on our Intel Z77 rig – will Black-X be a strong contender in a tough market?



Product on Review: Topower Black-X Series
Manufacturer and Sponsor: Topower
Street Price: N/A (At time of review)

To the enthusiast’s ear Topower will be largely unheard of since their focus over the last two decades has been concerned with bringing OEM products to retail brands. Topower are the mainstay behind a long list of reputable brands in various categories spanning PSUs, memory and other computer hardware. Topower are now keen to enter the retail market themselves and today we shall be looking at one of their enthusiast DDR3 kits named Black-X.

Black-X are designed to satisfy enthusiasts and gamers. The kit we are to look at today has a stock frequency of 1600MHz, CAS timings of 9-9-9-28 and a voltage of 1.65v. How will this kit fare against stiff competition? There’s only one way to find out. Let’s begin our analysis.



Topower’s take on Black-X
Sorted and tuned across latest-generation mainboards, Black-X gaming modules cater for the gaming market, the budding enthusiasts, and multimedia graphic industries. The alloy used in the heatshield is engineered in Japan for good heat-dispersion in systems running 24hours or under poor internal air-circulation. Black-X is perfect for gamers and multi-media engineering design workstation users whose systems can run hot.

Technical Specifications

– Available in Single, Dual-Channel, Tri-Channel Packages
– 240 pin, Non-ECC, Un-buffered DIMM
– Working Voltage 1.5V ~ 1.65V (DDR3), 1.8V~2.5V (DDR2)
– Warranty : Lifetime
– Over-Volt Tested
– Optimally-Tuned Timings
– Sigma Process Engineering
– Pre-Sorted Modules
– Variable-Condition Tested
– 12~72Hr Burn-In Tested
– FCC/CE/RoHS Compliant

Kit being reviewed

Frequency– 1600MHz
CAS Timings – 9-9-9-28
Voltage – 1.65v

Packaging & Closer Look


The Black-X kit is presented in a memory box similar to other kits. The graphics and design are a little lack-lustre but this isn’t really of utmost importance. Topower are keen to show that this range is pre-picked for best performance “Pre-Sorted” and “Pre-Tuned” are found on the front.

Inside, the memory modules are found within a plastic tray and covered in a removable plastic case. Thankfully we didn’t have to destroy the packaging and get the knife out – always a plus.


The packaging for Black-X


The Black-X modules have a rather tame visual appearance. The heatsink design with the browny-orange lacks imagination compared to some of the other kits currently on the market. The PCB (which can just been seen) is green, which is again an area that both enthusiasts and gamers prefer being black. The aesthetics are certainly an area that Topower could improve on.

The heatspreader on the Black-X kit is made from Japanese alloy in Japan and boasts great heat dissipation. As you can see from the pictures the heatspreaders are low-profile and do not extend above the size of the PCB – much to the joy of enthusiast and gamer alike.


An overview of Black-X



The profile for Black-X


As is usual with memory Topower have included a specifications label – detailing the model, speed, capacity and serial number for the Black-X kit. The CAS timings are missing though.


The specifications label

Test System & Overclocking


Test system

CPU Intel Core i5 3570K (Ivy Bridge)
Motherboard MSI Z77A-GD65
Graphics MSI R7970 Black Edition
Memory Topower Black-X 1600MHz 9-9-9-28 (1.65v)
HDD Kingston HyperX 240GB (SATA 3)
PSU OCZ 750W Fatal1ty
CPU Cooler Alpenfohn K2
OS Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit



Overclocking

To establish an overclock the voltage was increase slightly to allow flexibility. Working backwards I began at 2133MHz and loosened the timings completely. Sadly I wasn’t even able to boot.

The next step was to drop the frequency whilst keeping the timings slack – 2000MHz was also a no go – the system POSTED but froze on entry into Windows.

Finally, at 1866MHz the Black-X kit booted into Windows. CL11 was easily possible so I tweaked the CAS timings to CL9 to see if the stock settings would be possible with an increase in the frequency. Though the system did boot, instability was an issue so in similar fashion I set the timings to CL10 and though the stability test completed without errors during benchmarks the system would freeze so I had to bring the timings back to CL11.

It’s worthwhile mentioning that this kit at stock frequency was able to have its timings dropped lower to CL8. So whether you want low latency or more bandwidth – the choice is there.



So with the best overclock, modification now found – we will benchmark this kit with both stock and overclocked settings to demonstrate the performance results

Benchmarks: AIDA64

AIDA64 is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning AIDA64 Technology. During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings. CPU, FPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems.

STOCK – 1600MHz CL9


OVERCLOCK – 1866MHz CL11

Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA 2012

[i ]SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.
Sandra is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.

It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.





Benchmarks: HyperPI 0.99b

The HiperPI front-end is basically 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.



Benchmarks: SuperPI 1.5

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.



Benchmarks: 3DMark 11 & DIRT 3

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.





Conclusion


Topower have remained hidden away as an OEM for many years but are finally branching out into the retail market in a bid to rise to prominence. Being the bread and butter behind a long list of reputable brands, how does their Black-X kit fare with stiff competition on every side?

Low-profile memory kits are always a top pick for enthusiasts who demand no restrains and the Black-X kit meets this requirement. The heatspreaders found on the kit don’t actually extend any higher than the PCB underneath – much to the delight of many.



Stock performance though good, did lack behind the other kits we have tested on our new Intel Z77 based test system. Overclocking did boost performance but the other 1600MHz kits tested delivered similar and in some cases better performance due to having better latency.

The highlight with Black-X is the price. At just £24.99 this 4GB 1600MHz CL9 kit is very affordable, the difficulty comes with trying to source them – there are only a small assortment of retailers that stock these kits.

It’s good to see Topower branching out into the retail market. The Black-X kit is very affordable and does tick some boxes but sadly the performance and design needs to be worked on if they want to get noticed. Competition is tough in this segment, it will be interesting what they bring to the table in the near-future.

Pros
+ Low-profile
+ Very affordable
+ Lifetime warranty

Cons
– Dull aesthetic design
– Average performance
– Not much headroom for overclocking

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