Now that we’ve managed to see the potential behind the memory and its stock speed, we were eager to push it to see how far it could go. The first thing that we did was to try the 1866MHz memory divider using the same timings, and things were looking hopeful and we booted into Windows 100% stable and stressed the memory to make sure.

Knowing that the next memory divider was 2133MHz, we weren’t overly hopeful but wanted to try it none the less. We continued to loosen off the timings and attempted 2133MHz and to our astonishment and amazement, it booted at 2133MHz with timings of 11-11-11-31-2T.

While these timings aren’t fantastic, Sandy Bridge cares more for bandwidth opposed to latency so we were keen to see if they could be pushed further, and could then focus on tightening the timings up a bit.

Now, we knew that 2400MHz would be completely out of the question as it’s such a big jump from 2133MHz, so instead we started to raise the BCLK to gain that little bit extra from the memory and started to increase in small notches to squeeze every last piece of performance from these modules. We wanted to start small, but the BCLK would not budge by even .1MHz so we were left with 2133MHz as our final overclock.

We’re sure that if we dropped the multiplier on the memory back down to 1866MHz, it would allow for some extra bandwidth via the BCLK but we decided to settle at 2133MHz as it’s still a fantastic jump from the stock speed of 1600MHz.

Now that we had our maximum overclock, we wanted to attempt to tighten up the timings and managed to, but only by a slight amount and ended up booting and being 100% stable at 11-11-11-28-2T. Adding extra voltage didn’t help either.

We were keen to see how the overclock had changed the performance on the memory, if at all. We ran AIDA64 again and were given a read speed of 20465 MB/s, write speed of 18188 MB/s and a copy speed of 21898 MB/s and the memory latency had dropped to 43.4 ns. Some really great results considering this memory is rated at 1600MHz.

We already knew the potential behind the Enhance Corsa range was something special after looking at the 1333MHz kit and seeing great results, so we held high hopes for the 1600MHz kit too, but wasn’r expecting quite what we saw today.

The kit jumped from 1600MHz to a massive 2133MHz with only a simple increase of the voltage and loosened timings. It really was that simple and we do believe that on an AMD based system, we may even be able to push this kit closer and maybe even over 2200MHz, as AMD works slightly different and can sometimes handle higher speeds of memory slightly better than Sandy Bridge.

As GeIL have only recently come back into the UK market, sales are still a bit sparse at the moment, but we should expect more retailers adopting these kits soon.

For now, a quick search will reveal a price of around £30 for this particular kit from a few reputable retailers, which in our opinion is fantastic value for money considering the overclockability that you get bundled in, as well as the tight timings that you get at stock speeds.

I feel myself wanting to say the same as what I did about the 1333MHz kit, and that’s purely because this kit has done exactly the same and left me quite stunned to tell you the truth, and it’s not very often that it happens. Finding a memory kit that ticks all of the boxes is generally something that you have to pay top dollar for, but not with this particular set.

It’s cheap, reliable, performs great and has mass amounts of headroom, so in our eyes it really does tick every box. The only downside that people might see is the colour scheme, but we’re not being picky considering the other key bonus points it has.

With quite disappointing results, we wanted to see if these modules clocked as well as we know the dual channel kit can clock, and pushed the divider to 1600MHz with the stock timings and simply raised the voltage to 1.65V from its stock 1.5V. We managed to boot into Windows and were eager to get back into the BIOS to see how we could push things further by slackening off the timings a little bit.

Due to the X79 board we have, we have a lot more settings to tweak around with in terms of the memory and loaded a pre-defined timings profile that gave us extremely loose timings that allow the memory to be pushed further in terms of bandwidth. With timings of 10-12-11-31 at 1.65V allowed us to push the memory to the 1866MHz divider and from then on, we knew the BCLK would have to be our friend.

We proceeded to push the BCLK up in very minor increments as we know from first hand usage it can be a bit temperamental to say the least.We managed to push it up slightly to get that little bit extra out of the modules.

Though at one point we did manage to get 105.8MHz, the stability clearly wasn’t there and shortly after, wouldn’t boot with those settings so we started to clock things back down again. Clocking things back down and trying again, we found 102MHz was the limit on the BCLK and even now, can’t figure out why 105.8MHz was once achievable, but not now or maybe ever again.

Sadly to get to this speed, the timings had to be loose as set by the profile on the Rampage IV board. With those pre-defined timings of 10-12-11-31, the overall clock speed gained was 1904MHz which is still fantastic considering this set of memory has a stock speed of 1333MHz.

After overclocking this memory from 1333MHz to 1902MHz, we wanted to see what kind of performance increase we would see, if any. We saw a slight increase with a read speed of 15578 MB/s, write speed of 12601 MB/s and a copy speed of 13989 MB/s and memory latency of 54.5. Being honest, these aren’t fantastic results considering the large increase in speed and can only assume that the quad channel technology has a part to play here.

We also found that the timings couldn’t really be tightened up as this led to instability when we booted into Windows, much like we saw with the higher overclock and we strive for 100% stability with all of the tests we do, especially when overclocked.

We’ve had a look at a few memory module kits from GeIL and a lot of them impressed us, but with this being one of the first quad channel kits we’ve seen, we wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

Sadly, we didn’t recieve results like we thought we would. We did manage to clock the memory very far, but the quad channel technology seems to be restricting things somewhere as the read, write, copy and latency results weren’t really anything to write home about, which is upsetting as we had high hopes for this kit.

If you are going over to X79, you’re most likely going to be an enthusiast, and for that reason we can’t see that you’d buy a 1333MHz kit in the first place, but would initially go for something a bit faster, such as 1600MHz upwards, so it will be interesting to see how we get on with the GeIL 1600MHZ 16GB quad channel kit when that gets put through its paces.

Price wise, you’ll find this item available for around £32 from most reputable retailers in the UK. As time goes on, we expect more retailers to start picking up these kits from GeIL as it’s still fairly new, but still fantastically priced.

Simply put, if you want a kit that can overclock fantastically then this is certainly one too look at, but don’t expect the best performance results from it, once you’ve got to that super high clock speed.

The next step for us was to see how far we could overclock, so we bumped the memory divider straight up to 1600MHz with stock timings and low and behold we managed to boot into Windows with 100% stability.

After toying with how far to go next, we attempted to move the memory divider again, but this time to 1866MHz. A failed boot occurred and we had to go back into BIOS to slacken off the timings a bit. We managed to loosen the timings to 9-10-9-28 whilst maintaining a 1T command rate and get a successful boot.

Knowing that the next step of 2133MHz was out of the question, we started to increase the BCLK instead, and whilst we’re aware that Sandy Bridge is quite restricting on the BCLK, we had a feeling that some extra juice could be squeezed out of these modules.

We started to ramp things up slowly until we hit a barrier at 106.0MHz which is fantastic considering how far we’d already pushed the modules by just using the memory divider.

We did find that the timings had to be slackened off a bit more to achieve this to 11-11-11-31 but as we’re using Sandy Bridge, it cares more for sheer performance opposed to latencies. We continued to boot and snapped a CPU-Z screenshot to confirm the correct settings at a successful 1979MHz from a stock 1333MHz. Simply WOW!

Now that we’d managed to push this memory to the limits, we wanted to see if it had made much of a difference within AIDA64. It surely did with some large increases across the board with a read speed of 20231 MB/s, write speed of 18520 MB/s and a copy speed of 22039 MB/s and the memory latency had dropped to 44.4 ns. These really were some great results, especially considering how easy it was to get to this speed.

We did find that the timings could be tightened up a little bit more but the stability wasn’t at 100% and would most likely require a voltage increase, but as we pushed our voltage to 1.65V anyway, we weren’t too keen on going past that, especially on a Sandy Bridge based system.

After looking at the EVO Corsa range of modules from GeIL a little while ago, we were quite clued up on their technology and what they could achieve but the Enhance Corsa surpassed all expectations and simply blew our ambitions out of the water.

The kit simply seemed like it didn’t want to stop from a stock 1333MHz with standard looking results to a whopping 1979MHz with extremely fast speeds, it simply left us with a massive smile on our faces.

Sadly there are no reputable retailers in the UK stocking this particular kit, but there are a few around that stock other similar kits including the 1600MHz kit that we’ll be looking at in the near future, so keep your eyes pealed if you’re after this exact set of modules.

I would normally sum things up with some kind of intelligent and somewhat witty comment, but I feel myself slightly lost for words as this kit has really done a great job in terms of performance and overclockability, and the fact they are bright orange really makes them stand out and that’s a good angle for GeIL to get them back into the market.

All I can say, is that I’m extremely excited to try out the 1600MHz dual channel kit as well as the quad channel kits that we have ready for Intel X79 very soon.

After increasing it up to 106.8MHz, we found the brick wall that we expected, due to Sandy Bridge being linked to the BCLK on many various features. After reaching this, we aimed to get the timings back to a tighter value and found that due to the higher stock voltage, we were able to get the timings back to a stock 9-9-9-24 2T rating showing that the memory IC’s are of the higest quality as Avexir claim.

Keen to see how the increased overclock from 1600MHz to 1709MHz improved performance, we fired AIDA64 back up. We obtained figures including a read speed of 18940 MB/s, a write speed of 18141 MB/s, a copy speed of 19770 MB/s and memory latency of 46.9ns.

We went into this review with an open mind, due to the fact of never heard of, let alone testing an Avexir memory module kit. They seemed to make bold claims about their overclockability as most do and we tend to take that with a pinch of salt at times, until proved differently.

This kit certainly did that by offering an ample overclock, which is no extreme result there but by offering it with the stock timings, we find ourselves wondering how far this kit could be pushed on a higher bandwidth based system such as our AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer/Asus Crosshair V Formula rig, as we believe that their is still a bit of extra performance to be squeezed out.

The compatability was also something that Avexir were keen to shout home about and they delivered on that too, even when overclocked and supporting XMP made it a simple task of installing the modules and changing one setting to get it to boot.

No reputable retailers are stocking this in the UK at the moment, and they seem to be focussed in Germany and other close countries for the time being, but hopefully we’ll end up seeing more of them in the near future, and who knows, we may be looking at some of their faster, more extreme 8GB kits.

Simply put, if you want a module kit that does it all and gives you a nice boost in the process, you can’t go wrong with the Standard Series from Avexir. We just wish it was slightly faster to start off with, and of a higher capacity.

Overclocking is always an interesting story with RAM as there are so many variations and factors to it, depending on how far you want to go. We decided to see how far the memory could be pushed in a no holds barred scenario.

After booting at stock speeds, we decided to slacken the timings off and up the voltage and try to go straight in at 2133MHz and to our surprise, went straight into Windows and ran absolutely perfectly, but craved more, and with the assistance of the BCLK, we were able to clock the memory even further to an astonishing 2145MHz at 11-11-11-29-2T @ 1.65V.

We are sure that the voltage could be dropped down ever so slightly, but on Sandybridge, 1.65V is still a safe limit and the latencies were perfect being loose as Sandybridge focusses more on bandwidth, which we certainly had in clear abundance.

Revisiting AIDA64 to see how things were affected, we saw a read speed of 21736 MB/s, write speed of 20208 MB/s, copy speed of 23848 MB/s and latency dropping to a low 41.9ns. These results are truly fantastic and exceeded all expectations that we were expecting.

Corsair really have excelled with this kit, and we can say that since we have been using and testing it extensively for quite some time and with the added bonus of it matching both our Crosshair V Formula and Maximus IV Extreme-Z, it really blends in well.

It’s not the fastest kit around at stock but does provide 8GB of stable and compatible memory and at a low price of £56.16 which you can’t go wrong with.

When we looked at the potential of how they overclock, we nearly fell off of our seats, as we weren’t expecting an affordable kit with stability in mind to get anywhere near to what we achieved.

With 2 colours to choose from, you’re bound to find something to match the rest of your system and provide a good amount of performance at the same time, and being aimed at both AM3+ and Z68 platforms, it really will cater for you, whatever type of system you have, and whatever type of user you are.

The Corsair Vengeance range of memory provides users with compatability and functionality at a price that is affordable, and if you want something a bit extra, Corsair cater for that too with their fantastic overclocking ability that we saw today.

As said, G.Skill modules have always been quite delectable when raising the speed and performance so we were very keen to see if this kit could follow suit for those wanting a little bit more performance from their purchase.

We managed to get this memory from its stock speed of 1866MHz to a stonking 1978MHz which is fantastic considering we kept the timings and voltages at their default stock levels. We then continued to run AIDA64 to see how the overclock had impacted the memory in terms of read, write, and copy speeds including latency.

Going back to AIDA64 to see how things have changed, we found the read speed has increased to 20252 MB/s, the write speed had jumped ever so slightly to 17982 MB/s and the copy speed showed up with 21578 MB/s. Taking a look at the memory latency, the overclock helped bring it down to 43.2ns.

So it seems that G.Skill has done it again. The overall performance speaks for itself and when looking at the way the set overclocked and the performance afterwards, it’s clear that this is definitely a kit to buy. When overclocking, it seemed that this memory didn’t want to stop and found us anxiously waiting to see where it would end up.

1978MHz seemed to be the golden number when using stock timings and voltages, and we find that overclocking in this way is the best way to gain extra performance. From increasing the voltage and loosening the timings, we’re sure that 2000MHz + is achievable but the majority of users are uncomfortable in increasing voltages.

The bottom line is that we can’t fault this particular set of modules, as they offer an extreme look, extreme performance but a value price tag and who can really grumble at that? Having the close neck performance to 2133MHz kits and having some headroom for overclocking shows that G.Skill are still as good as ever and will continue to be as they slowly take the market by storm.