Memory these days comes in just about every speed, shape, color and price. Recently we have taken a look at memory with LED's, and even memory with a platinum finish. Today I'm taking a look at a triple channel kit from Patriot from their Viper Series, designed specifically for i7 rigs. We are going to find out how well they performed compared to the kits we have tested in the past. Will the Viper Series come out on top?
Product Name: Patriot DDR3 Viper Series Tri-Channel Kit for Core i7
Review Sample Provided by: Patriot
Review by: Wes
Pictures by: Wes
Specifications/Features
- Extreme Performance PC3-12800 (1600MHz)
- Low Latency (8-8-8-24)
- Equipped Patriot Viper Heat Shields with integrated ACC (Aluminum Copper Composite) technology
- 100% Tested and Verified
- Lifetime Warranty
- RoHS Compliant
- XMP Ready for Core?i7 Processors
- Tested and compatible with Intel? X58 Express Chipsets
- Voltage 1.65
Packaging
A drastic change from other memory kits we have reviewed and worked with in the past, Patriot has packaged their Viper series in a colorful box rather than a normal plastic clamshell. The package has a large picture of the kit on the front along with the Patriot and Viper series' logos. On the bottom right there is an area to place a stick with the kits specifics making the packaging usable for all Viper Series DDR3 kits. The back of the package was suspiciously void of any extra information or pictures. I would like to see a few more pictures of some type on the back to avoid such a large blank area. Inside, the kit itself was still packaged in the typical clamshell. Patriot even included another photo on the front of the clamshell. Personally, I would like to see a window in the box showing off the kit itself rather than a picture of the kit, but overall the packaging is original and easy to spot.
Performance
In order to put Patriot'ss Viper Triple Channel kit to the test I dropped them into our i7 test rig. The same setup was used to test both Crucial and OCZ's kits. In fact we are putting Patriot's Viper kit against both the Crucial Ballistix Tracer and OCZ Platinum kits. Here are the results.
As you can see the Patriot kit kicks some butt on both Large RAM and Allocate Small Block tests, because of that it also received an amazing Memory Mark score. Crucial still outperformed in write speed but that wasn't enough to catch up to the Viper's performance.
Overall
I put Patriot's Viper Series up against two of the biggest names in the industry with impressive results. On top of their great performance Patriot also included an interesting heatspreader design that seemed to do a good job of keeping everything cool. With a price tag (on newegg) that's a little higher than most 1600Mhz triple channel kits but what you are paying for here is the extra performance. Overall it's worth it! I can't wait to check out Patriot's other products in the future!
