Sure, you have heard of Corsair, OCZ, Crucial, PNY and Kingston. But they aren’t the only companies in the memory industry. Today we are going to take a look at a product from another company called G. Skill. This review will examine the F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ and determine whether or not G. Skill has earned a place in the memory market.
Never heard of G. Skill before? It’s okay, they are a new company. They started in 2003, marketing their memory to the enthusiast overclocking market. They started late, but are still trying to make it big in the market by offering outstanding performance for a cheap price. Today we will take a look at some of their DDR2. They don’t have names and model line ups like other companies; they just go with their size, timings, and speed. For example, today we are reviewing the F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ. This is a (2) 1 GB dual channel memory set. They run at PC2-6400 and have a CAS latency of 5. This makes it really easy to understand what exactly you are buying. We have taken a look at OCZ RAM, which was rated at the same speed and performance, so now we will see if this RAM is any better.
Like OCZ, G.Skill is really good with support for their memory. This is something I really like in a company. They have a forum with professional support and they're willing to help you and RMA your RAM if necessary. This is a growing trend, but it isn’t available from a majority of companies yet, so I still feel it is worth noting. For a company that came out of nowhere in 2003, they are going all out and right up there with the biggest names in the memory market. Now it’s time to take a look at the RAM.
What you get
I was impressed with the appearance when I received this RAM. It came in this elegant box. It opened up and you could see the red heatsinks shine in the light. To go along with the memory you get two stickers to put on your case. It’s nothing that will make your memory perform any better, but it will add a little bling to your computer. I haven’t gotten these case stickers from memory before. Usually you only get them for your CPU and graphics card. However, advertising is advertising I suppose.
The RAM itself comes with a red heatspreader. Heatspreaders are common throughout the RAM world for any kind of gamer or overclock RAM. Typically you will only find bargain bin versions without the heatspreader.
Here is a quick look at the specifications before we go to testing.
Specification Capacity 2GB (1GB x 2)
Speed 800MHz DDR2 (PC2-6400)
CAS Latency CL 5-5-5-15
Test Voltage 1.8~2.0 Volts
PCB 6 Layers PCB
Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
Error Checking Non-ECC Type 240-pin DIMM
Warranty Lifetime
Let’s take a close look under the heatspreader. I have had people ask me what is running this memory. So I thought I would peek and end all questions and guessing.
Removing the heatspreaders is really easy. All I had to do was stick a razor blade under the clips and the heatspreader popped right off. Getting the heatspreader back on was a little bit harder. It’s a lot easier to put the heatspreaders on after you have them together again and slide the memory into the heatspreaders.
On the memory chips it says “xbe764-3936” on each chip. Googling that number didn’t come back with anything. Doing some more research, it appears to be PowerChip memory chips. I don’t know much about this company, but they appear to be making cheap DDR2 memory these days. There isn’t anything else on the Internet about these chips. I would love to hear from anyone that knows anything about them. The most popular memory is the Micron D9 aka the “fatty” memory. These, however, go for a pretty penny. The Micron allows CAS 3 timings and is fairly fast too.
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