Value Award
G.SKILL RIPJAWS4
2,666 C15 DDR4 Kit
RRP: $229.99 | Website: www.gskill.com
Test Machine
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INTEL Core i7 5960X
ASUS X99-A (1005)
SAMSUNG PX941 512GB
CORSAIR AX1500i
Windows 8.1
I
f you look at the average
price for a DDR3 16GiB
2,666MHz set today, it will
set you back about $200. In
fact G.SKILL’s own Trident
X and RipJaws Z 16GiB kits
of the same frequency will
set you back $199.99 and
$204.99 respectively. So it
follows that the company
is asking you to pay close
to $30 more for the same
frequency and capacity. An
odd thing to request of end
users and customers even
if you’re
28 The OverClocker Issue 33 | 2015
talking about the latest and
greatest DDR4. If you’re one
an X79 system or perhaps
even one using Z79 with
all your memory banks
filled, there’s little to no
incentive for you to fork out
the additional cash to be
right back to where you
were before. As such, it’s
impossible to evaluate the
value of this kit against the
previous DDR3 pricing. It
just doesn’t make sense and
is an unfair comparison.
However, if you’re looking
at going forth and venturing
into the waters that are the
X99 platform, but want to
do so within a reasonable
budget. Then you may want
to pay attention to this kit for
many more reasons over and
above its rated frequency
and its ability to exceed it via
overclocking. Price again is
very important here because
you’re not dealing with an
ultra-high end kit. Memory
at the 3200 and higher range
cost over double the price
and the perpetually “out of
stock” 3,300 and 3,333MHz
SKUs are around $650 and
$750 each. Hardly what I
would consider economical
or sensible for the budget
machine at all.
This RipJaws kit
may never reach those
frequencies, but you
must consider as well
the following, which is
not all X99 motherboards
are capable of operating
memory above 2,666MHz. In
fact I’m aware of a good few
that do not even allow you
to select frequencies above
2,666MHz despite what may
be on the product pages
and promotional material.