About a week ago we posed a question whether Patriot is still good as a mid-end RAM manufacturer and got a positive answer given by an 8GB DDR3-2400 representative of Viper 3 series. This got us thinking whether there is any more firepower in Patriot’s lineup so, eventually, we ended up with another set lying on our table.
Patriot
doesn’t have a whole lot to offer when it comes to 2x8 GB sets; there are
currently only three different specs north of DDR3-1600 available on the EU
market. Having previously established that the top 2400C10 model is based upon
Hynix MFR, we decided to take a look at the next best thing, namely, the
2133C11.
Our sequel begins by staring at some facts and figures.
Manufacturer |
Patriot |
Series |
Viper 3 Venom Red |
Part
Number |
PV316G213C1KRD |
Type |
DDR3 |
Capacity |
16 GB (2 x
8GB) |
Frequency |
1'066 MHz (DDR3-2133) |
Timings |
11-11-11-30 |
VDIMM |
1.5 Volt |
Registred/Unbuffered |
Unbuffered |
ECC |
No |
Cooling |
Passive Heatspreader |
Waranty |
Lifetime warranty |
Package
Type |
Boxed |
In its current shape, Patriot’s Viper 3 memory lineup is partitioned into three subsets – Black Mamba, Intel Extreme Masters and Venom Red. Despite the middle submodification wearing a rather special name, the difference between the trio comes down only to the color of heatspreaders in use.
With primary timing formula of 11-11-11 there are not much memory chips that can slide in this spec without additional binning. Last year we’ve seen Patriot use Hynix CFR on 4 GB Viper modules and barely manage to clear specs due to some samples of Hynix needing tRCD 12 in order to run at DDR3-2133. If Patriot had anything to learn from that experience, they should be using either Samsung or some pre-tested Hynix modules to build the 2133C11 kits. In either scenario, there should still be plenty of headroom for overclocking, which we are looking forward to on page four of this review.
But for now, let’s recall how the modules actually look.