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OCZ unleashes one of the fastest DDR3 ram available on the market. Ram that overclocks to blazingly fast speed !! 

Introduction

Prices of DDR3 ram have stayed suprisingly high since its release last year. Right now, it's still out of reach for a lot of users. That's probably one of the reasons why Intel have added support for DDR2 ram to their high-end chipsets. This is evident with Intel's X38 chipset. In all our reviews with DDR3 ram, there hasn't been any real significant performance difference over DDR2 ram. To be honest the price/performance ratio of DDR3 ram is pretty poor, and I would suggest anyone wishing to upgrade to DDR3, to seriously think twice. However, I must say that, it is a new technology platform and will probably replace DDR2 in the not so distant future. Currently, DDR3 ram is attracting mostly enthusiasts and hardware junkies with large wallets, whereby money is no obstacle.

Having said all the above, this hasn't detered manufacturers like OCZ, Kingston and Crucial to further develope and release newer and faster DDR3 ram. Over the past few months, OCZ have invested heavily in all areas including R&D, marketing and even retail (through Hypersonic - Performance gaming PCs). This is a sure sign of their commitment and the belief in the future success of DDR3.

OCZ are among of the very few memory manufacturers that have really pushed the performance of their products. From producing extremely overclockable SLI and Crossfire Ready DDR2 ram, to high performance DDR3 for the enthusiasts. The OCZ DDR3-1800 PC3-14400 Platinum Series 2Gb kits are their highest performing DDR3 ram to date, which is capable of running at 900Mhz.

One advantage of DDR3 ram is the high speeds it can achieve. Much faster than what current DDR2 has to offer. Extreme overclockers have been reported to take DDR3 ram to speeds of upto 1Ghz (DDR3-2000). However, there is a downside to this, and that is the CAS latency of DDR3 is much higher.

The labelling and classification of DDR3 memory can be a little confusing, but I'll try and give you some DDR3 terminology ... More information can be found HERE

 - PC3-6400 : DDR3-800 : 200FSB : 400Mhz
 - PC3-8500 : DDR3-1066 : 266FSB : 533Mhz
 - PC3-10666 : DDR3-1333 : 333FSB : 667Mhz
 - PC3-12800 : DDR3-1600 : 400FSB : 800Mhz
 - PC3-14400:  DDR3-1800 : 450FSB : 900Mhz

In this review we'll be taking a look at the OCZ DDR3-1800 PC3-14400 Platinum Series 2Gb kit. These modules are rated at DDR3-1800 and can run at 900Mhz with memory timings of 8-8-8-24. The OCZ DDR3 Platinum Series are aimed at the high-end and enthusiast market, and comes with their patented XTC heat speaders. It does a great job cooling the memory chips. 

In our tests we'll bee installing these modules on an Asus P5E3 Deluxe motherboard which supports DDR3 ram, along with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor and a Radeon HD3870, running Windows Vista. During the tests, we'll also see how well they can overclock.

Ok, let's not waste any more time and take a closer look at the OCZ DDR3-1800 PC3-14400 Platinum Series 2Gb kit ...