OCZ PC6400 CL3 Flex XLC

In our autumn roundup we already got a decent look at the modules, but here's a short introduction again.

OCZ's Flex XLC kits are built around OCZ's Flexible water-cooling heat spreader, and this is what OCZ's got to say about it :

The new OCZ FlexXLC (Xtreme Liquid Convention) heatsink delivers superior heat dissipation via the integrated hybrid copper and aluminum liquid injection system. The FlexXLC module was engineered with this unique “flexible” design to give enthusiasts the unparalleled option to run the modules passively or water cooled. The concurrent use of both technologies (water-cooling) promotes maximum heat dissipation and pushes thermal management of memory modules one step further to keep up with the ever-increasing frequency demands. FlexXLC modules seamlessly co-migrate with any system upgrade to liquid cooling.

Here's a diagram of the heatsink design and the integrated water-cooling block:


heatsink design diagram, image courtesy of OCZ Technology

For a more detailed description of the Flex XLC technology, please visit our PC9200 Flex XLC article.

A short closer look now before we go on with the testing:



The heat spreader is obviously the eye-catching feature of these modules, offering water-cooling out of the box by providing 2 1/4" barbs to take your tubing. The modules operate quite as well though on normal air cooling, even up to its warranted voltage of 2.4 Volts, provided you take care of some fans inside your case to get some airflow over the heat spreader fins. These modules are capable of reaching their rated performance at only 2.1 Volts though and in practice even less, so one can wonder whether heat spreaders, let alone water-cooled heat spreaders, are really necessary here. They do add quite some *bling* to your case though... and certainly stand out from the competition.

For the record, the specifications once more :

800MHz DDR2

Latencies : 3-4-4-15 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS)

nVidia EPP certified

240pin DIMM

Parity : Unbuffered

Flex XLC heatsink

Lifetime Warranty

Operating voltage : 2.1 Volts

EVP (Extended Voltage Protection) : 2.4V ±5%

Memory size : 2x 1024Mb


Test setup

Test Setup
CPU	Intel Q6600 (G0) Core 2 Quad Cooled by Alphacool NexXxos XP Bold Highflow CPU waterblock
Mainboard	Asus P35 Blitz Formula
Memory	2x 1Gb OCZ PC6400 EB Reaper 2x 1Gb OCZ PC6400 SLI edition 2x 1Gb OCZ PC6400C3 FlexXLC
Other	BFG 8800GTX NEC 3540 DVD-RW 2x Maxtor 120GB RAID0 OCZ GameXstream 850 Watt PSU Lian-Li PC70

For this review we put together a rather high end setup based around the more mainstream P35 Intel chipset. Currently you can find some very attractively priced motherboards based around this chipset, starting from around $100. Overclocking wise you should get very nice performance out of the P35 motherboards, and the rams we're testing today should be a great complement to boards like the Asus P5K, the more basic brother of the tested Blitz board of the test setup.

Onto the testing now >