OCZ Blade PC16000C7When we mentioned our interest in the new Elpida chips to Tobias, the OCZ EMEA marketing director, he was especially fast to react by sending us OCZ's latest and - for the time being - greatest : the PC16000 "cas 7" Blade memory kit.
For those that meet OCZ for the first time (I can hardly believe any of you tech enthusiasts are still in that boat, but anyway), an introduction to the company :
OCZ is one of the premier manufacturers of memory modules, and one of the biggest players on the international market. OCZ technology was founded in 2000 and has established quite a name for producing high end ram products, especially among the enthusiast community. Since early 2004, OCZ also produces high-end power supplies, and in 2007, OCZ also has put a new focus on cooling products, by introducing some eye-catching cpu-coolers. Recently OCZ acquired PC Power & Cooling, a high end PSU manufacturer, and Hypersonic, a (very) high-end system builder. Until now, memory (and its derivatives) remains the most important branch in OCZ's product catalogue, and as such we're lucky to test some of their ram today.
So this is the package the triple channel Blade series is presented in :
(click for larger version)
Package and unpacking: more shotsThe package is quite large, larger than the one from the competing kits present in this roundup, with some nice cutouts to allow the customer to see the goods in shop. The back of the package consists out of the traditional PR messages all manufacturers turn to, nothing special there. At the inside we find two memory blisters : a first one holding 2 memory modules, a second one with a single module. Theoretically the package could hold 4 modules, something we'll probably be seeing once the Lynnfield platform launches later this quarter. Finally, as always, OCZ bundles a clear manual with their memory kit. I don't think many buyers of this particular kit will ever need it, but it' still a nice guesture.
These are the
specifications that come with today's test kit :
2000MHz DDR3 (PC16000)
Latencies : 7-8-7-20-2T (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS-CR)
Operating voltage : 1.65 Volts
240pin DIMM
Parity : Unbuffered
Memory size : 3x 2048Mb
As you can see, on paper these specs easily beat the other test candidates, but we'll have to see what they're made of in real life. Cas 7 at 2ghz of course makes this an (ultra) high end part, with a price to match. To date this still is OCZ's highest ranked memory kit, together with the recently introduced PC17000C8 kit (2133Mhz of memory power).
Let's have a closer look at the modules themselves on the next page >