Keeping up with the times: TOP 5 8 GB DDR4 sticks

A wide range of products is produced under the Corsair brand — from enclosures and power supplies to SSD drives, flash drives and peripherals. But a special place in the heart of the company has always been occupied by RAM.

When looking at the bar, the casing of ribbed aluminium radiators catches the eye, which form a kind of ridge in the centre. For fans of modding or just any prettiness, there are different colour options for the radiator and a special version with LED illumination. The radiators themselves do an excellent job with heat removal — even with a prolonged maximum load of the bar, the temperature did not rise above 42 °C.

Right out of the box, Vengeance LPX operates at a frequency of 2666 MHz with a voltage of 1.2 V, but if you tinker with the parameters of voltage, phase and choose the timings suitable for them, you can achieve stable operation at a frequency of 3200 MHz.

Taking into account the very affordable price, the Vengeance LPX for 8 GB looks like a universal solution for both economical enthusiasts and those who assemble a performant working computer. We definitely recommend it.

Thanks to the well-chosen chips, the HyperX brand enjoys well-deserved love among overclockers. This was the case back in the heyday of DDR1 memory, and it seems that the same thing is happening now with the release of the updated HyperX Predator line.

The HX430C15PB3/8 kit in question is a medium-level solution in the HyperX Predator line, operates at a frequency of 3000 MHz and has a volume of 8 GB. The memory potential was expected to be higher than that of many mass solutions, and when sorting through XMP profiles, it allows you to achieve stable operation at a frequency of 3466 MHz. With manual configuration, the results will be slightly higher (somewhere at the level of 3501 MHz), but here you will be lucky with a specific instance of memory.

Plus, Predator uses a compact radiator, which will not create problems when installed in a loaded case with an oversized cooler or a pair of video cards. And the very appearance of the updated "predatory" series will clearly appeal to both gamers and fans of strictly design. If you want exotic, then you can find a special version of Predator RGB with backlight synchronization on the market.

It is often difficult for manufacturers of RAM to somehow distinguish their products from the mass of competitors — there are few characteristics, and the set of tasks is very limited. Therefore, when it comes to gaming slats, designers go into battle. So the Crucial company recently updated its Ballistix Sport RAM line, releasing a set of multi-coloured Ballistix Sport LT slats, in which an albino model with a white printed circuit board and radiator stands out.

The bar boasts a memory reserve of 8 GB, operates at an effective frequency of 3200 MHz with delays of 16-18-18 and a standard voltage of 1.35 V for overclocker bars. At the same time, it does not orient this line to overclockers. Rather, it is a product from the "installed and forgotten" series for those users who want to get fast and performant memory, but do not plan to mess with setting timings or sorting through XMP profiles.

If you want to raise the clock frequency, then there are not so many possibilities: the test sample was able to overclock by only 16%. But taking into account the price of $ 65 and the standard frequency of 3200 MHz, Ballistix Sport LT looks like the most honest version of memory modules with a similar combination of price and characteristics on the market quite a bit. The only thing that comes to mind is HyperX Fury DDR4 1x8Gb HX432C18FB2/8 .

A-Data XPG Spectrix D80 is far from the most common RAM and its review will be similar to a sports car review. A-Data claims that this is the world's first air-liquid cooled RAM. Each bar is equipped with a hybrid overclocker cooling system, which includes the usual aluminium radiator, heat-conducting elements on a printed circuit board and a sealed tube filled with a liquid with a low boiling point.

And this tank with liquid is also illuminated by LEDs. The backlight can be adjusted in unison with other system components (motherboards with synchronization from ASRock are supported,Asus, Gigabyte and MSI) or use your own XPG RGB Sync App Beta application. In general, the whole design looks at least original and, last but not least, its module height fits into 47 mm, so the bar is compatible with most processor coolers.

As for the filling, each module uses manually selected memory chips (a total volume of 8 GB) and a special 10-layer printed circuit board, which guarantees improved signal transmission quality and stability of operation even in high-frequency operating conditions. Together with an efficient cooling system, all this provides an impressive overclocking potential from the standard 3600 MHz to 4600 MHz.A-Data says 5000 MHz, but in order to get such figures, you will have to tinker with manual tuning and raise the voltage by 20-25%, which in the long run may affect the module's performance.

Well, the main disadvantage of this beauty is the price. Overclocking is expensive, and the A-Data XPG Spectrix D80 will cost 2 times more than the usual peer-to-peer 8 GB and 2666 MHz.

HyperX Predator RGB is a purebred overclocker memory with RGB backlight and a memorable design. The aggressive metal radiator with the HyperX logo is painted black, the printed circuit board is also black. As for the backlight, it is compatible with most RGB formats like ASUS Aura, Gigabyte RGB Fusion and MSI Mystic Light.

Thanks to Samsung's b-die chips, the modules have excellent overclocking potential, which will be highly appreciated by enthusiasts. The 8 GB test instance works right out of the box at a frequency of 4000 MHz and with the help of a quick search of XMP profiles, it easily switches to the 4400 MHz mode. If you switch to manual tuning mode and play with voltage and timings, you can achieve a total increase of 20-25%.

Another question is that this is a dubious idea for the average gamer, since it will not be so easy to find a suitable motherboard — most gaming boards on the Z390 chip work with memory at a maximum of 4400 MHz. And the boards of the caliber Asus ROG MAXIMUS XI GENE , which support a frequency of 4800 MHz, are very decent. Although, in fairness, HyperX Predator RGB also costs a lot and is unlikely to be of interest to anyone other than enthusiasts and fans of modding.

For all its coolness, Predator RGB has a standard size that simplifies installation in a loaded enclosure. After all, sometimes when buying RAM with cooling radiators, there is a problem when installing a large cooler — the tower overlaps the first slot or the mounting brackets rest against the memory module.