| G.Skill 4GB DDR3-1600 Pi Series Dual Channel Memory Kit
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Installation and Operation:
The following components were used with the G.Skill 4GB DDR3-1600 Pi Series dual channel memory kit for this review.
» Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Dual Core processor
» OCZ Technology Vendetta CPU cooler
» ASUS P5E64 WS Evolution Intel X48 motherboard
» Sapphire 1024MB Radeon HD3870 X2 PCI Express graphics card
» Maxtor MaxLine III 250GB SATA 3Gbps hard drive
» Tuniq Miniplant 950W power supply
» Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1 (32-Bit and 64-Bit)
The physical installation of this memory is the same as it would be with any other kit. One consideration is the excessive height due to the elaborate heatspreader, so owners of systems without much clearance above the memory slots should measure twice and buy once. Many of the oversized CPU coolers on the market today wind up being the biggest source of interference with taller memory modules, so it is a good idea to have a look at your setup before upgrading to a memory kit like this.
This G.Skill Pi Series memory kit includes an XMP profile rated for 1600MHz in SPD, so getting up and running at full speed is easy with a compatible motherboard. The ASUS P5E64 WS Evolution happens to be such a motherboard, and with just a single click in the BIOS the CPU and memory were effectively overclocked and ready to go. The screenshots below from CPU-Z are provided to show the details regarding the memory and other system components.
  
The tight timings of 7-7-7-18 were available at 1600MHz without effort, and the 3.0GHz (9x 333MHz) Intel E6850 processor was adjusted by the XMP profile to run at 3.2GHz (8x 400MHz). Some preliminary testing proved that the default settings were perfectly stable, so before getting into performance testing I decided to see how much higher this kit might overclock.
Overclocking:
With the components currently installed in the test system, I have be unsure of the factor limiting overclocks in recent reviews. The processor, motherboard, and memory are all running at or above their rated speeds just to get the stock speed results of memory kits like this, so pinpointing what keeps me from going much higher has been a grey area. The processor's 1333MHz FSB has already been overclocked by 20% to get to 1600MHz, and after a few reviews with similar overclocking results I am beginning to suspect it is the weakest link.
Since the last few reviews have ended up with the maximum memory speed being about 1700MHz, my first attempt in this review was to go right there. I skipped the small incremental increases I usually make and bumped the CPU to 2975MHz (7x 425MHz). The memory speed is therefore 1700MHz, with the stock timings and an extra 0.02V. With everything checking out just fine in Windows, I tried for a bit more and quickly ran into the same obstacles as in other reviews. The system seemed stable initially, but would fail when stressed. Adjusting the timings didn't help, and since I was running at 1.92V already, I didn't want to go much higher. The motherboard offers .02V increments, and I went as high as 1.98V just for good measure.
Deciding that this would be yet another review maxing out at 1700MHz DDR3, the only change I made was to increase the multiplier from 7x to 8x, so that total CPU speed was now 3400MHz. The screenshots below are taken from CPU-Z to confirm this.
 
1700MHz isn't bad, but surely there are enthusiasts with greater skill, patience, and gear to get the most out of their memory. The timings are tight and could be relaxed without getting too loose if it helped max out the total speed.
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