KLEVV Neo 1600MHz 16GB DDR3 Memory Kit Review

Introduction Memory, the most vital part of any computer that gets overlooked the most. There's not a lot to say about RAM apart from its expensive and very confusing. DDR3 is an aging technology now, but it is still the most used memory standard in circulation. DDR3 is a solid memory standard, offering good performance with relatively low costs when compared to the older DDR2 and newer DDR4 memory kits. With the next introduction of Intel processors and motherboards, they will offer compatibility of DDR4; which means we could start seeing the demise of DDR3 in the consumer market. That will be a long way off yet as all apart from Z170 will still feature DDR3. Today we will be looking at the newly introduced KLEVV Neo memory kit. KLEVV has already been released in other parts of the world and has made big waves. The Neo range could be considered as the 'mainstream' range for what KLEVV has to offer, although do not let this put you off; it still comes equipped with one of the nicest heatsinks I have ever seen and some very good specifications. Essencore is the parent company of KLEVV and has strong ties with memory chip company SK Hynix. This allows KLEVV to utilise some of the highest quality memory components available in the world. "Being reduced to its necessary elements, KLEVV Neo DDR3 Memory distinctly proves the motto "less is better" by its extreme performance with minimalistic design. By adopting select Memory ICs and severe test procedures, the pliable performance brings you the essentials to conquer the world." That's enough talking, let's jump into testing! Specifications Packaging and Accessories The packaging on these is top class, solid outer casing with individual pockets for each module ensures the product gets to you in working order; well in most normal cases anyway. A Closer Look Much like the KLEVV CRAS memory kits, these are set to impress. Featuring a more conventional two-part heat sink design with an embossed pattern and extraordinary build quality. Motherboard Installation Pictures RAM is a very overlooked part of the system, but it's always nice to see how it looks when installed into a motherboard. Here is the set installed into our base motherboard, the ASUS Maximus VII Ranger Z97. The style of the modules doesn't fit in well with the straight cut lines and colours of this motherboard, this particular memory would suit the likes of the ASUS SABERTOOTH motherboard range in colour and design. Test System and Procedure Methods & Tests In our RAM reviews, we keep things relatively simple. We put the RAM kit that is being tested into our test system and we benchmark it at its primary XMP profile using a variety of benchmarks and tests. Once complete we then overclock the kit to see how far we can push it in raw frequency terms, then benchmark it again using the same combination of tests with a CPU-Z validation of the overclock. Cinebench R15 Multithreaded Test AIDA64 Engineer Edition Memory Bandwidth and Latency Test SiSoft Sandra Tech Support (Engineer) Memory Bandwidth Test WPrime 32M Calculation Test 3DMark Fire Strike Physics Test Before we delve into any testing we would like to take this opportunity to review our test system. Test System (Intel Z97 DDR3) Motherboard - Asus Maximus VII Ranger Z97 Processor - Intel Core i7 4770k at Stock With Turbo Enabled RAM - Varies By Review Graphics Card - Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X 4GB Graphics Card CPU Cooler - Thermaltake Water 3.0 AIO unit with Gelid GC Extreme thermal paste Power Supply - be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850W Main Storage Drive - Cruical MX100 256GB SSD over SATA III interface Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 8.1 64 Bit Software Used SiSoft Sandra Tech Support Engineer AIDA 64 Engineer 3DMark WPrime CPU-Z Overclocking and Performance The Overclock When we overclock memory kits in our reviews we go for all out frequency, this is primarily done by tweaking the DRAM frequency presets in the BIOS. Once we top out at the highest stable frequency divider we see if the base clock can allow for any additional frequency. Typically we set timings as the JEDEC profile recommendations for the frequency we are going for if this does not work we allow auto-timings to be calculated by the motherboard. Normally we will only make small adjustments to the BCLK and timings to keep the system stable, we will also not use more than 1.65 volts for DDR3 and 1.5 volts for DDR4 as this is not recommended for 24/7 operation. I managed to achieve an overclock of 2000MHz, which is very respectable considering the base speed of 1600MHz. Despite my best efforts, I had to slightly increase the timings to 10-10-10-25 to allow for this overclock to be 100% stable. Cinebench CINEBENCH is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s CPU performance. Cinebench R15 is a totally free utility and is available for download here. Cinebench is fairly sensitive to changes in memory frequency and timings. AIDA64 AIDA64 implements a set of 64-bit benchmarks to measure how fast the computer performs various data processing tasks and mathematical calculations. Memory and cache benchmarks are available to analyze system RAM bandwidth and latency. A free version of AIDA64 is available for download here. SiSoft Sandra The SiSoft Sandra memory benchmark is based on STREAM. STREAM is a popular memory bandwidth benchmark that has been used on personal computers to supercomputers. It measures sustained memory bandwidth not burst or peak. Therefore, the results may be lower than those of other benchmarks. Download a free trial version of SiSoft Sandra here. wPrime wPrime is a leading multithreaded benchmark for x86 processors that tests your processor performance by calculating square roots with a recursive call of Newton’s method for estimating functions. wPrime is a free utility that is available for download here. WPrime is influenced by memory timings and frequency. 3DMark Fire Strike 3DMark Firestrike is Futuremark’s latest creation for testing the GPU performance of high-end gaming PCs using Direct X 11 graphics. You can download a free basic version of 3DMark here. We use only the Physics score as this is most sensitive to memory frequency and timing changes. Final Thoughts Pricing (accurate at the time of writing) Due to KLEVV being a new release into the European region, prices are very scarce; this article will be updated once prices become available. In the US, the KLEVV Neo memory kits are available from Newegg for just $141.99 and free shipping. Summary Today I have been given a brand new memory kit for Europe and it has impressed me. The KLEVV Neo represents a solid introduction into an already saturated market. By offering 1600MHz speeds out of the box; this has the maximum appeal for those already on the DDR3 memory platform. The overall performance is where you expect a DDR3 1600MHz kit to perform, no ground breaking performance. Overclocking this memory kit was relatively easy, allowing me to push up to 2000MHz with no voltage increases; however, 2000MHz was the limit on this particular memory kit with no pre-set XMP profile to give increased performance. The performance scaling is on par with expectations when considering our SiSoft test, 2000MHZ sits almost right in the middle of the 2400MHz and 1600MHz performance levels. Despite the amazing build quality, the price is something that could put off many customers with the knowledge that they can buy an already established memory brand for around 60% of the price; however, memory prices have been decreasing rapidly over the last few months, so we could see this memory kit become competitive once released into the EU market. Pros Lifetime warranty Premium quality Low power requirement Cons High market price can scare away some customers "Rock solid performance and outstanding build quality really shows off what KLEVV can offer the memory market" Thank you to KLEVV for providing this sample.