Review: MX-Tech Black Diamond DDR3-1600 4Gb Kit

Posted by Will Smith

Monday, 13 September 2010 00:03

Article Index
Review: MX-Tech Black Diamond DDR3-1600 4Gb Kit
Specifications and Features
Photo Gallery and Test Setup
CPU-Z, Everest and PC Mark
Sandra Pro and ScienceMark 2
Verdict and Conclusion

Page 1 of 6

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Introduction

Over the past few years, I have encountered many memory maufacturers that have tried to capture this ever-growing market. Some have relied on their brand name to suceed, while others have actually produced excellent memory products that have won them numerous awards. Memory products are not just the memory modules you see inside your system, but also included are USB Thumb/Pen drives, Solid State Drives and SO-DIMMs.More recently, there has been a huge explosion in the sales of USB thumb/pen drives and believe or not, SO-DIMMs. There is a reason for the latter, and that's because over the past 18 months, we've seen a steady increase in the number of notebooks and netbooks being sold by both 1st-Tier and 2nd-Tier manufacturers. More interestingly, we are now also seeing sales of SSDs grow too ... all thanks to the recent price drop in NAND Flash memory chips.

Competition is pretty fierce in this niche market, but one company have decided to take the plunge and try to establish a secure foothold. MX-Technology or Mach Xtreme Technology was only established in January of 2010, but that doesn't mean they're "fresh-fish" and don't have any experience in this market. Incidently, I've been told by a "special source" that the guys behind Mach Xtreme Technology, were actually ex-employees (or ex-partners) from another well established memory manufacturer. A manufacturer I can not name due to legal reasons. Anyway, for those who are not too familiar with MX-Technology or their products, here's a little blurb taken from their website.

"Mach Xtreme Technology is a newly established Company since January 2010 constructed of a combination of elite professionals who have had years of exceptional exposure and involvement in the IT industry. Our dedicated team has expert knowledge covering all aspects of the IT industry and more specifically in development of innovative products along with aggressive marketing and effective distribution.

MX-Technology achieves the highest performance possible through it's continuous research & development which ensures rapid advancements of SSD, memory and Flash drives. MX-Technology enable their customers to achieve maximum efficiency with matching performance to make time spent on work more convenient and productive.

MX-Technology is the first computer hardware company in the world to join force with renowned world class artist to generate unique and stylish representation of Mach Xtreme. The first artist to work with Mach Xtreme is a genius graffiti artist from Europe named "Does". "

P1000386

OK, let's go back and talk about memory modules for system. Last moth, we've reviewed the ADATA XPG DDR3-2200 Gaming Memory 4Gb kits. It supported XMP and offered great features such as large heatspeader as well as decent memory timings 9-9-9-24. They were perfect for overclockers and extreme gaming enthusiasts. This is all good, but not everyone is a gamer or an overclocker. So today we drop a notch or two, and take a look at something a little more down to earth.

Mach Xtreme Technology (I'll call the MX-Tech for short) have an pretty large list in their catalogue for the memory products. They not only have your standard memory for mainstream users, but also memory for high-end users, overclockers and enthusiasts. What's more they also produce SO-DIMMs, as well as SSDs. Here's a quick list of their memory product line up:

Armor Series - Mach Xtreme Technology's ARMOR™ DDR3 memory series is engineered to deliver performance for gaming and power users. A special heatsink with a combination of pillar and fins offers an outstanding cooling efficiency during overclocking.
Black Diamond Series - The BLACK DIAMOND™ heatsink is not only lightweight but also highly effective. Low latencies coupled with an intelligent cooling will satisfy the needs of any power user.
Platinum Series - The Platinum series are not only affordable but also highly reliable. The lightweight heatsink is made of specially imported top grade Japanese aluminum.
Copper Series - The COPPER™ series is aimed at everyday users that have limited budget, but still are looking for highly reliable memory.

In this review, we'll be taking a look at the MX-Tech Black Diamond DDR3-1600 4Gb Dual Channel memory kits. They're rated at DDR3-1600, that's PC3-12800 spec with low memory timings of 7-7-7-24, as well as full support for XMP (for motherboards that have this option in the BIOS). MX-Tech Black Diamond series are aimed and targeted at the performance user that require low latency and system performance. For cooling, they come with high-end Japanses aluminum heatspreaders, which helps with heat dissipation.

We'll be installing these into our test rig, which consist of the following ... Intel Core i5 - 650 (LGA 1156), Gigabyte P55 USB3 motherboard (with XMP support), Geforce GTX 460, Noctua NH-C12P SE14 CPU cooler, and a Silverpower 650W PSU.

P1000390

I'm expecting some decent peformance for these MX-Tech Black Diamond DDR3-1600 4Gb kits, though I not 100% sure if these high-end Japanese Aluminum heatsinks are any different from the ones you'll find on other memory modules. Having said that, it's not looks we're after ... it's performance that's more important to us. Can MX-Tech match other brands in terms of performance? Read on and find out.

OK, let's not waste any more time and take a closer look at the specifications of the MX-Tech Black Diamond DDR3-1600 4Gb kits ...