When DDR3 RAM were introduced to the public in 2007, it does not seem to be able to capture much of the consumer and enthusiast market alike. Well, at least that's what the forums I frequent indicate to me. Every time a person mentions 'DDR3' in their 'I want to build a new computer' thread, the first reply by some enthusiast would be to suggest the user to get a DDR2 based motherboard and corresponding RAM kits instead. There's a good reason for this though, I won't even try to deny it -- when DDR3 debuted in 2007, the asking price was at least $400-$600 for 2x1GB sets -- there's a very limited amount of people that is willing to spend so much money on 2GB of RAM for <5% performance gain over its DDR2 counterparts. I'm not saying such people don't exist, but as you will learn in any microeconomics class, the demand shifts left as price increases. Fast forward to November 2008 now. DDR3 RAM is much more affordable now; and with pretty much every manufacturer offering a complete range of value-oriented models to high performance DDR3 kits, there must be one for you, if you really wanted to jump to the DDR3 boat. Today, we'll be taking a look at Patriot's Extreme Performance PC3-14400 2x1GB dual channel kit. Stock specifications at DDR3-1800 at 8-8-8-20. It's certainly isn't the best we've seen so far. But here's one thing to note: How much does stock settings matter with Micron's excellent D9GTS DDR3 chips used in this set? (Read: Overclocking!) We'll find out for you today in this review. Also, pretty much all photos in this review is' Photoshop-enhanced' for your viewing pleasure. Haha. |