OCZ Releases First Tri-Channel Memory Kit

With Core i7 right around the corner (~one month for launch), we’d expect that we would be seeing lot of specialized memory kits, CPU coolers and motherboards being announced, but that’s not the case at all. It actually seems a little sketchy right now. Not a single memory vendor I’ve spoken to has product en route to retail, but some are very close, including OCZ.

The Sunnyvale company has become the first vendor to announce their tri-channel kits, and we might be able to see them hit retail even before X58 becomes official. The company is offering three kits in total, with 3GB and 6GB parts for each. The lowest-end kit isn’t low-end at all in terms of frequency, at DDR3-1333, but those include rather high latencies of 9-9-9-20.

Moving up we find a DDR3-1600 kit with 8-8-8-24 timings, which is going to be typical of launch kits with this frequency. Probably the most appealing kit would be the DDR3-1333 Platinum, with latencies of 7-7-7-20. All three kits operate at X58’s highest recommend memory voltage of 1.65v. Pricing is currently unknown, and it’s really too early to speculate.

“OCZ engineered these 3GB and 6GB kits specifically for Intel’s imminent platform,” commented Dr. Michael Schuette, VP of Technology Development at OCZ Technology. “By using special-screened, low voltage-capable ICs, these modules are the perfect complement for the Intel® X58 Chipset to deliver the maximum performance by enabling low latency settings and higher system frequency.”