Installation & Overclocking
We installed the RipjawsZ kit in our Intel X79 test system, which is comprised of the following items.
Processor: Intel Core i7-3820 CPU
Motherboard: Gigabyte X79-UD3 Motherboard
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD6950 Video Card
Power: Thermaltake 1200W Power Supply
Storage: 750GB SATA Drive
Cooling: Zalman CNPS12X
Case: Cooler Master Cosmos II Case
Installing the modules was pretty simple, just snap them right in. Now I would check the restrictions on your CPU cooler before you purchase these modules as the heatspreaders are just a little bit larger than normal sized ones.
Once we have the memory installed just go into the BIOS and enable the XMP profile. This sets the memory to 2133MHz with timings of 9-11-10-28.
Usually with memory that is running at 2133MHz there is not a lot of headroom for overclocking, but I decided to give it a try with this kit. The first thing I tried to do was just up the multiplier from 21.33 to 24, which would have put this kit at 2400MHz. The first time I tried it the system would not boot at all. I upped the voltage to 1.675 and loosened the timings to 11-11-11-28, still no luck. So I had to do things the hard way by adjusting the BCLK. I really do not like overclocking this way as it does cause things to become very unstable. I set the memory multiplier at 21.33 and started to move the BCLK up from the default of 100MHz. I did get all the way up to 105MHz, but Windows would blue screen upon boot. So I moved back down to 104MHz, which proved to be stable. This adjustment had our memory running at 2218MHz, an 85MHz overclock. Nothing to really write home about, but many kits running at 2133MHz don’t allow for any overclocking at all.
