G.Skill RipjawsX F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM Review

When I decided to go with the AMD A10-7850K for my personal rig, I knew I need to pair it with a high-frequency RAM to get the most out of the processor and its iGPU. So I went ahead and bought an 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X 2133Mhz RAM kit (F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM) which we will be reviewing in this post.

GSkill Ripjaws X Philippines

Design and Construction

Like most fancy memory modules out there, the Ripjaws X comes with a sick-looking heat spreader which, more than anything, gives the RAM sticks plus points for aesthetics and badassery.

Not a whole lot of the RAM’s black PCB can be seen on the RipjawsX as almost everything is sandwiched in between 10-fin heatsink. The one we have here is in blue, but other options (Red, Black and Yellow/Gold) are available to suit your rig’s color scheme.

The RipjawsX measures 40mm tall which, depending on your current cooling solution, may present some issues with clearance. Based on experience though, the RAM were just short enough (by a hair) to sit perfect under the Noctua NH-L12 low-profile cooler as shown in the picture above.

The only problem is that I need to take out the CPU cooler every time I need to swap out memory modules. It’s actually more of an issue with the cooler than the memory module, and unless you often change RAM kits, we don’t think it’s going to be that much of a problem.

Stock speed and Overclocking

A quick look at the sticker attached to the memory module will tell you that these RAM sticks are rated to run at 2133Mhz with a timing of 9-11-10-28 at 1.65V. It’s not groundbreaking by any means, but this RAM kit has slightly better stock timings than other 2133Mhz modules in my shortlist.

Using the ROG Crossblade Ranger, we were able to push the RipjawsX to 2400Mhz without adjusting any other settings besides the frequency. This, of course, resulted in to slightly slower timings (10-12-11-31) which are still within the acceptable range.

Your overclocking mileage may vary depending on your system setup and by toying around with various settings, but for the sake of this review we will only stick with 2400Mhz for the overclocked frequency.

Performance and Benchmark

If you guys read our review of the A10-7850K, you’ve probably noticed that we’ve used this memory kit (running at 2133Mhz) on all of the benchmark tests that we’ve conducted on the processor. So if you’re interested to see what kind of performance gains you can expect out of this RAM you can check out our review here.

2133MHz timings on the left and 2400MHz timings on the right.

Apart from the APU-related benchmarks found on the link above, we’ve also ran additional RAM-specific tests on the Ripjaws X F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM with it running at 2133MHz and 2400MHz using SiSoft Sandra, AIDA64 Extreme and PerformanceTest 64-bit.

Test bench:

AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz (Stock)
Integrated Radeon R7 Series GPU
ASUS RoG Crossblade Ranger Motherboard
8GB (2x 4GB) G.Skill Ripjaws X F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM dual-channel kit
256GB ADATA XPG SX900 Solid-State Drive
Antec HCP-1200 80Plus Gold Certified 1200W PSU

SiSoft Sandra (Memory Bandwidth & Cache and Memory Latency)

[fancygallery id=”142″ album=”172″]

Performance Test 8.0 (Read Cached/Uncached, Write and Threaded)

[fancygallery id=”142″ album=”174″]

Performance Test 8.0 – Latency

Performance Test 8.0 – Database Operation

AIDA64 Extreme (Memory Test)

[fancygallery id=”142″ album=”173″]

Benchmark Analysis and Conclusion

The three synthetic benchmark tests we ran yielded contradicting results, particularly in the Latency segment. The score that we got on AIDA64 were near identical despite of the fact that the RAM was running on different frequencies and timings during the test.

On the other hand, the latency test scores on SiSoft Sandra and PerformanceTest tell a different story. The former claims that the stock timings of the RAM while running at 2133MHz will have less latency compared to when it’s overclocked.

Meanwhile, the PerformanceTest result shows that despite of slower timing when the RAM is overclocked to 2400MHz, the memory module performed better in its latency test compared to when it’s running on 2133MHz and stock timings.

RipjawsX Philippines

What is clear though is that the user will get a slightly better performance during Read/Write/Copy operations when it’s overclocked as suggested by the result we got from AIDA64’s memory test.

The same can be said for the result we got from the Memory Bandwidth test on SiSoft Sandra. When overclocked, the RAM yielded slightly better performance on both Integer and Float Memory Bandwidth tests.

Conclusion

Other than the possible clearance issue due to its 40mm-tall heat spreader, we didn’t have any other gripe about the G.Skill Ripjaws X memory modules. It’s got a well-built design, it offers decent performance out of the box, and one can easily bump up the speeds a bit should they feel the need to do so.

G.Skill RipjawsX F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM specs:

Type: DDR3
Capacity: 8GB (4GBx2)
Dual-channel kit
Tested Speed: 2133MHz
Tested Latency: 9-11-10-28-2N
Tested Voltage: 1.65V
Non-ECC
SPD Speed: 1600Mhz
SPD Voltage: 1.50V
Intel XMP Ready

The G.Skill Ripjaws X F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM is available locally in some tech shops and online sellers and currently has a street price ranging from Php3,800 to Php4,500.

What we liked about it:

* Rigid heatsink design
* Various color options to match your rig’s scheme
* Offers good balance between frequency and timing
* Easy to overclock

What we didn’t like about it:

* Clearance may become an issue with some air coolers

Ronnie Bulaong

This article was written by Ronnie Bulaong, a special features contributor and correspondent for YugaTech. Follow him on Twitter @turonbulaong.

https://www.yugatech.com

9 Comments

Vance says:

10 years ago

I normally buy stuff in PCHub and PC options. Sa Pchub they offer discounts for tipipc members too.

As for graphics card, I read somewhere that a gtx 770 is good enough for now
- Reply
derp says:

10 years ago

I’m also using this. I’m using my computer in 3d modelling at the same time play games like watch dogs (ultra settings). I have 16GB RAM. What I don’t like on this product is the slower timing. If you are using an application with memory leaks + rj’s timing, you’ll experience a bit lag. Unlike an 18000Mhz with LOWER timings, you will not experience lag even with memory leaking application. Note, the lower the timings (not the Mhz!), the better.
- Reply
Rondy says:

10 years ago

Sir,
Good afternoon, you seem to be the guy to ask when it comes to personal computing machines. Can you give me some name of the shop where its best to buy computer parts. Example: Ram where exactly can you buy such bad-ass looking ram I mean i’m still very new with building gaming rigs I’m usually more of a Laptop guy who buys pre-configured laptops (still gaming though).
Thanks!

and here’s

what I was hoping to build

i5-4670k
B85-Pro mobo
powercolor 7850 2gb 256-bit GDDR5
8gb ram (hopefully i can buy the same one in this blog)

is this good enough? for Titanfall.

or am I falling short? I’m a more of FPS.
- Reply

Xzi says:

10 years ago

mas okay po sa pchub or dynaquest mas bago at mas mura yung prices nila compared to pcx
Troy says:

10 years ago

PC express? I recommend sa PC hub or dynaquest ka na bumili, mas mga bago items kaysa sa pc express.
Rondy says:

10 years ago

Thanks Mr.A & Mr.Ron!

I hope to see more of your review. Thanks again.
Ronnie Bulaong says:

10 years ago

Hi Rondy,

I would one up @Solidad’s answer. PCX is a good place to start because they have a pretty extensive list PC peripherals, plus their reps are quite friendly too (at least in Megamall branch that is).

http://pcx.com.ph/components/memory/gskill-ripjaws-8gb-f3-12800cl9d-8gbxl.html

As for your rig, all things considered, I think that it should be enough to give you decent fps on Titanfall. For future-proofing though, I would suggest getting a newer graphics card.

On team red you can get the R9 270X which costs roughly the same as the HD 7850 when it first came out (though a bit more expensive now).

On Team green, you can opt for a GTX 750 Ti. It’s cheaper than the either of the AMD cards above, but offers less performance.

If you have extra cash to burn though, better get the GTX 970 or the R9 290. It only costs around 50-60% more than the two aforementioned cards, but you’re guaranteed that your investment should be good for at least 2 years.
Mr A says:

10 years ago

To answer your question, it will run fine. But it will not leave you much room for later games.

http://www.pcper.com/hwlb

I suggest you go that website and look at their hardware picks, and check if PCX have that part. It saves the hassle of finding the best bang-for-the-buck parts since they already did that for you.
Mr A says:

10 years ago

You can always got to PC Express. Just call the nearest branch in your area and and ask them if they have the parts you specified. If not, ask them if there is one available in their other stores and have them delivered there.

I’ve assembled my unit with them by giving the parts I want and have it shipped to their store. Granted, they have the parts somewhere nearby (their SSD hybrid was only available at SM North at the time, and I asked them to send it to Marikina). Spare the hassle of going of canvasing Greenhills or Gilmore, plus it’s under one store warranty.