Patriot Viper 3 Red 8GB (2x4GB) 2400MHz Review

• Brand: Patriot
• Model: Viper 3 Red 8GB (2x4GB) 2400MHz CAS10 Memory
•  RRP: £80 (At time of the review)

In the world of RAM, there are a few manufacturers that not only specialise in DRAM modules, but push the boundaries in designing them also.  Enter Patriot, established in 1985, they one of the leading DRAM manufacturers in the world.  They have many different kits available in a plethora of different colours and are usually pretty competitive in pricing in comparison to the other powerhouses on the memory market.

Today I have a set from their Viper 3 series, in particular their Viper 3 Red 8GB (2x4GB) 2400MHz, which have CAS timings of 10-12-12-30.  How will they fare on the latest chipset (Z87)?  Will they be a success or one of those kits that you should avoid buying?

Let’s find out, starting with the specifications…

The Viper3 memory kit comes in a black box, with a clear see through window in which you can see one of the DRAM modules.  The information on the front is straight to the point, with the model number, rated speed and that it’s Intel XMP ready.

On the rear, we have some information from Patriot regarding the modules in different languages.  It also states at the bottom that the kit has lifetime warranty with Patriot, which is always a good thing right?

Inside the box, the modules come inside a re-sealable blister pack, which keeps the modules in place during transit.  This helps to keep them damage free.

The Viper 3 kit I have for review, is the red kit and the colour is very striking.  If you have a red themed set-up these would fit your colour scheme perfectly.  The heat sinks themselves are relatively tall so the bigger typed CPU coolers would not clear these.  For your information the heat sinks measure in at 4cm, so you can always check before buying if they will fit, unfortunately they wouldn’t fit under our Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme cooler, we had to remove one of the fans.

For those wondering, these kits are now shipped with PCB, but as we were sent a sample with green PCB, it is what i have to work with photograph wise, so if you are put off by the green PCB, have no fear, it’s now black!

CPU – Intel i7 4770k

Motherboard – ASRock Z87 Extreme3

Memory – Patriot Viper3 8GB (2400MHz CAS10) 2x4GB

Graphics – HD 4600 325/1200MHz

Cooler – Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme

Storage – Western Digital 320GB Caviar Blue (7200RPM 8MB Cache)

When it comes to overclocking RAM, it is sometimes pot luck in finding a nice kit that overclocks well.  With my expectations of the Viper 3 kit not so high, I thought carefully about how I was going to approach overclocking this particular kit.

With this being the first set of Memory tested on Haswell for Play3r and with the rumours about how good the IMC is on the Haswell chips, I decided to crack on and see if the hype matched the desired results.

With a max voltage of 1.7v, my aim was to go as far on the clock speed as possible and relatively ignore the timings, by letting them run slack.  I must say I was very surprised at how the Viper 3 kit performed.  Already rated @ 2400MHz CAS10, I wasn’t expecting much more from them, let alone a 600MHz+ increase. Yes you read that right.  I hit the 3GHz mark on Haswell which is an astonishing achievement in my eyes.  Ok the timings were a little slack at @ CAS14 but my lord, 3GHz is a joy to behold.

Here is the submission

This kit is really starting to grow on me and that 3GHz was MaxxMem stable also!

For the benchmarks I ran the memory at its rated speeds of 2400MHz CAS10.  Let’s see how the kit performed.

Now were at the end of the review, how did the Viper 3 perform and what do I think about the kit on a personal level?

Well I’m speechless, especially because of how far these overclocked.  I have had some pretty decent kits of DDR3 RAM in my time, but this has to be the fastest kit I have had the pleasure of testing to date.  A 600MHz overclock on top of the already fast 2400MHz rating, is a superb achievement and although not every Viper 3 kit will do this, it shows how good Patriot really are.

For anyone wondering, the DRAM chips in this kit are Hynix PBC, which I believe are pretty good ICs.

The Viper 3 looks great and with all Viper 3 kits now donning a black PCB, it’s a step forward and is aesthetically beautiful.

With the phenomenal overclock potential of this kit, I have decided to use this kit as my main benchmarking DDR3 kit and give it my seal of approval.  It performs great, the red heat sink looks fantastic and the price makes this a very decent triple whammy of plus points.  Coming in at £80, it would seem expensive but what you’re getting here is a kit possibly capable of 3000MHz, which with Corsair your looking at more than double this sort of price and then some.

If you’re looking for a high performing kit, which is priced pretty well, looks decent but, well did you see the 3GHZ submission on the overclocking page?  Then go for this kit, If you’re looking for something without ghastly green PCB…..then still buy this kit, you won’t be disappointed.

Thanks to Patriot for the sample and congratulations on winning our performance and editor’s choice award, greatly deserved, Great job!

Having just been informed that the Viper 3 is available in the channel with black PCB, it rightly deserves the award for design.  Black PCB coupled with this gorgeous red heat sink makes it a winning combination.