Memory by stefan @ 2011-03-02
The new EP3001A memory modules from Exceleram are using Powerchip Rev D 128x8 and even if the rating is PC3-10666, they are very overclockable and come at a very affordable price.
At first I would like to thank Exceleram for offering me two samples of the EP3001A PC3-10666 memory modules for reviewing.
"The brand Exceleram is a division of Topower Logistic GmbH, which resides in beautiful palatine Landau, Germany. Exceleram specializes in main memory und flashproducts like SSDs and USB sticks.
Exceleram was established by a taiwanese producer as a new label in October 2007 to capture the market with constant high quality and low pricings In July 2008 it was taken over by another memory brand to offer low price memory of prime quality.
In October 2010 Exceleram became independent and was introduced on the german market to become quite successful.
The slogan „assembled in Germany“ exports the high quality.
To consistendly guarantee customers this high quality standards, Exceleram memory is subjected to stringent german quality controls.
The Exceleram team has many years of experience to guarantee memory overclocking potential as well as high compatibility with all common/current mainboards.
The young flexible team in Germany works highly motivated and relies not only on high quality but primarily on uncomplicated service and direct, long-standing contact with their customers as well as their producers in Taiwan.
No customer will feel abandoned at Exceleram, arising problems or questions will be answered immediately by our support in Germany."
The Exceleram memory modules have been shipped inside a simple plastic package, with a transparent top side, through which we can see how the modules look like:
The EP3001A model does not come with any fancy heatsinks (the memory chips barely got warm in the performed stability tests):
On one of the sides, we can find a small sticker with the company logo, the product serial number, voltage and speed rating:
The small memory chips are Powerchip rev D, 128x8 and Exceleram guarantees a speed rating of 1333, CL9-9-9-24 at 1.5V:
CPU : Intel I5 2500K Retail
CPU Cooler: Noctua U12P SE2
Motherboard : ASRock P67 Extreme6
RAM : G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM
Video : Sparkle X460 Calibre 1GB
Power Supply : Cooler Master 850W
HDD : Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200.10
Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840
During the tests, the CPU speed was set at 3.3GHz and Turbo was disabled in UEFI. Testing with the same stock timings was possible until 2133MHz was reached. To make the system stable at this frequency, it was needed to relax the timings and the voltage was set at 1.65V; the next step was to tighten the timings in small steps and for any modification I have ran HCI Memtest (Windows utility) with 4 instances for about a half an hour, to determine if the system was stable or not. When the correct timings were found, I have started to decrease the voltage until the memory was giving errors again and raised it with one step in UEFI, to obtain the best timings at this frequency, at the smallest voltage possible.
The CPU-Z tab where the memory timings and frequency are confirmed:
CPU-Z online validation at 2133MHz 9-11-10-26:
The modules are rated 1333 at 9-9-9-24 but also worked perfectly with the same timings at 1600MHz; a very small voltage bump was needed to reach 1866MHz at the exact same timings.
2133MHz was not possible with the stock timings, so it was needed to relax them a bit and increase the memory voltage. I was able to reach 2133 9-11-10-26 after some time at a much smaller voltage I thought it was possible in the beginning, considering that the RAM modules are only rated 1333MHz.
As it can be seen from the performed tests from the previous page, not all applications seemed to benefit from the bandwidth increase (for example games); however, in rendering applications and video encoding applications we can observe a slight improvement. While offering a lot of overclocking headroom, they come at a very accessible price: 19 EUR for one EP3001A module.
I would like to thank again to Exceleram for allowing us to test their latest gear.