INTRODUCTION

   Believe it or not there was a time when the only two things we needed to have in mind when out to get new RAM for our systems was capacity/size and type/architecture. For good or bad that was it, back then the very few available modules/kits released in the market by a very small number of manufacturers had nothing else going for them, not even different frequencies and/or timings. Today things have changed a lot so aside capacity/size and type/architecture memory modules/kits are available in many different frequencies and timings and sport several interesting features like aluminum heat spreaders, liquid cooled heat spreaders and even RGB lighting. Through their Viper Gaming brand Patriot Memory has released numerous gaming peripherals, SSDs and memory kits in the market and since our brand new test rig has been up and running for over a month, we decided to take a look at their extremely popular Viper RGB DDR4 3000MHZ CL15 RAM kit.

   Viper Gaming is a brand of Patriot Memory LLC, a global leader in performance memory, SSD's and flash storage solutions. Viper Gaming was established in 2007 with the unveiling of the well-known, top-tier line of computer memory. Since then, the Viper Gaming brand has become synonymous with elite performance and reliability among gamers worldwide. In 2015, Viper Gaming decided to expand its product categories to include gaming keyboards, headsets and mice. Offering entry, mid-level and high-end solutions with rich feature sets that won't break the bank, Viper Gaming's award-winning peripherals provide gamers everywhere the best price-for-performance and reliability that enables every Viper Gamer to dominate in their sport.

   The Viper RGB DDR4 modules are currently available in dual-channel 16GB kits (for our quad channel test rig we had to pair two kits) with frequencies all the way up to 4133MHZ (2666/3000/3200/3600/4133MHZ) and timings as low as CL15 (2666/3000MHz CL15 - 3200/3600MHZ CL16 - 3600MHZ CL17 - 4133MHZ CL19). Strangely enough (well perhaps not so strange since white mainboards are scarce today to say the least) even though the Viper RGB modules are available both with black and white heat spreaders the white ones are only available in 3 different kits (2666/3000MHZ CL15 - 3200MHZ CL16). Under the hood of the Viper RGB DDR4 16GB 3000MHZ CL15 kits we find single-rank 8GB memory modules by Hynix and 5 fully customizable RGB lighting zones (8 different effects with adjustable brightness and speed) which are also completely compatible with all the leading mainboard RGB sync technologies like the ASUS Aura Sync, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light Sync and ASROCK Polychrome Sync. As expected, Patriot covers the entire Viper RGB line of DDR4 memory kits with a limited lifetime warranty.