INTRODUCTION

   With the very first retail pieces of DDR5 RAM by all the leading manufacturers just months away from their official debuts it's really just a matter of time before DDR4 becomes what DDR3 is today. Still i just don't see it going anywhere anytime soon (DDR5 may allow for higher clocks/speeds and capacities/amounts but in terms of cost it seems to be considerably more expensive) so that shouldn't discourage people from updating their systems with new DDR4 RAM (or getting a new motherboard). So, with that out of the way in mid-May several of the latest DDR4 kits arrived in the lab including the dual-channel XPower Zenith RGB 32GB 3600MHz model (2x16GB) by Silicon Power which is also at the center of today's review.

   Founded in 2003 by a group of enthusiastic data storage industry experts, Silicon Power is committed to delivering outstanding product and service quality. Headquartered and with our own state-of-the-art production site in Taipei, we have become a leading manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, portable hard drives, solid state drives, DRAM modules and industrial-grade products. As an international player with four branch offices around the globe, we continuously strive to offer the perfect data storage solution for all requirements of modern digitalized life. With a strong focus on combining innovative technology and award-winning design, we live up to our brand promise to reliably preserve and protect your most valuable data. Because memory is personal.

       The XPower Zenith RGB line of RAM kits so far includes 6 single channel (8/16GB) and 6 dual-channel (2x8/16GB) kits with frequencies going all the way up to 3600MHZ (3200/3600 - 4133MHZ on the roadmap), timings as low as CL16 (3200MHZ CL16 - 3600MHZ CL18 – upcoming 4133MHZ at CL19) and voltages all the way up to 1.4V (3200/3600 1.35V – upcoming 4133MHz at 1.4V). Inside the grey textured aluminum heatspreaders of the Zenith RGB kits Silicon Power has placed 10-layer PCBs with 8GB single die memory chips by SK Hynix (always according to Thaiphoon burner) whereas at the top we find an RGB LED bar which is compatible with all the major motherboard sync technologies out there today (ASUS Aura Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light and ASRock Polychrome Sync). Typically, just like most DDR4 kits in the market today Silicon Power covers the entire XPower Zenith RGB line of DDR4 memory kits with a limited lifetime warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE XPOWER ZENITH RGB 32GB 3600MHZ CL18

The XPower Zenith RGB RAM kit arrived inside a blister package from where you can actually see both modules.

At the rear we find a few words about the kit in 14 languages, 2D barcode, several certifications, contact info for Silicon Power and a sticker with the product serial number and barcode.

Just the two RAM modules are placed inside the box.

Silicon Power has used grey aluminum heatspreaders for the new Zenith RGB line of DDR4 kits which as expected have a small sticker at the rear with the capacity/amount, frequency, timings and voltage.

Measuring 38.5mm top to bottom the new heatsinks/heatspreaders not only look very nice but they are not really tall (next you can see the Crucial Ballistix Gaming Max non-RGB module).

I didn’t open the top RGB bar to find out the number of LEDs inside since you can easily tell just by looking at them while in operation (clearly 5).

Here you can see how the XPower Zenith RGB look on the Z390 Dark.

Also don’t forget to check Thaiphoon burner for more details on this kit.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Thanks to XMP (2.0) profiles the only thing one needs to do in order to run this RAM kit at its advertised frequency, timings and voltages is to choose/enable it from within the Bios and reboot. That being said if you're into overclocking you may not wish to use the main XMP profile but instead to choose your very own frequency, timings and voltages to achieve even higher performance numbers and that's exactly what we'll also be doing during our DDR4 tests. To be more specific aside testing each kit with its XMP profile we will also be upping the voltages (up to 1.4V max – even though most kits can function at higher voltages I don’t recommend doing so) and frequencies (200MHZ increments) until we find the maximum achievable stable frequency. We also thought about upping voltages and reducing timings instead of increasing the frequency of the modules as high as it can go (always stable and without going over 1.4V) but the end results are pretty much identical.

   As for the how we'll be testing each DDR4 Quad/Dual-Kit to arrive in our lab well there aren't that many benchmark programs that only test RAM (or at least RAM and CPU without anything else coming into play) but we got most of them and so you will be seeing results from following benchmarking programs, AIDA64 Engineer Edition, Cinebench Release 20, MaxMemm2 (because we are getting low performance numbers this doesn't seem to play well with our test rig - probably because of the X299 architecture - but we decided to include it regardless), Passmark Performance Test 9, Sisoftware Sandra Titanium and WPrime v1.55. All tests are performed on a fresh Windows 10 Pro installation (complete with all updates until the day of this review) and are repeated a total of 6 times after which the average numbers get recorded into our charts.

* In addition to Quad-Channel tests since March 2020 I’ll also be using the brand new Z390 test rig (check above) for Dual-Channel RAM tests.
** Since May 2020 three game benchmarks (Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, GEARS 5 and Metro Exodus tested on the X299 system at 1080p resolution and with the ASUS ROG RTX2060 OC set at Gaming Mode) have also been added in the charts.

TEST RESULTS - XMP PROFILE / DUAL CHANNEL

TEST RESULTS - OVERCLOCK / DUAL CHANNEL

It was very easy to set this kit at 3800MHz (1.37V) and at 4000MHz (1.4V) with the EVGA Z390 DARK but anything over was not possible, not with 1.4V

CONCLUSION

   The XPower Zenith RGB DDR4 kit by Silicon Power made a very good impression to me, not just because of their looks thanks to the top RGB LED bar but perhaps mostly due to the fact that i was able to hit 4GHz without issue and with just 1.4V (that’s not something most 3.6GHz kits can do). The Zenith RGB also feature rather low-profile grey aluminum heatspreaders and that too is clearly a plus for any RAM kit (clearance issues). Unfortunately, at the time of this review the XPower Zenith RGB line basically only includes 4 different modules, 8/16GB in capacity and 3200/3600MHz in speed (4133MHz as a speed is listed on their website but I was unable to find such a kit anywhere online so it must be coming at a later date) something which may not “cover” every user out there (for example dual 64GB kits is something that many are looking for lately).

   The XPower Zenith RGB line of DDR4 kits counts less than 2 months in the market so as expected availability in some places is still far from good (especially the other side of the Atlantic). Still the 32GB 3600MHz dual-channel kit i have here with me today retails for around 205 Euros inside the EU a price tag which is not half bad really (not currently anyways). Yes, the available capacities and speeds is not something i can overlook but the combination of both stock and overclocked performance, looks and a balanced price tag are enough to give the XPower Zenith RGB the Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Performance (Up To 4000MHz CL18)
- Build Quality (10 Layer PCB)
- Looks (Grey Aluminum Textured Heatspreaders & RGB LED Bar)
- Lifetime Limited Warranty
- Price (Currently)

CONS

- Dual Channel Kits Only
- Available Capacities & Speeds (Currently)