INTRODUCTION

   As far back as i can remember i was never into RAM overclocking, not because it was hard or because it could result in reduced RAM life but rather because it could affect system stability. On top of that since real world gains are very small (especially when gaming) i never felt overclocking my RAM kits was needed, at least nowhere nearly as much as CPU & GPU overclocking. So, you can probably imagine how surprised i am whenever i get questions like which kit has the best overclocking headroom or which kit can run at the lowest possible CAS latencies. These are of course things i could never answer with a straight face, not only due to the fact that I’d need to have reviewed every RAM kit out there to do that but also because even if i had it would had still taken me forever to test every single aspect from lowest CAS latencies to highest frequencies. With that small parenthesis out of the way today’s review is of yet another DDR4 RAM kit, the Hades RGB OC 32GB 3600MHz CL18 by Lexar.

   For more than 25 years, Lexar has been a trusted leading global brand of memory solutions. Our award-winning lineup includes memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers, solid-state drives and DRAM. With so many options, it’s easy to find the right Lexar solution to fit your needs. All Lexar product designs undergo extensive testing in the Lexar Quality Labs with more than 1,100 digital devices, to ensure performance, quality, compatibility, and reliability. Lexar products are available worldwide at major retail and e-tail stores. For more information or support, visit www.lexar.com.

   The Hades RGB OC line of DDR4 kits by Lexar is quite limited currently and so it's only available in single (8/16GB) modules and dual (2x8/16GB) channel kits with frequencies up to 3600MHz (3200/3600MHz), CAS latency timings as low as 16 (3200MHz CL16 - 3600MHZ CL18) and voltages up to 1.35v. Past the somewhat thick aluminum heatspreaders we find single rank memory chips by Lexar themselves paired with a top LED bar with a total of 8 ARGB LEDs (8 zones with 14 effects) which is fully compatible with all the popular mainboard sync technologies (including ASUS AURA Sync, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion 2.0, MSI Mystic Light Sync and ASRock Polychrome Sync). As with most high quality kits in the market today the entire Hades RGB OC line of DDR4 kits by Lexar is also covered by a limited lifetime warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE HADES RGB OC 32GB 3600MHZ CL18

Lexar is using a cardboard box to ship the modules in which as expected has their logo alongside a large product picture, capacity and compatible sync technologies at the front.

Some words about the product are printed at the rear in 2 languages and just over a sticker with the product barcode and serial number.

Lexar ships just the two RAM modules.

The black aluminum heatspreaders look nice and as always have a small sticker at the rear with the capacity/amount, frequency, timings and voltage.

People who enjoy RGB effects may be happy to learn that the top plastic bar has a total of 8 ARGB LEDs underneath.

Measuring roughly 45.6mm top to bottom Hades RGB OC modules are far from the shortest ones (to showcase their height i placed them right next to the Neo Forza Faye, Teamgroup T-Create Expert, Acer Predator Apollo and the Kingston Fury Renegade RGB modules).

Regardless of height these modules do look very nice when powered on.

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

LEXAR RGB SYNC SOFTWARE

If your motherboard doesn’t happen to support one of the popular RGB sync technologies (like the EVGA Z590 DARK) worry not since Lexar is offering their very own RGB lighting software (can download it from their support page).

Via this software you have access to each of the 8 LEDs found on each module (you can sync them all together of course) which means you can assign different colors, set the brightness and choose from one of the 14 available effects.

Of course, you can also turn the LEDs off entirely and change the software languages.

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 / RAM modules that use 1.4V-145V will be tested up to 1.5V and kits that run with 1.5V up to 1.55V) and frequencies (200MHZ increments) until i find the maximum achievable stable frequency. I 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 I'll be testing each DDR4 Quad/Dual-Kit to arrive in the 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 I’ve 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 the charts.

* In addition to Quad-Channel tests since March 2020 I’ll also be using the brand new I9-9900K+Z390 DARK 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.
*** In September 2021 i replaced the Intel I9-9900K+Z390 DARK test rig for a brand new Intel I9-11900K+Z590 DARK one (you can access all the Z390 DARK based tests here).

TEST RESULTS - XMP PROFILE / DUAL CHANNEL

TEST RESULTS - OVERCLOCK / DUAL CHANNEL

Pushing this kit to 3800MHz (1.37V) and 4000MHz (1.4V) was easy to do but anything over that was a no go, not with 1.4V.

CONCLUSION

   The Hades RGB OC is the very first DDR4 kit by Lexar to feature RGB lighting so i was glad to see that they paired 8 addressable RGB LEDs with their very own software. So even though these are not the shortest RGB modules around they look very nice so this was a good decision by Lexar. The same applies for performance since these can hit 4GHz at CL18 with just 1.4V, something we certainly don’t see a lot. Needless to say, if you’re willing to go higher in voltages you should have no problem reaching higher clocks but that’s not something i can recommend to anyone, not for 24/7 use anyways. Unfortunately, in terms of available kits Lexar is falling back, at least currently. 16GB & 32GB at 3200MHz & 3600MHz are not nearly enough to win over the market so I seriously hope Lexar either adds new capacities and speeds or introduces a new line with more available kits.

   Currently retailing for USD146.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 203.28Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the Hades RGB OC 32GB 3600MHz CL18 DDR4 dual-channel kit by Lexar is priced extremely well, at least on the other side of the Atlantic. So, what else is there to say about the Hades RGB OC RAM? It looks nice, performs just as well and even better and is covered with a lifetime limited warranty and that’s why they get the Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Performance (Up To 4000MHz CL18)
- Build Quality
- Looks (ARGB LED Bar)
- Lifetime Limited Warranty
- Lexar RGB Sync Software (14 Effects)
- Price (USA)

CONS

- Dual Channel Kits Only
- Available Capacities & Speeds