Introduction

I would like to thank ASUS for providing the CPU, motherboard, and graphics card used in this review. This review would not have been possible without their support. Also, many thanks to GSkill for providing the memory.

With new boards launched, you are going to need some memory if you do not plan on using old DDR3 sticks. DDR3 has been around for a long time, so much so that we started off with 512 MB and 1 GB sticks many years ago to now have many 8 GB sticks at our disposal, and at an affordable price. Yet many of those 8 GB DIMMs use enough ICs to be split by half in number for 4GB sticks instead, which might just lessen the load such memory places on your memory controller by enough to allow for a higher overclock.

Many months ago, I began investigating such sticks, and not only do we find a few different IC types, the number of heatsink designs that cover them are plentiful too. G.Skill, a common memory manufacturer to appear on these pages, usually sets its sticks' intended use apart with those heatsinks, since the company features many different product lines, each with a different goal. RipjawsX, RipjawsZ, and TridentX sticks have appeared on these pages before, but there is also the ARES line we will look at today. G.Skill sent me a dual-stick 8 GB kit specced to reach 2400 MHz with 11-13-13-31 timings. Let us take a look!

Specifications

Packaging

The G.Skill ARES F3-2400C11D-8GAB kit comes in G.Skill's standard plastic blister packaging, with the sticks and their individual labels proudly out in plain view. The rear of it covers some information and has a label.


That label on the back matches what we find on the sticks themselves. Pulling everything out of the packaging, I was left with the two sticks and a case badge. The badge G.Skill includes has been the same for years; why change what works?