A Closer Look

G.Skill has introduced the Trident series some time ago in an effort to organize their line-up a bit more. The design has remained unchanged. They are fairly large and have fins to help with heat dissipation.


One side holds the Trident sticker on which you will also find the G.Skill company logo. Turning the modules around, there is nothing on here besides a warranty sticker covering a screw and the label to let you know what memory you actually have in front of you.


This white sticker holds all the information you need to configure the kit correctly. As you can see it is intended to run at 2000 MHz CL9-9-9-27 and 1.65V. This may not be fast, but we are talking about a high-capacity kit with 4 GB modules. That on the other hand makes this a great spec'ed pair.


Looking straight down on the profile, it is also obvious that the heatspreader is not symmetrical. The three fins of the tall portions are all of different length. This certainly looks great, but may cause some problems with large CPU coolers.


Taking a really close look at the markings of the PCB, they read "ST-SG38U816 V1.0". We have seen these markings on multiple different G.Skill models, so the PCB of them seems to be identical. This does not mean that the ICs are the same as well, so you cannot expect to get the same performance out of them. The other print found on the PCB pertains to the manufacturer and does not serve to identify the specific PCB model unlike the former number.


G.Skill includes a metal, dual-fan memory cooler, which is powered by a Molex connector straight from your mainboard. This mans that it will always run at full speed, quite possibly being louder than other fans within your system. There is no reason for G.Skill to use a Molex connector instead of a mainboard header.