A Closer Look

The kit makes a good first impression. Both sides are covered by aluminum heat spreaders. These are not identical, as one side has a large X and different ridges, while the other is rather simple. As these are called Xtreem Dark, the head spreaders are black. It would have been a touch nicer if the PCB were black as well, but they look cool nonetheless.


Upon closer inspection you can see that the X of Xtreem is part of the overall heat spreader design, while the Team logo is simply placed on top of the afore mentioned heatspreader. Even though the aluminum sheet used is rather thin, the applied ridges and frame make it very rigid.


Turning the module over, we find the Team Group URL printed on the heat spreader. This is a first as far as I can tell. There does not seem to be much reason to do so, but it won't hurt either. On the other half of the spreader you will find a sticker with all necessary information to set the memory to run at its intended settings. I still think that these stickers are way too large and disturb the overall look and feel of the memory. It would have been much better if Team Group could have used black stickers with white text instead for example.


Taking a look at the memory from above, it becomes clear that both heat spreaders are held in place by thermal tape, thus trying to remove them will most certainly bend the spreaders out of shape and may even damage the memory module itself. While the edges do look rather sharp, at no point did I have to fear for the safety of my fingers while handling the memory.


You won't find much interesting information printed on the PCB, just "KO-8117", which can be found on numerous high-end DDR3 kits by various manufacturers these days.