Overclocking performance
First off, let me introduce the test system:
Motherboard: ASRock Z77E-ITX
CPU: Intel i5-3570K (stock, for testing purposes)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP 2x8GB DDR3-1600 CL9
SSD: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB
O/S: Windows 7 64-bit, build 7601
Overclocking
For the process of overclocking, I simply upped the RAM multiplier in the BIOS in small steps, loosened the main timings if booting the system would fail, and if a wall was hit, I raised the voltage from 1.35v to 1.5v; both perfectly fine voltages, as defined in the modules’ XMP.
The Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP DDR3-1600 CL9 run fine at rated speed and voltage by the corresponding XMP profile.
At a CAS latency of 9, the modules would only run DDR3-1600 at 1.35v, and DDR3-1800 at 1.5v.
At a CAS latency of 10, the modules would only run DDR3-1866 at 1.35v, but went up to a very acceptable rating of DDR3-2133. DDR3-2200 was possible at a CAS latency of 11, but the system proved to be unstable through further testing. That said, DDR3-2200 is maybe possible, if you put some time and effort in fine tuning sub-timings, or if you get better IC’s; the latter is always a matter of luck.
Performance
That said, the difference in performance between DDR3-2133 CL10 and DDR3-2200 CL11 is marginal, so I settled for an overclock to DDR3-2133 CL10-11-10-27, at 1.5v.
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