Tip: OCZ Animal DDR3-1333; 2000 MHz capable RAM

Most enthusiasts should be well acquainted with the performance memory offered by California-based OCZ Technology. Since 2002, the memory manufacturer has catered for the needs and wants of the enthusiast and high-end segments. Usually with plenty of headroom for overclocking and fitted with efficient heat sinks, its Reaper, Flex, Gold, and NVIDIA SLI memory kits have managed to conquer the memory slots of many end-users.

However, the often overlooked limited edition OCZ “Animal” kits are packing a mean punch and compared to more expensive memory kits out there, seem to be a great bargain for anyone looking to upgrade or replenish their DDR3 memory. In this quick review, we decided to give you a look into this hidden gem. Due to lack of packaging, we omitted the initial parts of our regular reviews.

Launched back in February, you might not even have heard about its gem for overclockers, the low voltage OCZ Animal series. Although the heat sink appearance makes them easily mistaken for ordinary Platinum DDR3 kits, you will be getting a kit that can go well beyond base specifications if needed.

Widely recognized as the ‘Animal series’, this OCZ Platinum DDR3-1333 kit is more commonly known as having the OCZ3P1333LVA6GK part number – not to be mistaken for its “non-Animal” counterpart, the OCZ3P1333LV6GK Platinum series kit. Only differentiated by that small “A” in the part number, nothing else sets this kit apart from an otherwise normal OCZ Platinum series kit. Well, apart from performance, that is.

The OCZ PC3-10666 Animal triple-channel memory kit is a part of the Platinum series, available as a 6GB kit which operates at 1333 MHz with tight 7-7-7-24 timings. Surprisingly, these memory modules are actually respectively equipped with Micron, Samsung, PSC, or Elpida 1866-2000 MHz CL9 binned chips.

In short, an OCZ Animal kit provides you with nothing less than impressive overclocking results – while also being able to run 24/7 stable at much more than their native operating frequency using only standard voltage.

Will the obvious underdog loose this one? Read on and find out exactly what these sticks are capable of – despite their discount-ish price tag…

For testing our Animal kit, we used an Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition running 3.2 GHz with Turbo mode enabled, 3×2 GB OCZ Animal DDR3-1333 7-7-7, an EVGA Classified E760 motherboard, a 300 GB Western Digital Velociraptor, an XFX Radeon HD 4890 Vanilla, a Silverstone Zeus 1200 Watt power supply, and Microsoft Windows 7 RC1 x64. For comparative testing we also installed a 3×2 GB Kingston HyperX T1 and a 3x 2 GB Corsair Dominator GT kit using the exact same configuration.

Not only looking into retail performance of the memory kit, we also bumped up the X58 memory divider and ran our tests at higher speeds than 1333 MHz. Sadly, the OCZ Animal is not fitted with XMP profiles, so for our top speed run the base clock was raised to 143, the multiplier lowered to 23 and Turbo mode was disabled – keeping CPU speed as close to the stock level as possible, thus making memory performance more evident.

Benchmarking the Animal kit using SiSoft Sandra 2009 Pro Business SP4, we used the following settings, which we believe are pretty much guaranteed to run on any Animal kit out there:

• 1333 MHz, 7-7-7-24, 1T, 1.52 DRAM voltage, 1.35 CPU VTT
• 1600 MHz, 8-8-8-24, 1T, 1.60 DRAM voltage, 1.35 CPU VTT
• 1866 MHz, 9-9-9-24, 2T, 1.65 DRAM voltage, 1.35 CPU VTT
• 2000 MHz, 9-9-9-24, 2T, 1.66 DRAM voltage, 1.40 CPU VTT (*denotes BCLK overclocking)

Without further ado, let’s have a look at our benchmark results.

Using the higher memory divider and running the kit at 1866 MHz, we observe some ass-whooping numbers from the OCZ Animal almost being on par with the performance of a Kingston HyperX T1 kit. Corsair Dominator GT is notably faster still, but this is nevertheless impressive bandwidth for an overclocked 1333 MHz DDR3 kit.

Should the need for overclocking arrive, you will be able to run 2 GHz on the OCZ Animal – leaving even the Corsair Dominator GT’s behind. Not bad for a memory kit at more than half that price range.

Similarly, the overall system cache and memory bandwidth as indicated above also gets a boost. While sitting in at identical speed and timings, the relative difference of the Kingston versus the OCZ triple-channel kit is most likely explained by tighter sub-timings for Kingston’s HyperX.

Confirming the performance abilities, Everest Ultimate interestingly shows an almost equal index between running 1600 MHz and 1866 MHz. Just like in SiSoft Sandra, although now more apparent, OCZ Animal has moved up a notch and is extremely close to Kingston’s numbers.

Original Author: Thomas Jørgen Jacobsen

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