Getting into a long and boring discussion about the specifications of a memory kit is about as useful as voting in Florida...ouch, that was a low blow. None-the-less, we are going to do it but the conversation won't just be about the memory's specifications but more about the ICs that make this memory do what it does best.

To the left are the specifications as listed by G.Skill on their web site and pretty much outline what we already know from the introduction. The F3-12800CL7D-2GBHZ are rated for operation at DDR3-1600 at timings of 7-7-7-18 with up to 1.9v. G.Skill also lists them as being compatible with Intel X38 and P35 chipsets and note that the PCB is a 6 layer design. The rest of the information is pretty standard fare.

Moving our attention to the photo at the right, we quickly recognize the ICs as the darling of the DDR3 world up to this point, Micron D9GTR. So far, any DDR3 modules rated for 800MHz CL7 (like these G.Skills) or better are going to be equipped with Micron D9GTR or the newer D9GTS. It is very reminiscent of the DDR2 performance crown going to Micron D9GMH and its "big brother" D9GKX. Like the DDR2 part numbers that came before it, D9GTR and GTS are the same memory but binned slightly higher by Micron. Since we are dealing with D9GTR today, we have posted the specifications found at Microns web site to the right.

The ICs are only rated for an operating frequency of 533MHz at CL7 but that rating is for operation at 1.5v, a far cry from the 1.9v that G.Skill has rated this memory for. That is why G.Skill can elevate the rated frequency to 800MHz at the same CL7 it is rated for at 533MHz with 1.5v volts. This is common practice as memory ICs are only spec'd for JEDEC standards which designate the operating frequency of DDR3 to be 1.5v. The last item of business for this section, since we have the heat sinks off, is the thermal material used for interfacing between the ICs and the black G.Skill heat sinks.

Below we can see that in removing the heat sinks it looks as if they were never adhered to the ICs in the first place. This isn't because of some magic trick we used to get them off, this is simply because they haven't adhered to the ICs. This thermal material is not sticky at all and is simply a thermal pad that is held in place by the clips at the top of the heat sinks. This came as quite a surprise as we were unaware anyone had still used this method for attaching heat sinks to memory. To our prior knowledge, every manufacturer we have encountered has gone to some sort of adhesive thermal pad to adhere their heat sinks to the ICs with many advancing beyond even that to using a cured thermal coating. We will end the discussion there as this comes up again rather shortly.