Mushkin Redline 16GB Quad-Channel 2133MHz Review

Conclusion

With any first run of new hardware it's easy to get carried away. Usually the first parts are standard fare and as the enthusiast models hit the market the goalposts seem to be moved on a weekly basis.

Thankfully with today's review we already know roughly where we are, even if we don't know what's possible. The kit we are comparing to is one of the ultimate enthusiast ones around, the blazingly fast Corsair GTX8. Designed for mental bandwidth when we bring it down to the 2133MHz speed of the Mushkin the slack timings can leave it a little behind.

This neatly brings us to the Mushkin itself. Although designed for a maximum of 2133MHz operation this has allowed Mushkin to really nail the timings down, and throughout our testing the 9-11-10-28 proved itself to be worthy of the slimmest of gains against the Corsair.

Sure it seems clear that Quad-Channel RAM, at the moment at least, has no clear day-to-day benefits over the Dual-Channel speeds we're used to from the LGA1155 stuff because the results are pretty much on a par. It's when you saturate the bandwidth completely that the gains become apparent and the Mushkin Redline handles them with the same calm assurance that we've come to expect. Because it hasn't got the headroom that the Corsair GTX8 has it works out a damn sight cheaper too.

So all in all it's everything we've come to know and love from Mushkin. Outstanding performance in a great looking package for an affordable price. What more can you want? A deserving winner of our OC3D Gold Award.

Thanks to Mushkin for supplying the Redline for review available from Aria.co.uk . Discuss in our forums.