Packaging and Installation

     Our XTune DDR3 arrived in the standard plastic blister pack.  The packaging accents the coloring of the DDR3 heat spreaders with a black, red and grey design.  The packaging offers little more than the basic details providing basic speed and voltage numbers and a short note describing the lifetime warranty and testing.   The packaging includes an installation guide with a more detailed data sheet and the complete warranty details inside.

     The heat spreaders are polished black accented with the red XTune logo and polished silver accents.  For a company with a deep OEM background these are some pretty sharp looking modules.

Testing and Overclocking 

     I installed the XTune DDR3-1333 modules on my Asus P5E3 Deluxe which has an Intel X38 chipset.  This is going to mean that adjusting the memory speed is going to require adjusting the FSB.  A variety of FSB speeds will be used ranging from 266MHz to 450MHz.  Take a closer look at the test system:

Results

     One of the first things I discovered about the XTune modules is the lack of any readable SPD settings.  This may be due to the modules pre-release state or simply to keep costs down, whatever the reason the ASUS BIOS picked these modules up at a conservative 8-7-7-20 and a default speed of 800MHz.  Ouch!  After some basic tweaking of the BIOS settings we were cruising along at the recommended 8-8-8-15 with the speed set to 1333MHz.  It is always a good idea to make sure your modules are clocking in at the correct speed and timings, but most modern modules will help by providing the BIOS with one or more SPD settings to help the DDR3 to perform out of the box.

Lets get on to the benchmarks!