G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 64GB (8 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL10Q2-64GBZL

Pros: Works perfectly with my Asus P9X79 Pro motherboard. It defaulted at 1333 Mhz out of the box. As others have mentioned, XMP profile 1 needs to be enabled in BIOS to get it running at 1600 Mhz.

Cons: None

Pros: The packing you are talking about is anti static foam. I am retired and worked in the packing industry. You don't always need a static plastic bag.

Cons: none

Manufacturer Response:

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Dear Customer

For electronic items such as DRAM, it is best to use anti static packaging material to prevent any potential static charge/build up. Anti-static material is available in many different forms, so it is not always a plastic bag. When handling RAM, always make sure to touch a piece of metal to ground your body. This will ensure the electric-static charge does not transfer. This is a high capacity, high performance memory kit, so you should be very pleased with the result. With 64GB installed, your computer should be capable of anything you put to it. For any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us directly.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

Quality and customer service are our top priorities.

Tech Support Email: ustech@gskillusa.com
RMA Dept Email: rma@gskillusa.com
G.Skill Forum: http://www.gskill.us/forum/

Pros: - 64 gigs of DDR3 RAM @ DDR1600 speed!
- Works with my Gigabyte X79-UP4 mainboard.
- Heat sinks aren't outrageously large.
- Needed minimal fiddling in the BIOS to get them to run at DDR1600 speed.

Cons: - Packaging made me say "????!??" at first.
- Memory didn't necessarily work out of the box.

The packaging caught me off-guard at first. If you've bought G.Skill RAM before you've no doubtlessly seen their plastic blister packaging. These arrived in a brown cardboard box with a G.Skill sticker on them. That in of itself wasn't unusual and in a way I kind of expected it since it's eight matched sticks of RAM. What caught me off-guard is that the individual sticks come inserted in foam sleeves, not ESD bags. I've always been taught to keep sensitive electronics away from potentially static generating foam, but maybe they're using an ESD type foam packaging? At any rate I was just surprised to see the sticks packaged that way, but since they work great with zero errors, it obviously didn't harm the DIMMS.

This isn't necessarily a con against the memory, but the memory didn't work in my system immediately. At first I couldn't figure out what was wrong. My system would power on but it wouldn't post at all (black screen). What it ended up being was that the DIMMS had to be removed and re-inserted a few times; I guess to break through any oxide on the DIMM contacts and on the sockets too. Once I did that the machine fired right up like a champ. It's not exactly a fault of the memory; stuff like this happens all the time (I service PC's and I see it happen every now and then).

Other Thoughts: I'm a long-time G.Skill customer and I've been extremely happy with their memory. I've got six systems with G.Skill RAM (one being a laptop and the other being a Macbook Pro), and they all run great with their memory. This particular kit is replacing the 4x4GB of G.Skill RipjawsX DDR1600 RAM I had in this initial build; and the only reason I'm replacing the memory was so I could max out the mainboard with 64GB (and the RipjawsX is going into another one of my builds).

When you first power on the computer with these memory modules they'll work at DDR1333 speeds. That's normal. You will need to go in and select the XMP memory profile to make them work at DDR1600. Since I'm running an overclocked CPU (i7-3930 @ 4.4Ghz), and I did once get a BSOD on boot, to be on the safe side I bumped up the RAM voltage ever so slightly to 1.505 and the CPU VTT to 1.1. I figure that with eight DIMMS running at DDR1600, it's bound to need a very slight voltage boost to stabilize them and so far it seems I was right. It's been rock stable since I did that.

It almost feels obscene having 64GB of RAM at my disposal on my system now. :D The primary thing I'm doing with this much RAM is I'm using 20GB of it as a RAM disk (the free SoftPerfect RAMDisk works great for this). I do a lot of Photoshop and Lightroom work, so being able to use the RAM disk as a scratch drive speeds things up to insane levels.

If you're a gamer, unless you're using it as a RAM disk (and creating symbolic links to your game files), it's really not worth it to go with this much RAM. If you're a creative professional though it's worth every penny!

Pros: Works with no issues

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: Failed to overclock beyond 1600. P9X79PRO went to BIOS when I populatd all 8 slots. It has two options: to configure memory auto or xmp. Auto configuration selected 9-9-9-24 settings, which are wrong. xmp selected correct settings.
I selected xmp settings and never had issues. During overclocking I had to pay attention not to exceed 1600 speed and select xmp profile.

Pros: Works as advertised. Currently working with 64GB of RAM in my computer!

Cons: No Cons at this time.

Pros: It works for the x79 board and states that on their site I made mistake of first of buying 64gb that didn't say that before and had headaches with only parts showing up. x79 is picky over 32gb

Cons: the box is obviously made for 32gb ram as the internal guides have the other 32gb squashed outside it. while it's a fact of x79 and not the ram. 64gb reverts to 1333 speed on the board.

Manufacturer Response:

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Dear Customer

Thank you for your G.Skill purchase and review. Glad to hear you like the memory and it is working well in your new X79 build. With 64GB of DDR3-1600, your computer should be capable of anything you put to it. Paired with a Sandybridge-E CPU, it is like 6 gaming computers with over 10GB of RAM each. You essentially have a super computer. With regards to DRAM frequency, simply enable XMP Profile in BIOS/EFI and the system should operate at the memory's rated specifications. Should you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us directly.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

Quality and customer service are our top priorities.

Tech Support Email: ustech@gskillusa.com
RMA Dept Email: rma@gskillusa.com
G.Skill Forum: http://www.gskill.us/forum/

Pros: So far so good (have used these for about 2 weeks). I wanted to get 64 GB of RAM for my Asus Rampage IV Extreme x79 system, and from past experiences on x58, I was a bit skeptical of getting 4 kits of 2x8 or 2 kits of 4x8. Instead, I figured a single kit of 8x8 could be best if they indeed test them sufficiently to ensure good compatibility across the modules.

This kit was definitely the cheaper one of 8x8GB kits on the market (I needed 1600 or higher speeds, but could not justify going higher and paying lots more for it). Given the competitive price, I really had no other choice to consider (the kit was $315 minus 15% off with a coupon code). Using this largely as a Ramdisk.

XMP profile worked like a charm, although I will be looking into overclocking it in the future (haven't bothered yet, as I am waiting to get a case to outfit with a liquid cooling setup). Asus RIVE is on the QVL list of this memory.

I was a bit worried given several reviews of the RAM dying, but I have past RMA experience with G.Skill and am confident that they would replace the product if it failed on me.

One thing that truly impressed me about G.Skill this time was their response to an inquiry I made. I want to mention one minor thing: in past experiences with other PC component companies, I would sometimes contact tech support and they'd just reply "please contact our sales team" or vice versa. I sent my inquiry to G.Skill Sales group, but received a reply from their Tech Support team instead (so they routed my inquiry correctly and without wasting my time and requiring me to do it myself). I asked about how they bin the modules and whether they truly test them such that a single 8x8 kit is different from eight 1x8 or four 2x8 or two 4x8. I received a long, detailed response a full page long. This really sealed the deal for me just knowing that they take the time to address their customers and to give the details I was seeking.

I have been using G.Skill for RAM since DDR2 builds I've had and although some old RAM had to be RMA'd years ago, my three 2x4GB Ripjaws kits prior to this upgrade to 8x8GB served me well for a couple of years.

Cons: Only two weeks of ownership so far. Have not yet tested for O/C capabilities, but it was not my intention when going to the huge 64GB capacity (it is certainly harder to O/C 8 modules than, say, two).

Pros: low voltage, 64 GB on one board, installed and recognized right away. ASUS Sabertooth X79. Running 7 HDs, i7 3930, EVO cooler; Windows Serer 2012 Hyper-V in HAF 912A Advanced case.

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: I put this 6 of 8 sticks in my ASUS P6X58D Premium and it works great there too. Replaced a 24 GB kit for 48 GB total. Running 6 HDs, i7 950, EVO cooler running VMware 4.1 in HAF 912A Advanced case.Will move the 5x4 24 GB and 2x8 16 GB to other PCs.

Pros: Supports XMP profiles for autoconfig.
Worked immediately in ASUS P9X79 PRO with default config.
Cheaper than the Crucial Ballistic I bought and returned because 5 of the 8 sticks were bad.

Cons: None...yet. Haven't had long enough to verify longevity.

Other Thoughts: Not really a con, but according to reports, you need to tweak your BIOS to stabalize these. I didn't HAVE to, but went ahead and bumped VCORE to 1.25 and VTT on all channels to 1.55 just to make sure. Chose XMP and Profile #1 in BIOS and it autoconfigured the rest at full timings and clock speeds of 1600.

Asus P9X79 Pro with 1103 BIOS
Intel Core i7 3820
G.Skill 64gb DDR3 1600 kit
OCZ Agility 3 240gb
Striped 600gb Velociraptors
Nvidia GTX 570

Pros: Runs with 8dimms just fine @ 1600 on the x79 and also for a bonus these will work on the x58 with all 6 slots filled for 48gb of ram.

Cons: DOES NOT HAVE XMP 1.3 PROFILE! I am running the newest bios on my P9X79 WS and it only shows XMP 1.2. Not a real con since XMP 1.2 runs 1600 with the correct settings. I just thought G-Skill should know because these costs a lot and would want what they state on their own site. I don't look at newegg specs because they are usually wrong on something or another.

Other Thoughts: Make sure if you are going to use all 8 slots to check compatibility by going to the Ram company website and not the Motherboard one because they don't keep up to date at all.