Mushkin Blackline FROSTBYTE 997123F Review The Best DDR3 2400 CL11 (2017~2021)

[Kiriakos GR]

Introduction
Computer parts market, this was (before Covid-19 times) an stock market than a market of goods.

I am going to use here as example the Mushkin DDR3 Blackline - - 16 GB : 2 x 8 GB - DIMM 240-PIN - 2400 MHz / PC3-19200 - CL11 - 1.65 V

Here comes it pricing chart from first release up to end of wide availability.
06-2017  160E
12-2018  100E 
12-2019  94E
12-2020  87E
04-2021  83E 

01-2022 35E  and or 48.99E as used buy with shipping.

If there is something to learn by studying the chart, this is that pricing after the first two years this is not shrinking further significantly.
Some people think to wait until a price to drop, this is good, but after two years time there is no lower price point for a product.
I am not going to brag about getting a used product down to 1/3 of it average price when this was sold a NEW with warranty.

But I do feel the need to brag and or verify too, that specific memory chips along PCB quality and assembly, along cooling system design, they are the best ever made in our planet for what they are.
They are DDR3 2400, designed for DDR3 performance enthusiast, but specific High-End revision came out at times that young gamers believed that next BIG thing this is DDR4.

There is no university so to teach at product reviewers the basics of the job.
There was not any products reviews made about this KIT of DDR3, something that goes away fast from what is named as PC market fashion, this become automatically an unattractive topic, for the so called as PC hardware major review blogs.

I did buy my first computer 26 years ago (1996), that year Win95 European, came to replace Win 3.1 for work group.
It was in my fate to coexist and or participate at entire push-forward travel of computing industry up to date.
Its one period had it heroes of RAM products,  OCZ Platinum DDR this is one of them, but OCZ this is not alive anymore.

What we failed to teach to our kids, this is that technically the last batch of any computer part (example DDR3) this is bug free, ultimate memory stability, and High-end products which are made by the best chips that industry can produce.
The next step-up product (example DDR4), this should pass identical cycles so to mature (further more years of development so to become bug-free), and this should happen also now with DDR5 too.

Memory alone does not worth match with out be paired with an High-End motherboard.
In this example, Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H an product of 4-2013 this is paired with DDR3 of 6-2017, this translates that Mushkin was able to find and resale, best SK Hynix chips them made four year later than INTEL Z87X
(In other words, SK Hynix this had plenty of time (three years) to improve DDR3 R&D so to maximize overall perforce.
 
DDR performance further explained
Even since 26 years ago industry are aware of the benefits of Low latency RAM,  it is a speedup of low bandwidth of data.
3D industry this started small and now become huge, most young people they are driven to buy a gaming PC that this is actually an 3D graphics developer workstation.
Huge chunk of 3D data required per a single frame formation (FPS), this is a huge number, even so it is required the amount of 65 FPS  or double than that, so the game-play to appear as smooth.
 
Modern times compromise this is us to accept higher CL (latency numbers) so to be available a higher bandwidth in the communication of RAM with the CPU.
DDR3 this is not just description of memory type, DDR3 stands also as milestone about the development of memory controller (INTEL) which makes best use of RAM chips for a faster transfer of larger chunks of data.       

Luck of industry time synchronization at product release always was joy killer.   
Beginning of 2022 I decided to compose an refreshed workstation, it came out as tremendously successful combination, but it is of greater importance the production date of all components.

Intel Haswell -  i7 4770                          an product of 2013
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H                         an product of 4-2013
Mushkin DDR3 Blackline XMP 2400            an product of 6-2017
MSI iGAMER GTX 1060 OC 6GB                    an product of 4-2017

The first quick summary, all key parts that makes a system to gain significant boost at gaming these are of 2017
 i7 4770 along GA-Z87X-UD5H, both impressive hardware, but with out the other two parts they cannot shine. 

[Kiriakos GR]

Page 2

Mushkin Blackline 997123F DDR3 KIT specifications

Tested Latency: 11-13-13-13 •Memory Type: DDR3 UDIMM •Speed Rating: PC3-19200 (2400MHz)

Mushkin Enhanced MFG

Part number 99(2/7/4)123(F/Y/R

JEDEC label  8GB 2Rx8 PC3-12800U-11-11-B1 

B1 = Dual or double side PCB (soldered chips at both sides),  A1 stands for single.

XMP Enthusiast 1200 MHz/ 11-13-13-31-44 / 1,65 V 

Operating latency with  INTEL Z87X
Frequency 1197,2 MHz
FSB:DRAM 1:9
11
13
13
31
312
Command rate 1T 

AIDA64
Read    34240 MB/s
Write   37113 MB/s
Copy    33279  MB/s

Those are tremendously impressive numbers in comparison to INTEL Z87X when this operates with 1333 DDR which this is expected to deliver close to 25000 MB/s according to INTEL specifications.

I did kept my older system INTEL socket 775 for a decade, I had the first motherboard supporting DDR3 for it.
Max supported memory 2x4GB, its DIMM should had low density chip.
INTEL Q9660 this succeed  (Read Write Copy) approximately 7~8  GB/s   

Why insisting at i7 4770 and DDR3 2400 ?   
INTEL documentation this is very clear, Haswell i7 this is made supporting up to 2800 DDR3 (warranty to run), while INTEL Z87X this supports natively 1600 and 2400 DDR3.
Its all written at INTEL documentation ( four documents ) that millions skip to read.

4th-gen-core-family-desktop-specification-update.pdf
4th-gen-core-family-desktop-vol-1-datasheet.pdf
4th-gen-core-family-desktop-vol-2-datasheet-v1.pdf
8-series-chipset-pch-datasheet.pdf
 

[Kiriakos GR]

Page 3

What other makes Mushkin Blackline FROSTBYTE winning the title of be impressive? 
FROSTBYTE this is not a fancy word but rather the description of a RAM cooler idea that is really IDEAL.
Its all about high-end engineering this implemented with the most cost effective manner and still be a perfect idea as BEST cooling solution.

RAM Dimm orientation this is identical to all motherboards, here we have an metallic spiral which this becomes path helping at passive cooling.
Its actually a heatsink at round shape which does the job with out causing the usual problem of extreme in height RAM modules (blocking or interfering with CPU heatsink or DC fans).

One picture 1000 words..
I give you more than one.


In conclusion.
Mushkin this is American OEM, known for two decades,  but their products was never widely available in Europe.
At about 2019 they started to elaborate with German retail channels, and this is of how some of their products they did appear in Germany and even in Greece (at limited stock).
Before that period of 2018 ~ 2019, anything with Mushkin logo this were imported goods = a rare buy for Europeans.

According the numbers of AIDA64,  Mushkin Blackline 997123F succeed to smoke away all competition of DDR3 2400 of that era.
More MB/s than Gskill ARES (single sided PCB module) and of every other competitor, and comes close to some magical DDR3 2600 modules which were sold at very few people as high-tech samples = vast number of consumers never touch them.

XMP profile this is overclocking according to INTEL, and when this is active, all motherboards return CPU clocks at default clocks.
i7 4770 this is Four core Eight threads = a monster,  I did estimated that it is huge horse power for a desktop workstation and about handling gaming successfully at 1080P.
At the game that I do kill time with,  I do enjoy 95~128 FPS,  CPU usage 65%, GPU usage 65%,  entire system air-cooled and frozen.
At Gaming as load: 
PCH 45C  - Intel Z87X max operating temperature 108C ( temperature limit 126C) 
CPU cooler 42C     
GPU 57C 

Nothing gets thermally stressed, and neither the Mushkin DDR3 has any issue at gaming even for five or six hours continually (at Weekends).
Yes this review it is written after the system this is working for approximately four months time,  and Mushkin 997123F 2x8GB stock this is a bit hard to be found too, but if you do find any, you will feel lucky and happy as I do.
Its a DDR3 with 1600 JEDEC after all   
 
   

 
 

[Kiriakos GR]

Recently I started thinking of how it is possible, for me to perform actual temperature measurement by placing an sensor over this DDR3 heatsink?
It would be interesting to know of what is actual temperature of DDR3-2400 on idle, average and max.
But no one ever made any K-type thermocouple gadget that this would easily attach over a RAM module.

 
Change of strategy ... 
My Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H this offer accurate measurements of the electrical power system this supplying energy for the RAM alone.
IRF-IR3570 MOSFET circuit this feeding both RAM modules, there is onboard current shunt, voltage is known 1.65V, and the motherboard it can deliver the measurement of watts. 

So here we have it:
1) DDR3 2400 at system idle this using 4.125W, this divided with 1.65V, we get 2,5A and this translates to 1250mA per module.
2)DDR3 2400 at 01:50:00 gaming test,  average 7.451W plus 2% of random spikes up to 8,256W. 
Average 7.451W =  4,515A =  2257mA per module.

And here comes the one million euro question, of how much we should worry, about 7.5 Watt in total, this dissipated as thermal load due both RAM modules? (both loaded with heat spreaders)

Its true that heat spreaders, its more an accessory of high performance RAM (an assistance), but DDR3 1333 never really needed such add-on assistance.

My next adventure would be, finding an way to attach K-type thermocouple per module,  log them both and to get at the bottom of it.
Too bad that no one did that before, and I will not have comparison data with other DDR3 systems.   

Stay tuned....     

[Kiriakos GR]

Mushkin Blackline 2400 - thermals evaluation

If you do have the proper tools about thermals evaluation then the final assessment this will follow soon, along with the conclusions.

I did use here the Agilent U1272A along the original K-type thermocouple, this be attached over a plastic clip, and the plastic clip, this clamped over Mushkin Blackline 2400, at the highest point from earth of a single module.
Highest point this translates maximum possible generated heat at that point too.

While another thermometer this confirmed originally 27C room temperature, all my PC internals they were at 27.6C (PC this was powered off for several hours).   

Then when everything was ready, I did power on the PC, within 20 minutes on idle, the temperature very slowly climbed at 33.6C

Next test was a bit of YouTube use and at watching few video for another 20 minutes.
This caused three Celsius increase = 36.0C

I did wait for another 10 minutes so to record the REAL DDR3 temperature on idle, within 40 minutes the PC this be active, motherboard sensor (System) PCB temperature this elevate from 27.6C to 31C  and DDR3 temperature this was at 35C.

So far I did not see any dangerous or hostile temperatures, next step this is the gaming test.
It was required 20 minutes so the idle temp of 35C this to stabilize at 38.3C
Highest temperature ever recorded was 38.6C within two hours of game session.
Within 13 minutes on idle (use of MS word), DDR3 2400 temperature this fall back at idle state that is 34.7C

 
In summary, Mushkin Blackline 2400 XMP verdict at 28C ambient: 
Idle state: 35C
Slight loads, internet browsing, YouTube: 36C
On line gaming two hours plus:   38.6C

Upper limit temperature specification for DDR3 this is at 85C, even so this is max operating temperature without damage.
Specific DDR3, this succeeded at full load, to get warm just below the 50% of this 85C.
Gaming at room temperature of 38C, this is close to impossible it’s a torture for your own body.
Max indoor ever recorded at my workshop this was 36C.
Now I can freely speculate that even with 36C indoor, Mushkin Blackline 2400 XMP will possibly get warm at 46.6C as maximum, and only over a long time of gaming session.
 
At that point I can verify that I am using old school full tower for small server, large space inside, excellent air circulation, fastest recovery at idle temperatures.
If you do run similar tests and you get worst temperatures (high temperatures)? Feel free to blame your own choice about getting a PC case with poor thermals performance. 

[Kiriakos GR]

At electrical test and measurement good practices guide, there is the recommendation for us to wait 30 minutes so any bench top instrument to warm-up and get close to it calibration condition (minimum error when electrical parameters get measured).

Another good practice, this is to trust a measurement only when this is repeatable, complicate tests these should be performed more than once too.

I am now performing the same tests, with a different way of clamping the K-type sensor over the DDR 3 body (heat spreader) Heat sink.
The new mini clamp this has a higher clamp force, and this translates to a higher rate of insurance, that K-type thermocouple this has now the best contact point.
Today my office this is warmer at 29C when previews test this was executed at 28C, so in this new comparison 1C increase at all values this should be expected.

I am now counting 60 minutes of PC at idle (3~6% CPU usage), and DDR3 temperature this required 40 minutes as rapid thermal stabilization from 28C up to 36C, along another 20 minutes so to reach at 36.6C.

This is a new experience for me, measuring thermal stabilization of circuit boards, and specifically of DDR memory modules.
The quick conclusion this is that a PC computer, this requiring 60 minutes of IDLE time, for a total thermal stabilization.
     
Due my new pack of experiences about RAM modules and of how slowly they get warmer, I did extend the YouTube activity benchmark at 30 minutes.
CPU usage approximately at 6~12%, and DDR3 temperature 37.9 ~ 38.9C

New gaming session test for 01:52:00   
Upper limit 41.6C
Low limit 41.1C

In summary, even the second test this came close to the conclusions made by the first.
But the new this is by far more detailed due the long period of testing at its one step.
Mushkin Blackline 2400 DDR3 when operating at XMP 2400, this can heat up at temperatures that we usually describe as human fever.
Within 15 minutes of idle time from full load (gaming), DDR3 temperature returns to 36.6C, few minutes later stabilize at 36.2C

I have finally at hand all the answers regarding specific DDR3 memory and it thermals behavior, and I am extremely happy mostly because now, there no need for me to worry about any component of my PC regarding overheat.   

[Kiriakos GR]

Climate change or other, today Saturday 17 of September and I had 36C outdoor and 32C indoor at 14:00

I did run one last Summer time test,  2H of gaming, and MAX RAM temperature did not get higher than 42.5C

In summary, this RAM under load and even at Summer time, it does ten degrees Celsius on top of indoor ambient.
Now its time to remove the temperature probe from my RAM (After of three months of temperature probing).