Patriot Viper LED DDR4 3000 MHz 16GB Kit Review: Rock Solid
Introduction
Patriot was founded in 1985 and they have become a well respected company in the memory and storage industry for making great, reliable and durable products and have more than 20 years of experience in this field. In November of 2017, Patriot released the Viper LED DDR4 memory series which feature a great build quality at an affordable price.
The Patriot Viper LED memory line consists of the White LED and Red LED series and comes with speeds ranging from 2400 MHz and up to 3600 MHz and memory capacities from 4GB to 8GB in dual channel kits. The White LED series comes with speeds ranging from 2400 MHz, 3200 MHz and 3600 MHz whereas the Red LED series offers users 2400 MHz, 2666 MHz and 3000 MHz memory speeds.
Offering users different speeds will help Patriot compete in different areas of the memory market, from entry-level performance which is from 2400 MHz to 2666 MHz, to mid-level performance which is from 3000 MHz to 3200 MHz and all the way up to high-level performance which is 3600 MHz and above. Today we are reviewing the Patriot Viper LED DDR4 3000 MHz 16GB (2x8GB) memory kit which runs at 1.35V and has a stock rated timings of 15-17-17-35.
Patriot has equipped their Viper LED DDR4 memory series with an aluminum heat spreader which will help with heat dissipation and ensure the memory modules run smoothly under any condition. Design-wise, the Viper LED feature a black aluminum heat spreader with a Silver Viper logo styling which looks really attractive. It is available only in black color so if you are into modding and are looking for other color options, you will not find that with the Viper LED line.
The Patriot Viper LED memory is certified for Intel XMP 2.0 for easy setup and configuration. Once you turn the Intel XMP 2.0 profile on in the BIOS, it will automatically adjust to the fastest safe speed and you'll get great, reliable performance while maintaining full data integrity.
At the time of writing this review, the Viper LED DDR4 3000 MHz 16GB (2x8GB) memory kit retails for $194.99 on Amazon and Newegg and comes with a limited lifetime warranty. Depending on where you live, the Patriot Viper LED DDR4 3000 MHz 16GB (2x8GB) memory kit will be slightly cheaper than the competition and this is based on the prices from Amazon and Newegg in the US. Compared to other DDR4 16GB (2x8GB) 3000 MHz memory kits from Corsair and G.Skill that are out there, the Viper LED DDR4 3000 MHz 16GB (2x8GB) memory kit is anywhere from $5 to $10 cheaper than the Corsair Vengeance DDR4 (2x8GB) 16GB 3000 MHz and G.Skill TridentZ DDR4 16GB (2x8GB) 3000 MHz.
Specifications
| Technical Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Brand: | Patriot |
| Series: | Viper LED |
| Model: | PVLR416G300C5K |
| Capacity: | 16GB (2 x 8GB) |
| Type: | 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM |
| Speed/Timings: | DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000) - 15-17-17-35 |
| Cas Latency: | 15 |
| Voltage: | 1.35V |
| ECC: | No |
| Buffered/Registered: | Unbuffered |
| LED Color: | Red |
| Color: | Black |
| Heat Spreader: | Yes |
| Form Factor: | UDIMM |
| Fan Included: | No |
| Height: | 45 mm |
| Warranty: | Limited Lifetime |
| Multi-Channel: | Dual-Channel Kit |
| Features: | Intel XMP 2.0 |
Packaging
The Patriot Viper LED DDR4 3000 MHz 16GB Kit comes in a simple cardboard box with visually striking graphics. On the front of the box you will see information about the memory capacity, speed, LED color while on the back you will find the model number, links to Patriot's social media accounts, and a description of the memory in different languages.
The memory modules are inside a clamshell plastic package and Patriot also includes two Viper logo stickers. Overall, the packaging is pretty good and it provides plenty of protection during shipping which is great.
The heatsinks are made out of aluminum and are removable which can come in handy if you are trying to install a big air CPU cooler such as the Noctua NH-D15. The memory module stands 45 mm tall and you can easily remove the heatsink since it doesn't use any screws to attach to the PCB. Removing the heatsink will bring the height down to 32mm which will give you a few more millimeters to work with when installing big air CPU coolers.
Here is a close view of the aluminum heat spreader that stands approximately 13mm above the PCB. The heat-spreaders are fairly thick but they also allow for airflow to flow through. You can see that the heat spreaders don't touch each other and this is important because you want each heat spreader to cool the ICs separately and not combine the heat load.
The biggest drawback of this memory kit is the LED. There are many noticeable weak spots when you look at the memory and Patriot should have added a couple more LEDs to blend everything in. Regardless of whether you are looking at the memory from above or from the side, the first thing your eyes will go to are all the dead spots. I do like the design of the light bar across the top even though it is made of plastic and if it had a couple of more LEDs, this memory kit would have been perfect.
Above is a screenshot from Thaiphoon Burner showing more details about the memory kit. Thaiphoon Burner is a popular tool used by many enthusiasts to check the SPD data on the RAM and it allows you to read, edit and update the firmware of SPD EEPROM devices.
Test Methodology
| Test Setup | |
|---|---|
| Processor: | AMD Ryzen 7 1700X |
| Motherboard: | MSI X370 Gaming xPower Titanium (BIOS v1.9) |
| RAM: | Patriot Viper LED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3000 MHz Ballistix Elite 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3466 MHz Ballistix Elite 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3000 MHz Ballistix Tactical 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-2666 MHz Kingston HyperX Savage 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-2666 MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3000 MHz |
| Graphics Card: | Nvidia GTX 1070 |
| Storage: | Crucial MX300 1TB |
| Power Supply: | SilverStone ST80F-TI |
| Heatsink: | Noctua NH-D15 |
| OS: | Windows 10 Pro (64-Bit) |
| Thermal Compound: | Noctua NT-H1 |
| Case: | Corsair 400C |
The testing was done on a fresh install of Windows 10 64-bit. We made sure there were as few processes running as possible during the testing. We'll be using the AMD Ryzen 7 1700X CPU that will run on stock settings and we are using the MSI X370 Gaming xPower Titanium motherboard with the latest BIOS installed. I went into the BIOS and loaded the A-XMP profile and it worked without any issues. Each memory kit will be tested at default speed and timings.
As far as benchmarking software goes, we'll be using AIDA64 (Read, Write, Copy, Latency), HyperPi 32M, Cinebench R15 and Battlefield 1.
Results
Looking at the AIDA64 memory benchmark, we can see that the Patriot Viper LED DDR4 16GB (2x8GB) 3000 MHz memory performed very well in this test.
In the AIDA64 latency benchmark, the Patriot Viper LED memory also performed very good.
Looking at the HyperPi 32M benchmark, the Patriot Viper LED DDR4 16GB (2x8GB) 3000 MHz once again offered great performance.
Moving on to Cinebench R15, the Patriot Viper LED DDR4 16GB (2x8GB) 3000 MHz delivered good performance.
Here we are testing Battlefield 1 at 1440p and the Patriot Viper LED DDR4 16GB (2x8GB) 3000 MHz performed almost on par with the competition.
Conclusion
The Patriot Viper LED DDR4 3000 MHz (2x8GB) is an excellent memory kit that offers great performance at an affordable price. If you are looking for a memory kit with great speed and great build quality, the Patriot Viper LED DDR4 3000 MHz 16GB (2x8GB) kit is what you want. Price-wise, the Patriot Viper LED DDR4 3000 MHz 16GB (2x8GB) kit is hard to beat and you can find it on Amazon and Newegg for $5 to $10 cheaper compared to other brands depending on where you live.
The black aluminum heatsink with the Viper styling gives the memory a sleek and unique look and feel which I really like.
They also do a good job of keeping the memory run cool and will come in handy if you decide to overclock the RAM above 3000 MHz.
Most manufactures equip their memories with plastic housing which feels cheap but the Viper LED line
feels like a premium product due to its aluminum design.
Pros:
+ Cheaper Than Competition
+ Overclocking Headroom
+ Great Build Quality
+ Good Performance
+ Solid Packaging
Cons:
- LED Lighting is Weak
- Timings Could Be Lower
Patriot needs to improve their LED implementation because the current LED implementation does not look very good.
There are many dead spots which hurt the aesthetics of the memory and they are very noticeable.
I also think the default timings could be lowered slightly to further improve the performance of the memory.
I spent some time tweaking the timings in the BIOS and I managed to lower the timings down to 15-16-16-35 1T and it was fully stable at 3000 MHz.
I was able to overclock it to 3200 MHz with the default timings which is awesome.
Overall, I believe the Patriot Viper LED DDR4 3000 MHz 16GB (2x8GB) memory kit deserves our gold award.
Final Score 9.3
