Conclusion

OCZ and Kingston use Micron Z9 chips for their DDR3-1800 and both are designed to use timings of 8-8-8-24 so in each of our tests the two products perform at a similar level. There are minor variances throughout but neither set of sticks are easy to recommend over the other.

The same can be said of each company’s warranty, both offer Lifetime... although the OCZ warranty does cover their sticks for use at higher voltages, making them slightly more desirable for extreme overclocking. It was actually in regards to overclocking where it was possible to separate the brands a little. We were impressed with both products ability to run at enhanced speeds but it was the OCZ modules which had a slight edge when tightening timings or increasing the clocks.

At the beginning of the article we spoke of price premiums and from our testing in the labs today both the Kingston and OCZ DDR3-1800 can match any of the more expensive modules on the market. Firstly we are able to run at 1866MHz and beyond, then there is the option to use 7-7-7-20 on each set at DDR3-1800 and finally we can use tighter timings at DDR3-1333 than most native 1333MHz sticks.

So which manufacturer’s product should you purchase? Well we would have to say shop around and get the best deal you can, both will give you class leading performance.