Silicon Power's First CUDIMM Is A Smoking-Fast Xpower Cyclone DDR5-9200 RAM Kit
We're not sure if it qualifies as being fashionably late just yet, but Silicon Power has officially joined the ranks of memory makers to leverage Clock Unbuffered Dual In-Line Memory Modules (CUDIMMs). The benefit of doing so is being able to offer faster memory kits than regular DIMMs, which is this case is a blazing-fast DDR5-9200 memory kit.
What makes CUDIMMs special compared to traditional DIMMs is the inclusion of a Client Clock Driver (CKD) chip that is part of a memory module's printed circuit board (PCB). Without it, a system's CPU generates the memory's clock signals (voltage and current signals). Adding a CKD component to a memory module can and does enhance the signal integrity for finer grain control of synchronizing the timing of the memory chips.
The upshot is, this opens the door to increasingly faster memory kits. We're still waiting on a memory maker to debut an air-cooled DDR5-10000 kit to retail (they've already gotten there and beyond in the overclocking scene with LN2), but in the meantime, Silicon Power's new DDR5 RAM matches the fastest available. And by "available," we mean what's actually being sold to consumers.
Even then, there are many DDR5-9200 memory kits at retail. Corsair offers a 48GB DDR5-9200 Vengeance RGB kit for $402.99 in its website, but beyond that, there's not much out there at this speed.
In that regard, Silicon Power's new XPower Cyclone DDR5-9200 RGB memory is in select company. Additionally, it's offering slower (but still very fast) kits within the same family, down to DDR5-8200, all of which are of the 48GB (24GBx2) variety. Here's a rundown the kits with timings and voltage.
- 48GB (24GBx2) XPower Cyclone DDR5-9200: 44-56-56-134, 1.45V
- 48GB (24GBx2) XPower Cyclone DDR5-8800: 42-55-55-140, 1.45V
- 48GB (24GBx2) XPower Cyclone DDR5-8400: 40-52-52-134, 1.4V
- 48GB (24GBx2) XPower Cyclone DDR5-3200: 40-52-52-131, 1.4V
All of these memory kits feature an aluminum heat spreader that measures 2mm thick with RGB lighting. Regarding the design, Silicon Power says the "sharp lines, symmetrical layering, and "futuristic triangular motif echo th adrenaline and energy of competitive esports."
Make of what you will. More importantly, Silicon Power claims its heat spreader design lowers heat by more than 10C, though compared to what exactly is anyone's guess. Also anyone's guess are details about pricing and retail availability—we took a look around a few online stores and didn't see these kits being offered just yet.
