Introduction

How many of us have a basement, attic or even a shed that is used for storage?  Odds are that most people use some sort of storage one way or another. The reason why we have these storage areas is so that we may access these stored items randomly when we need them. Computers are the same way and have different types of storage facilities, like a hard drive to store files directly on the computer itself or an optical drive which can be used to write and save files to an external disk. There is also another storage facility that is directly related to a computer and they are all required to have it or the computer will not function.

Random Access Memory (RAM) is a volatile storage facility (requires a power source to maintain stored information) and works on the principle of integrated circuits which allow stored data to be accessed in any order. RAM can take any piece of data from any location and return it, whether or not it is related to any previous piece of data. All this stored data will be lost when the power to the RAM is turned off. (Volatile)

The Patriot Viper Series DDR3 PC-3 12800 1600MHz 6GB Low Latency Kit is a type of RAM which many newer systems are using. It is also XMP (includes XMP settings) so the Viper Series DDR3 PC-3 12800 1600MHz Kit is optimized for use with the Intel Core I7 processors. Earlier this year AMD also introduced a new processor that will be DDR3 compatible (will require a motherboard upgrade also) so no matter what side of the fence you choose, it will be possible to utilize the Patriot Viper Series of DDR3 PC-3 RAM. Let’s start with a closer look at this 1600MHz RAM and then we’ll proceed towards its performance.