Team Group Xtreem LV Series 8GB 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit Review

Overview

Team Group may be a new name here in the UK but they have been around for quite some time. With over 20 years of computer peripherals production and sales experience and being the 12th largest memory module manufacturer in the world, they should should know a thing or two by now!

Here we have their Xtreem LV Series 8GB 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit; this DDR3 (PC3-19200) kit is equipped with timings of 11-11-11-28 at 1.65v, via its eXtreme Memory Profile (XMP) 1.3 profile.

‘In order to further ensure the optimal performance and flawless quality of the Xtreem LV DDR3 2400, Team applies the 24-hour burn-in test and industry-approved MemTest software to perform the OQC inspection of all modules before shipping to assure the stability and exceptional performance of every Xtreem LV DDR3 2400’. This sounds promising…

The memory came well packaged in a plastic wallet, although judging by the picture of a pair of scissors on the box, there won’t be much left of the packaging once opened! The LV series of modules are designed especially for overclocking as can be seen from the packaging. Also stuck to the top of the box is a small silver sticker providing technical details of the modules including the manufacturers part number (TXD38192M2400HC11DC-L).

The back of the box features the following statement: ‘Team Xtreem Series are the ultimate choice for Gamers and Overclockers. It is design to satisfy the needs for users who needs high performance and blazing speed’. The back of the box also features a raft of award logos, including some quotes from around the globe and there is also a sticker depicting the Lifetime warranty, along with various contact details for Team Group.

Once you have cut your way into the box (at least the plastic wallet within is re-usable!), you can get a better look at the LV Series RAM modules themselves.

In addition to the x2 4GB modules there is also a Team DRAM Module User Installation Manual. This Installation manual seems to provide just a single picture of how to install a RAM module and a whole raft of information regarding the warranty and RMA process (rma@teamgroup.com.tw). To be fair if you need a manual to install a DIMM then maybe you shouldn’t be overclocking anyway! 😉

At the time of writing the TeamGroup Xtreem LV Series 8GB 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit is retailing for approximately £120 and comes with a Lifetime Warranty.

Specifications/Features

courtesy of Overclockers UK

* Additional details available here

First Impressions

First impressions are good, the memory looks pretty smart with its predominately red/orange/purple hues and should go particularly well with a red rig build. Given the Xtreem LV rated speed of 2400MHz they should perform well too…

The front of each module features the Team Brand name and logo along with the Xtreem memory name. Each module features an aluminium heat-sink that is approximately 53mm high, now this is pretty high due to the rather large (over-sized) heat-sinks, so you will need to be careful when pairing this with your CPU Cooler of choice.

The back of each module is mainly black and has a small sticker (Warranty void if removed) providing specifications of the memory.

So they look good, they’re fast (on paper!) and come with a Lifetime Warranty; let’s install them and see what the TeamGroup Xtreem LV Series 8GB modules are capable of.

Hardware Installation

Installing the TeamGroup Xtreem LV Series 8GB 2400MHz modules into My Test Rig was a simple enough affair as one would expect. In fact I noted that the modules appeared to be easier to push into place than others that I have come across in the past. Nice, as there’s nothing worse than hearing the motherboard creak when you’re forcing those RAM modules home…

Team Group Xtreem LV 2400MHz 8GB – Default Memory Speed (1333MHz)

Team Group Xtreem LV 2400MHz 8GB – Default Memory Timings (9-9-9-24)

My Test Rig booted and the motherboard (ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional) captured the memory configuration change and double booted. I was then presented with a black/white screen telling me that the configuration had changed and that I should enter setup.

Looking at the UEFI we can see that the modules have defaulted to a 1333MHz speed with timings of 9-9-9-24 at 1.5v.

Team Group Xtreem LV 2400MHz 8GB – XMP Memory Speed (2400MHz)

Team Group Xtreem LV 2400MHz 8GB – XMP Memory Timings (11-11-11-28)

Setting the Load XMP Setting to ‘Profile 1: DDR3-2400 11-11-11-28 1.65V’ in the UEFI forced the Team Group Xtreem LV modules to run at their maximum speed (2400MHz @ 11-11-11-28), as can be seen in the images above.

After the inevitable reboot I found myself with a problem, the rig would not boot and I had an error code on my motherboard (ERROR CODE 23), not good! After a couple of hours of messing with UEFI settings (Frequencies, Timings, Voltages etc), I still had the same problem. I could not get the memory to run at its XMP setting of 2400MHz at all.

I thought that it might just be my CPU’s (Core-i7 3770K) inability to hold the high memory overclock as the memory controller is actually on-board the CPU (and this is a relatively common issue as the overclocks get higher).

I emailed ASRock for support and within hours was in possession of an updated BIOS with some additional microcode; after flashing the BIOS and a quick re-boot I was in, yes I was in Windows; the new BIOS worked like a charm! Many thanks to George at ASRock for the excellent level of support… 😉

NOTE: Just because you have RAM modules capable of high overclocked frequencies (especially 2400MHz and above), doesn’t mean that they will run at that speed as the memory controller is part of the CPU (Sandy Bridge & Ivy Bridge).

Testing Methodology/Setup

The TeamGroup Xtreem LV Series 8GB 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit was tested as part of My Test Rig, using Windows 7 64Bit (Service Pack 1) with all relevant Drivers installed. Prime95 (Blend) was used to test stability and the following benchmarks were also used.

• AIDA64
• 3DMark 11
• Unigine Heaven
• Metro 2033

Hardware Performance

AIDA64 Benchmark Results

As you can see from the AIDA64 memory benchmark the TeamGroup Xtreem LV Series 8GB 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit shows a significant increase in memory performance when compared to a more regular kit like the 1600MHz Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 8GB kit.

The Latency is the most striking metric with the TeamGroup Xtreem LV Series 8GB 2400MHz kit showing an increase of almost 15%. So the synthetic benchmarks show a good improvement in memory bandwidth and a reduction in latency, but how does this translate to gaming?

Gaming Related Benchmarks

As you can see from the 2 best gaming related benchmarks (Unigine Heaven & Metro 2033), there is no real discernible difference between the Crucial (1600MHz) kit and the TeamGroup Xtreem LV Series 8GB 2400MHz kit, which is rather surprising. Only 3DMark 11 shows the improvements that have been made with an increase of approximately 1%.

As we have seen before, from a Gaming point of view, there’s no compelling reason to push beyond a good 1600MHz kit. If on the other hand you want the ultimate in performance or if you have another reason for wanting high memory bandwidth then this is where it’s at.

A quick foray into further overclocking of the TeamGroup Xtreem LV Series 8GB 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit proved somewhat unsuccessful as although I could boot into Windows and run Prime95 it would eventually fail. This was regardless of whether I was pushing for more Frequency or tighter Timings and with the ASRock MB memory voltage already showing 1.665v I was too afraid to add any more voltage…

Final Thoughts

Throughout my testing period the Team Group Xtreem LV Series 8GB 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit has proved to be a stable, high performance kit. RAM running at 2400MHz is no mean feat (don’t forget that you will need to know that your memory controller aboard your CPU is capable enough too!), but the TeamGroup Xtreem LV Series modules have been super stable, only when pushing for further overclocks did the memory become unstable.

The modules came well packaged (although I’m not a fan of cutting plastic wallets open with scissors!) and the modules look good to boot (haha!). The performance of the kit was also very good, but as we have seen before here at pcGameware, the increase in memory performance above 1600MHz just doesn’t show up in the Gaming related benchmarks.

If on the other hand you want some really high performance, good looking modules and you do more with your rig than gaming (perish the thought!) and require (desire) the additional memory performance that the TeamGroup Xtreem LV Series 8GB 2400MHz kit does provide, then go for it, you won’t be disappointed. Unfortunately all this high performance is going to cost you, of course! At approximately £120 at the time of writing the TeamGroup Xtreem LV Series 8GB 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit is pretty expensive, especially if you factor the real world performance increase on offer…

Verdict

Design/Quality
Performance
Value
Overall