14 DAY TRIAL // Like all of its rivals on the memory and storage market, Mushkin spent the past few months tirelessly working on new SSDs and memory products. Such companies have even had a special reason to work fast in the fact that both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices brought out new CPUs not too long ago. Now, in order to give such chips enough memory to work with, Mushkin expanded one of its existing lines of DDR3 memory solutions with two, high-capacity kits.
The Ridgeback DDR3 series was first introduced back in March and is mostly intended for high-end computers. Predictably, it gets its name from the sizable heatspreaders that each module is equipped with. This heatsink uses low profile cooling fins that can readily disperse any heat, even despite the high speeds that the models themselves work at. Mostly, Mushkin designed its offspring as a suitable means of addressing the overclocking needs of the enthusiast market.
The two newcomers are a dual-channel kit of 8 GB and a triple-channel offering with a total of 12 GB. They both operate at a clock of 2,000 MHz and have 10-10-10-27 timings, which is quite acceptable considering the capacities themselves. Furthermore, they run on a voltage of 1.65V. Mostly, they are aimed at high-end Intel platforms. The dual-channel products is optimized for highest performance on systems powered by LGA 1156 socket-compatible CPUs, while the 12GB kit is intended for machines based on Intel LGA 1336 central processing units.
Mushkin coupled its new devices with lifetime warranties and gave them the part numbers 996953 (8 GB dual-channel) and 998953 (12 GB triple channel). So far, the former does not seem to have shown up on any online retailers. The latter, on the other hand, is reportedly already available at a price of $419.99.