Hardware Corsair Vengeance RGB Memory Review

Cue all the masses who suddenly say they own Fractal R5s without windows and have duct taped over any and all lights. That's usually what happens when an RGB product is reviewed right?

 

It's pretty, but I don't get it. What's the point? I haven't seen my ram in so long I don't even remember what it looks like.

 

I don't really get the hate for RGB either - it's not like there isn't options to go without, and even if it does come as a side-feature of a product you do want, there's a 99% chance you can disable it.

Just because you can use all the colours of the rainbow, doesn't mean you have to either - if you were doing a themed build but wanted the flexibility to change the theme half-way through/a year down the line, it's a lot cheaper to load up CUE/Link/CAM/Aura and do it that way than buy a bunch more fans, new RAM, peripherals etc.

 

It's just a running joke, no? I don't think it seriously bothers anyone. Although it doesn't help that it's the nerd's equivalent of a boyracer with CCFLs under their Corsa

 

The price would bother me, I paid less than £60 just last year for 16gb of corsair 3000mhz ram and better timings, A bit of colour and its now £160. I know memory has gone up but thats some crazy mark up.

The bundle I got was £629 its now £749, I would bet the bulk of that price increase is memory alone.

 

Memory in general has increased in price ridiculously - you could get 2x8GB of DDR4 3,000MHz for £75 a few months ago. Now it's more like £125. 2x8GB of this RGB RAM at 3,000MHz is £155 on Scan, so a £30 premium for RGB. That seems not unreasonable if you want to have multicoloured RAM.

 

So like, where's the review?

We had a nice chat about the RGB lighting, then I was waiting for the actual performance review, and got nothing.

If you don't plan to review the memory itself maybe change the title from:

corsair-vengeance-rgb-memory-review

to

corsair-vengeance-rgb-memory-lighting-review

 

Indeed, 2x8GB DDR4 3000 with single colour LED is £140, going by the £150 mentioned at the start of this review that works out at only a £5 premium per module to get rid of conflicting colours.

 

Yeah, much as LED lighting does nothing for me personally, it's good to have options for those who do like this stuff, and the idea of having nice coordinated lighting throughout a build has to be better than a nasty clash of different colour LEDs.

One thing I am a bit curious about is the calibration of colours for different products and different manufacturers. I imagine it's too much to ask that setting all of the LEDs in your various products (motherboard, RAM, GPU, LED strips, fans) to the same colour would actually give you a consistent colour, especially if each item is from a different manufacturer.

Is this the case, or are things a bit better than I imagine?

 

The only thing I don't like about RGB lighting is when you have to pay for it when you are not using it. It definitely drives up the cost of the part and if you don't want the lighting it can be annoying.

 

Consider this a request for you to do so

A REVIEW of the G.SKILL Trident Z RGB Series would make a great start

 

You don't have to test every stick every time it comes out, things like RAM you can do as quarterly group tests testing the latest, and showing the results from anything still on the market. It's a bit less complicated now AMD use DDR4 as well, but it would be interesting to see how the different RAM stack up with the different CPU brands.

Not every review needs to be as individuated as a graphics/motherboard/cpu review.

 

As nice as it is Corsair don't exactly have a great track record with the Link software. I can imagine there being more than a few teething problems!

 

Just what is the point in LEDing memory sticks? I like to have my PC hidden away so I can't hear it!

 

Then maybe just maybe this product isn't aimed at you...