As it should already be readily apparent the XPower AirCool series by Silicon Power is not going to a good choice if you are interested in overclocking. This is perfectly acceptable as Silicon Power is being entirely up front what the XPower AirCool is, and is not does not. They are not marking it or promote this series as overclocking friendly. Instead this is all about being budget friendly. This is why we are not overly disappointed to see that the absolute best we could get out of this 32GB kit of RAM was to 200Mhz – or DDR4-3400 frequencies. We could not even tighten up the timings all that much as anything below CL16 would cause an instant failure to POST at anything beyond DDR4-3200 frequencies. Even pushing the voltage way beyond sane levels did nothing. The best you can hope for, based on our sample’s performance, is DDR4-3400 and only then if you push the voltage from 1.35v to 1.40v.
To be honest we would not even bother. Enable the XMP profile and call it a day. The additional heat and power consumption is not worth it. If you really need more, the DDR4-3200 XPower AirCool model is not right for you. With all that said, this basically as good as Adata’s version which we recently used in a build, and that kit cost a more than what Silicon Power is asking for basically the same set of RAM. Of course, that particular build needed a bit more ‘bling’ so the XPower AirCool would not have been optimal. In other words, if you do not need your RAM to light up like a glowstick at a rave, and can live with basically zero overclocking room, the XPower AirCool is a decent to very good choice (depending on particular build requirements). For those who do need more, be it aesthetics or OC headroom, well… the answer is pretty clear: look elsewhere. Overall, we think that is not a bad tradeoff. You may feel differently.
