Review – KLEVV BOLT XR DDR4-3600 (8GB x2) Memory Kit

Earlier this month, KLEVV has announced two new DDR4 memory kit, the CRAS XR RGB and BOLT XR to its product lineup. Both feature a brand new Aluminum heatsink with a minimalist yet classy design for those who are not into those fancy asymmetrical heatsink design, and we got a little excited about it as the design is really our kind of thing for a minimalist PC build. For this review, we’ll be looking at the non-RGB option, the BOLT XR DDR4-3600, and see what kind of performance can we expect from it.

Specifications

Unboxing

The BOLT XR ships in a simple blister pack which most of us will eventually just rip it apart to gain access to the memory kit without paying to much attention to the information written at the back. There are no additional accessories that come with the kit and the only thing you’ll get unbox unboxing/unpacking is the BOLT XR kit itself.

Design-wise, the BOLT XR is more on the clean and minimalist side, which is good for those who are not into all the RGB blings. A closer look at the heatsink shows that KLEVV might have actually put in the effort on the design, rather than going straight with some random heatsink design that is probably available from the OEM heatsink design list like some random brands that sell DRAM with the ‘gaming’ label just for the sake of having a gaming product on the list.

For those of you who encountered compatibility issues with air coolers because of the tall heatsink on the performance memory you have, it’s very unlikely that you’ll face the same issue with the BOLT XR. The heatsink on the BOLT XR measures only at the height of 36.7mm, which is technically lower than most of the performance memory that comes with those fancy tall heatsink.

As taking apart the heatsink is a lot harder than what we’ve expected initially, we’ll be using the Thaiphoon Burner to identify the memory chips on the module. The information will be available as long as the information didn’t get removed by the manufacturer on purpose and here we can see that the BOLT XR is using the Hynix DJR chips which are supposed to have plenty of headroom for overclocking.

Test System Setup

The test is conducted with the following setup and 16 instances of HCI MemTest with at least 400% coverage to ensure that the system is stable to run 24/7 without any random crashes.

Overclocking

For our overclocking test, we tried to push the BOLT XR as much as we can, just to see how far can the kit goes with the default cooling solution. The adjustments done during the test include increasing the VDIMM, primary timings, and sub timings to ensure the settings are stable and able to clear HCI MemTest with at least 400% coverage each.

XMP – DDR4-3600 CL18-22-22-42

Manual – DDR4-3600 CL18-19-19-38

Manual – DDR4-4600 CL20-23-23-42

Manual – DDR4-4933 CL22-25-25-46

Manual – DDR4-5000 CL24-27-27-49

With XMP enabled, the kit will run at DDR-3600 with CL18-22-22-42 and 1.35V for VDIMM. While the timings do seem pretty loose as compared to most of the B-die kit and Hynix CJR we tested in the past, you can still manually tighten to CL18-19-19-38 without any adjustments to the VDIMM.

Going above DDR4-4000 will require CL20 (with Geardown mode enabled, you will end up with CL20 instead of CL19) and a higher VDIMM at 1.4V or more, depending on the settings you have. The highest we can go with CL20 is at DDR4-4600 CL20-23-23-42, some adjustments on the sub timings, and 1.48V for VDIMM. Anything beyond that will require CL22, more tweaking on the sub timings, and of course, higher VDIMM.

CL22 will get you to DDR4-4933 if you don’t want to spend too much time on further optimizing the sub timings, but it requires a higher VIMM at 1.54V to survive 400% on 24 instances of HCI. As we hit the DDR4-5000 mark, CL24 seems to be the only way to get the system to post as the system will instantly shut down as soon as we hit the power button on our test bench. Despite the trouble from our quick tuning session, DDR4-5000 is surprisingly easy to achieve with the BOLT XR even though the timings don’t seem that great.

The simple heatsink seems to be doing its job pretty well as the highest recorded temperature throughout the sets of burn tests we’ve conducted never really exceeds 45°C under ambient temperature reading of 30°C.

Final Thoughts

Like many of the DDR4 memory kit out there, the BOLT XR DDR4-3600 we have here too falls under the ‘sweet spot’ category as what AMD has claimed to be the most balanced memory speed for the Ryzen 3000 series processors. Although the timings on the XMP profile might be a bit loose at first glance, it doesn’t take much effort to tighten the primary timings by just a bit for better performance at the same speed. We didn’t manage to try the kit on the Ryzen 3 and Ryzen 5 CPUs but our guess is that the loose timings are probably for the guaranteed compatibility with AMD Ryzen processors and the entry-level motherboards to pair it with.

If you’re feeling adventurous and wanted to explore a little bit of memory overclocking, the BOLT XR DDR4-3600 can do a DDR4-5000 with ease, much better than what we’ve initially expected. It does take a bit more effort when it comes to finding the correct configuration to make things work as intended, but looking at what it’s actually capable of, we must say that the BOLT XR is a cost-effective option for that overclocking fun on the budget for some. With that nice overclocking headroom, build quality and a surprisingly affordable price at only RM 319 (DDR4-3600 16GB (8×2) ), the BOLT XR is definitely a very good option that is worthy of your consideration, both gaming and overclocking fun without breaking the bank.

Pros

• Clean and simple design for the heatsink
• Good build quality
• Good compatibility with a lot of air coolers
• Surprisingly good overclocking headroom
• Really affordable price
• Limited lifetime warranty from KLEVV

Cons

• Loose timings with XMP profile