Reviews

ZADAK SPARK RGB DDR4-3600MHz 16GB (8GB*2) Review

In the current electronics and information technology market, it is not uncommon to see the birth of new brands able to offer, right away, high-quality products at a truly competitive price. An example of this phenomenon is the Taiwan company Zadak, a company specializing in the production of high-performance RAM memories and customized cases, products that, at least on paper, have nothing to envy the products of the most famous competitors.

Zadak is a brand from Taiwan, which was founded in 2015. When it comes to ZADAK, you may not be familiar with it (the water-cooled MOD host at the beginning, this consumption level is a bit high). However, when it comes to Apacer, I believe that many installation enthusiasts know more or less. Apacer has always been committed to providing high-quality hardware for installation enthusiasts, and ZADAK is a high-end sub-brand of Apacer.

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The product we will review is the ZADAK Spark RGB 16GB DDR4 kit with frequencies of 3600MHz-CL18, which is one of the lineups of ZADAK RAM products. These RAMs feature a high-profile design and next-generation RGB lighting. Received the SPARK RGB 16GB Kit sample from ZADAK for testing. Let’s see how they are made and how they are performed in our synthetic tests.

Technical Specifications

  • Type: 288-Pin DDR4 U-DIMM
  • Speed / Timing / Voltage:DDR4 2666 to 4133MHz
    DDR4 2666 C16-18-18-38 1.2V / DDR4 3000 C16-18-18-38 1.35V / DDR4 3200 C16-18-18-38 1.35V / DDR4 3200 C16-20-20-38 1.35V/ DDR4 3600 C18-22-22-38 1.35V / DDR4 4133 C19-21-21-43 1.4V
  • Capacity:8GB / 16GB / 8GBx2 / 16GBx2
  • Heat Spreader:Anodized Aluminum
  • Warranty:Limited lifetime warranty

The model subject of our review is the ZADAK SPARK RGB 16GB DDR4 Kit.

  • Capacity: 8GB per module, 16GB in total
  • Frequency: 3600MHz
  • Latency: CL18-22-22-38
  • Feed voltage:1.35V
  • XMP 2.0
  • Software RGB Support: Aura Sync, Msi Mystic Light Sync, RGB Fusion 2.0, Polychrome Sync e Razer Chroma.

Unboxing

The front of the memory stick packaging is relatively simple in style, with black as the whole, and a yellow line in the middle divides the picture into two. The left half is a frosted surface, printed with ZADAK in English, and the right half is glossy, printed with a product map and SPARK series in English.

ZADAK SPARK RGB

The back of the package has a short description of the product, some QR codes, which refer to the website and social profiles of the company, and the bar codes showing the product serial. More importantly, It says Made in Taiwan.

The sticker on the back indicates the memory model: ZD4-SPR36C25-16GYB2, the frequency is 3600Mhz. As well as a series of RGB lighting effects support LOGO, in addition to the common lighting effects of ASUS Aura Sync, MSI Mystic Light, ASRock Polychrome Sync, and Gigabyte RGB Fusion, this memory from Zadak also supports the Razer Chroma lighting effect system. That’s right, the thundercloud that takes more than a minute to load every time you boot up.

After the outer packaging is finished, The memories are protected by a plastic blister that fulfills its role of protecting against possible mistreatment during transport. The two pieces of memory are lying quietly in the one-piece blister protection box, and there are no extra accessories. After all, the product of memory is just plugged in and used, and there is no need for instructions or anything.

Design

Once we have finished analyzing the box, let’s move on to the modules. The ZADAK SPARK RGB in our possession are equipped with an aluminum heatsink, gray and black, which covers 90% of the PCB. On the front we find the Zadak logo printed on the heatsink and we can glimpse the transparent plastic parts that will light up thanks to the RGB LEDs.

On the back, it is identical to the front, but there is a sticker that shows the name of the model and other useful information. This last sticker must not be removed, otherwise, the Zadak lifetime warranty will be lost. The difference between the back and the front is that there is a sticker of memory frequency, timing, and SN code attached to the lower-left corner. These two in my hand are 3600Mhz frequency, and the timing is 18-22-22-38.

On the upper part of the heatsink, there is an additional transparent plastic insert identical to the one on the front. The heat sink on this kit increases the height of the bare modules by several millimeters, so you will need to pay attention to compatibility with your CPU cooler. ZADAK has made many partitions on heat dissipation armor. The top is illuminated, the upper two sides are illuminated, and the two corners are illuminated, with a total of a 5-stage lighting design.

The height of the memory is 5cm. Please pay attention to the compatibility of your radiator and chassis. The heat-dissipating armor adopts a screwless design pasted by silicone, and it is not recommended to disassemble it by yourself, and the particles will be ripped off.

When removing the heatsink, which fortunately turned out to be a very simple task, a pleasant surprise, Zadak chose to use Samsung B-die together with the PCB. Thaiphoon Burner only ended up attesting to what has already been confirmed when removing the heatsink, it is important to note that in some cases where the memories are equipped with Samsung C-Die chips, the software mistakenly identifies them as Samsung B-Die, which leads to many people are mistaken, after all, these ICs have very different characteristics from each other, with the C-Die being much lower for overclocking.

you can see that ZADAK SPARK RGB KIT adopts JEDEC 8 Layers A2 PCB routing design. There are 8 SAMSUNG B-Die memory chips on one side of the PCB, and the chip number detected by the software is K4A8G085WB -BCPB.

The number of SAMSUNG memory particles, the K at the beginning represents SAMSUNG Memory, 4 represents DRAM products, A represents DDR4-SDRAM system memory, 8G08 represents 8Gb (1Gb x 8) particles, and its Refresh time is 64ms, followed by Code 5 is 16 Banks particles, W represents the working voltage using SSTL_12 interface, VDD, vDDQ working voltage are both 1.35V, B represents Revision B-Die Chips.

so let’s take a look at the typhoon software: this memory uses Samsung’s B-die particles, and the particle model is K4A8G085WB-BCPB, It can be seen that the manufacturer ID of the SPD is APACER, the XMP 2.0 setting is DDR4-3600 CL18-22-22-38, and the working voltage is 1.35V.

From the point of view of shape, materials, and manufacturing process, this fully confirms to the positioning of high-end products, and the next step is to enter the testing process.

Testing Platform

The test platform uses COLORFUL-iGame Z390 Vulcan X V20 motherboard with Intel® Core™ i9-9900K processor, and the operating system uses Microsoft Windows 10. Each set of memory settings must be tested and verified by RunMemTest Pro* before the test is successful.

The Testing Platform that we used to test the Spark RGB RAM from ZADAK is as follows:

Test Setup
CPU Intel® Core™ i9-9900K
GPU ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 OC Edition (10GB)
Mainboard COLORFUL-iGame Z390 Vulcan X V20
SSD Storage Sabrent Rocket Q (4TB) NVMe PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 SSD
RAM For Testing Zadak Spark RGB 16GB (8GB*2) DDR4-3600

System Configuration

As for the system configuration that we use, the scenario is as follows:

  • CPU running in a default state, with Multicore Enhancement set to Disabled
  • BCLK at 100 MHz
  • System Agent and IO voltages are left on auto
  • XMP is of course enabled: so that this ZADAK Spark RGB DDR4-3600 RAM can offer performance according to an automatic configuration that can be easily accessed with XMP
  • For comparison, in our performance test, we will also include test results when RAM is running at its SPD

Stability Test

Before starting to benchmark with synthetic benchmark applications and real-world scenarios, we first did a stability test for this RAM when running on XMP. The stability Test that we do uses Memtest. In this stability test, RAM Usage is maximized to more than 90% of the total memory capacity. The test is carried out until the coverage is more than 300%, which should be able to show the system is fairly stable. And as a result, this ZADAK Spark RGB RAM has passed the stability test up to 300% coverage.

On-Board & RGB Effects

Since we are using an ASUS ROG motherboard that supports Aura Sync, we used the tool to adjust the RGB in the ZADAK Spark memory module. ZADAK Spark is immediately detected in the list of devices that support Aura Sync when the ROG Armory Crate tool is opened.

Settings can be done like other devices that support Aura Sync, synchronization with RGB on the motherboard and other devices can also be done.

For RGB settings in Aura Sync, all effects can be run by this ZADAK Spark RGB:

  • Static, Breathing, Strobing, Color Cycle, Rainbow, Starry Night, Music, Adaptive Color, and Dark (RGB turned off)
  • Custom effects created with Aura Creator can also be run by this ZADAK Spark RGB

ZADAK SPARK uses a silver-black metal vest combined with light guide strips, the actual lighting effect is softer and will not look dazzling. The whole design without partition, compared with the partially occluded memory, the change of lighting effect is also smoother. The overall shape of this memory stick is of a tough and stable type. The multiple RGB light-transmitting areas that are separated out are unusually soft in a dark environment. There are many light-emitting parts of the memory and a strong sense of hierarchy, and the lighting effect is very satisfactory.

Performance Tests

Enter the motherboard BIOS, and open XMP, you can clearly see that CPU-Z correctly identifies the timing of 3600MHz and C18. And CPU-Z correctly identified the manufacturer of ZADAK SPARK as Apacer. Option in the BISO of Colorful motherboards, which matches and optimizes the frequency and timing, making super memory more convenient. Of course, the specific choice still needs to be judged by yourself.

2133MHz Benchmark

Next, let’s take a look at the running score of AIDA64. For the first time, the OC is not adjusted, run DDR4 2133MHz as default, and test the performance results through AIDA64 memory, Read 31891MB/s, Write 30649MB/s, Copy 29746MB/s, delay 66.5ns, timing is 15-15-15-36.

3600MHz Benchmark

Load the XMP profile to automatic and run at 3600MHz! Through AIDA64 memory test performance results, Read 49056MB/s, Write 51806MB/s, Copy 45818MB/s, delay 50.0ns, timing is 18-22-22-38.

Geekbench 4 – Multi-Core

SPD XMP
Memory Bandwidth 24.1 GB / s 40.0 GB / s
Memory Latency 65.9 ns 51.8 ns

Adobe Premiere Pro CC – 4K60 to YouTube 4K scenario as usual, with H.264. Video

  SPD XMP
Rendering Time 4 minutes 8 seconds 3 minutes 47 seconds

Handbrake 1.3.3 – Transcode file MOV preset Fast 1080p Video Codec H.264 NVIDIA NVENC

  SPD XMP
Framerate 54.6 fps 57.4 fps

Blender 2.80 – BMW 27 – CPU Rendering

  SPD XMP
Rendering Time 2 minutes 54 seconds 2 minutes 55 seconds

Note: these results in Blender 2.80 show that higher RAM speeds may not necessarily lead to increased performance across all applications. However, if the application can take advantage of the extra bandwidth offered by RAM, such as in Adobe Premiere Pro CC, then an increase in performance will be obtained.

Gaming Benchmark

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey -1920 x 1080 px – High

  SPD XMP
Avg. FPS 91.8 fps 95.1 fps
1% Minimum FPS 63.9 fps 67.4 fps

Death Stranding – 1920 x 1080 px – High, DLSS Quality

  SPD XMP
Avg. FPS 151.1 fps 155.1 fps
1% Minimum FPS 119.6 fps 124.4 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider – 1920 x 1080 px – High

  SPD XMP
Avg. FPS 104.5 fps 118.7 fps
1% Minimum FPS 71.4 fps 81.6 fps

The Witcher 3 – 1920 x 1080 px – Postprocessing High, Quality Ultra, Hairworks Off

  SPD XMP
Avg. FPS 140.9 fps 153.8 fps
1% Minimum FPS 98.9 fps 97.4 fps

When running games, the ZADAK Spark RGB DDR4-3600 running on XMP can provide a performance boost in some of the games we used. The resulting performance boost varies for each game.

Conclusion

ZADAK said Spark RGB is intended for gamers who want to build a high-end PC, it’s not wrong because, in today’s era of high-speed RAM, DDR4-3600 and above are indeed easier to run. For those looking for RGB RAM that can perform the same effects as the motherboards used (from top brands like ASUS, ASRock, Gigabyte, and MSI), Spark RGB offers support for RGB systems from those brands, so it’s possible to sync and make it easier for users.

The height of the RAM module is up to 5 cm, this may need to be considered when choosing a CPU cooler so that RAM does not hinder the installation of the CPU cooler. However, currently, for high-end PCs, there is a tendency for users from gamers and enthusiasts to choose water cooling to compensate for the processor used. In general, with a water cooling system water block, a high enough RAM module like this won’t cause any problems.

Zadak, with the Spark, hits the first shot in the high-performance RAM market, churning out a product with an attractive design and excellent performance. The Sparks are aimed at a demanding customer both from the point of view of performance and from the point of view of design. In addition to excellent performance in general, they also offer a decent gap in overclocking, allowing us to obtain excellent results in all the benchmarks we tested. It should be noted the possible incompatibility with some CPU heatsinks due to the height of the modules themselves. The possibility of being able to control the RGB LEDs, installed inside this kit, is the ace in the hole that makes an already excellent product exceptional, offered at the best price, which we consider more than honest considering that the products of the competition are sold for the same amount.

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