The best memory out there hands down.... but it's expensive!
Written: Jan 04 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great performance, stable at speeds of 400-500Mhz! Cool LED's also...
Cons: Very, very expensive memory; more than what the typical PC user needs.
The Bottom Line: If you are overclocking an 800MHz CPU, this is the best, coolest looking memory around. It is very expensive, however....
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| ivplay's Full Review: Corsair Memory XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series 2 x... |
Overall
I bought this memory very recently to allow my computer to run with higher bandwidth. I have to admit, I probably spent a little more money on them than I should have, but I was taken in by the LED's on the heat sinks. I would recommend this based on performance, but because of the price I would probably recommend to go with OCZ PC3700, if you need this type of bandwidth.
Why I bought the memory
If you take a look at my recent review of the Abit IS7-E motherboard, you will see that I have begun to overclock my computer. The review can be found here:
http://www.epinions.com/content_124412268164
Shortly after purchasing this board and maxing out my past processor, the p4 2.66GHz 533MHz FSB, I read up on the newer 800MHz FSB processors out. I bought a 2.6GHZ 800MHz FSB processor and changed it out.
I may write a review on this processor in the near future, but let it be known that I now had a processor and motherboard that was limited by the memory. My existing memory was generic PC2700, which maxes out at 333MHz speed. This is the equivalent of 166Mhz FSB, as DDR memory is double the rate of the FSB of the processor. I had to change the memory from synchronous with the FSB to a 5:4 ratio, allowing the processor to run at 200MHz (remember, P4's are quad-pumped, so this equates out to 800MHz FSB as advertised) and the memory at 333Mhz, which is 2 * 166Mhz, which is 5/4th's of 200.
I made a mistake that you all should not make. I looked up on the internet that I needed 400MHz memory, as this is double the 200MHz FSB. I bought PC3200 memory from Corsair, just like the memory I am currently reviewing. This memory arrived and I plugged it in. Worked great! I started to overclock the processor, and all of a sudden realized that once again I would not be able to run the memory and the FSB in sync, as when you overclock the memory it begins to cause errors.
Decision to buy
I started reviewing several sites that are catered to OC'ers and found that what I probably wanted to do was overclock my CPU to 250MHz FSB. This would give me a 3.25GHz (2600MHz/200Mhz FSB = 13 multiplier; take the 13 multiplier and multiply by 250MHz FSB to arrive at 3250MHz, or 3.25GHz) processor speed. Since the FSB is 250MHz and the memory speed is double the FSB, I wanted to get some 500MHz memory, or PC4000.
What kind/brand to buy?
Knowing this, I started to compare the different brands. Corsair, Kinston, Mushkin, Geil and OCZ are the most well known enthusiasts memory. I started to compare the pricing and performance of these brands, and I ended up between Corsair XMS and OCZ gold editions. These two memory modules have very similar performance at very tight memory timings. The Kingston and Geil did not perform as well in terms of bandwidth, and their cost is not significantly less.
If you buy generic memory, you can get the speeds that the modules are rated for, but the timings will be much looser than with the better memory. This means that your memory, while exhibiting high speed data transfer, will not perform as well as with tighter settings. If this is unimportant to you, I would recommend buying generic memory, as it is significantly cheaper than the memory this review is based upon.
Why buy 2 sticks for Dual Channel?
Dual Channel memory allows two sticks to act as one stick, which significantly increases the performance of the memory. According to Corsair's website, 2X512MB of memory in dual channel mode can have up to 48% faster performance on benchmarks than the same memory in single channel mode.
Corsair, Kingston, Geil and OCZ all offer paired sets of tested memory modules. They have been tested prior to shipment and verified to work together in dual channel mode. This is worth the money to me, but may or may not be a concern for you.
Where to buy it?
I once again consulted my favorite price comparison sites of pricewatch.com, pricegrabber.com, epinions.com, and amazon.com. For memory of this premium grade, you will only find it in a few online stores. Be wary of shady stores, and be sure to read comments online.
What I found was that the OCZ gold and Corsair XMS PC4000PRO were almost the same price, and they have similar performance. These two modules are the best for a wide range of FSB's, as they are capable of tight timings at lower speeds, where most of the memory (Kingston, Geil, etc.) do not perform well at lower speeds, such as 400MHz FSB. The best price was a tossup between newegg.com and zipzoomfly.com, both reputable online vendors. Based on my history with newegg.com, I bought the memory from their website.
Why pay a little more for Corsair over OCZ?
As I said earlier, I feel that the OCZ is as good as the Corsair and is a little bit cheaper. I simply got taken in by the new heat sink and the LED's on the modules. Since I have modded my case to have windows, blue LED's and multiple fans, I wanted to see the fancy LED's through the window. Pure and simple, that is the reason I chose this memory over the OCZ. If you want to see this for yourself, see the following website:
http://www.corsairmicro.com/corsair/products/specs/twinx1024-4000pro.pdf
Cool, eh?
In the box
I recieved my memory two days later via FedEx, and opening the box I saw a nice plastic container with the two memory modules firmly attached. Opening the plastic container and you will first notice how heavy each of these modules are. The heat sinks are significantly oversized, and heavy. They feel very sturdy.
Installation
I opened the side of my case and popped my graphics card out. If you read my review on the IS7-E, you will see that this is one of my only annoyance with the board. You see, you cannot put in new memory in slots 1 or 2 without removing the graphics card, as they overlap.
Anyhow, I removed the card, removed my two sticks of 512MB PC2700 and installed the new memory. With two sticks, ensure that you put them in slots 1 and 3 or 2 and 4, as this is the slots that line up for dual channel.
I put the graphics card back in and powered it up before putting the side panel back on. That was to make sure that I had everything seated right, and no annoying beeps occurred telling me that I had not seated the graphics card right. This is notorious with AGP slots. Everything booted up alright, so I put the side panel back on and closed the box up.
Performance
Let me just say, this memory is amazing! The bandwidth with the PC2700 memory was about 2500MBps. With the same processor, FSB, and motherboard with this memory, it was almost 4700MBps! That is an amazing increase, and stable to boot! I check this via the SISSoft Sandra software. You can find it here:
http://www.sisoftware.net/
I also use the PiFast program to determine how fast the memory/processor are together. I calculated pi to 10,000,000 digits with my old memory in 54 seconds, and with the new memory at 250MHz FSB, it is now calculated at 38.91 seconds. Pretty amazing. You can find this program at the following website:
http://numbers.computation.free.fr/Constants/PiProgram/pifast.html
My 3dMark scores for PCMark2002, 2004, and 3dMark2001SE and 3dMark2003 all increased substantially, as well. You can download the benchmarks at 3dmark.com.
Finally, I tested the memory modules using Prime95, a program that runs several different iterations on your PC to test both memory and your PC. You start this program and let it run overnight. If it does not create an error or crash, you are stable. This will generally show a failure of your overclock before any of the other programs will. I was stable at 250 MHz FSB!
Final thoughts
If you have an 800MHz FSB P4 and want to overclock, this is by far the best memory you can use for this. If you are not going to overclock, do not buy this memory. Rather, buy memory rated at PC3200, as this is designed to run 400MHz, or double the FSB of 200Mhz. This memory is significantly cheaper as well.
If you are going to overclock and have a 2.4 or 2.6c, this is the memory for you. a 2.8c will not hit 250MHz FSB very easily, so you may be left wanting.
Hope this review helps you, and please leave a comment and a rating to help me better my reviews!
Recommended:
Yes
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