Until we evaluate AMD's M2, which is expected to support DDR2, at this time, DDR is pretty much limited for most AMD, and certain Intel setups as far as enthusiasts are concerned. As most of you may know, DDR isn't available at the same high frequencies as DDR2, but due to the generally better latencies, the differences in performance are not that big in the majority of mainstream applications.

As for memory capacities, well, that varies greatly. Our experiences show that depending on what applications and games you use, there are some benefits to having more system ram. 1GB is currently the standard for the most enthusiasts, but as we enter 2006, we're beginning to see that 2GB is becoming more ideal.

Today we'll be checking out Corsair's TWINX2048-3500LL PRO kit. Full specs are here, but Corsair's latest pairs two 1GB modules with high clock speeds and low latencies. These modules are based on the XMS ProSeries line, and feature black coloured heat spreaders and the patented activity LEDs that we're familiar with.

The XMS Pro Series modules have black coloured aluminum heat spreaders as mentioned earlier. Along with improving the cooling of the ram, the spreaders will also reduce EMI since it shields the ram, but I don't have any quantitative proof of that (this was a message relayed by a support engineer).

The kit is rated at PC3500, which works out to 438MHz. The actual ram chips used are the Infineon 267N rev B, which are soldered on to a BrainPower PCB which allows the ram modules to run at higher frequencies while maintaining the relatively tight timings.

Given the PC4000+ clocks we're seeing these days, the speed here may seem a bit conservative, but the ram timings are something to make note of. The XMS-3500LL are set at 2-3-2-6 1T. This is just a hair off of the XMS-3200XL, but remember we're talking about a 2GB kit now instead of 1. Another thing to note is if you have a quality, "enthusiast" level motherboard, these speed and timing settings are preprogrammed into the ram's SPD minimizing the tweaking on the user's part. Just drop them in and let it go.

All of the TWINX kits are tested in pairs and in a Dual Channel environment, which the majority of all new chipsets (including offerings from Intel, VIA, NVIDIA and ATI) support. This particular kit was introduced with ASUS' release of their A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard.

Overclocking

A RAM Stress Test Professional (R.S.T.) Pro2 card will be used to test for reliability as well as stability during our overclocking tests. The card is quite expensive, but if you're testing a lot of ram, or you're a technician troubleshooting systems, this card is well worth the money.

We proceeded with overclocking, and tested the ram via the memory tests on the R.S.T. Pro2 until we got a failure. At DDR400, the Koolance PC3-720SL cooled ASUS A8N SLI Premium and Athlon 3500+ handled the TWINX2048-3500LL without any problems, so we're off to a good start since this is well below the rated speed. Along with sheer clock speed, we also toyed around with the timings to see if we can tweak as well as we can OC:

Clock Speed	Timings	R.S.T. Pass	Voltage
400*	2-3-2-5	No	2.7
452 (1T)	2-3-2-6	Yes	2.7
496 (2T)	2.5-3-3-6	Yes	2.9
500* (2T)	3-4-4-8	No	2.9

*System would boot and run fine under most instances. Random crashes did occur with certain benchmarks, so consider these settings "unstable".

No matter what settings we tried, the ram would not push past 500MHz. In fact, after a couple days, we began experiencing some issues reaching 500MHz, and was not able to repeat that until a week later. As for the stock timings, we managed to reach as high as 226MHz (452DDR), all at 1T.

Test Setup

ASUS A8N SLI Premium: Athlon 64 3500+, 2 x 1024MB Corsair TWINX PC3500LL Pro, MSI 7800GTX, 160GB Seagate SATA 7200rpm, Windows XP SP1.

The testing configurations will be as follows: Stock (438 @ 2-3-2-6) , and TW = Tweaked (452 1T @ 2-3-2-6).

The comparison memory will be Corsair's own TWINX1024-3200XL (two 512MB sticks) at stock speeds. We've left out the various OC results because it's pretty much a no brainer that we'll see more performance proportionately since the CPU and subsystem will also be overclocked. We've previously reviewed the 3200XL, so feel free to compare the numbers with that review.

We will also be using Corsair's TWINX2048-4400 Pro for a 2GB Vs 2GB showdown. We're also leaving this kit at stock speeds for the same reasons as the 3200XL, but the point of adding this kit is to compare the PC3500LL to a faster clocked kit with less aggressive timings.

SiSoft Sandra 2005 Memory

No surprises as the tweaked settings net more performance for the 3500LL. As expected, the faster speed puts it past the 3200XL, but only when tweaked does it surpass the 4400 Pro kit.

PiFast

PiFast can always benefit with more memory, and it's reflected here in our benchmarks. The TWINX2048-4400 is still the fastest performer between the kits when keeping things stock, but is out paced when the 3500LL is tweaked.

Battlefield 2

Unlike some other games as we'll see in a moment, it seems that the jump from 1GB to 2GB is most noticeable with Battlefield 2. The 3500LL falls in between the 3200XL and 4400, but finishes on top when tweaked.

Unreal Tournament 2004

UT2004 does show some improvement with more memory, though not nearly as dramatic as we've seen with Battlefield 2.

Doom 3

At the lower resolution the effects of extra memory, but at 1600x1200 we can see the extra gig of ram helps a great deal. That said, the fastest ram modules do the most for performance, and the tweaked 3500LL kit is the best performer.

Final Words

We've covered the 1GB to 2GB debate before and needless to say there is no application demanding reason at this time to dump your current kit for a 2GB one if you're satisfied with the performance. However, we here at VL are not the types to settle for a software manufacturer's recommended ram requirements. Our general rule is whatever they say you should have, double it.

I've been running 2GB rigs for both AMD and Intel for quite some time now and although in some cases I cannot really say that 2GB feels faster or smoother than 1GB, I will say that while multitasking, I can certainly tell the difference.

While evaluating a HTPC (coming later this week), I swapped the stock 1GB configuration with this TWINX-2048 3500LL PRO kit to test that review board's overclocking potential. Overclocking wasn't all that great (we're blaming the board for that), but the differences between 1GB to 2GB is pretty obvious while running DVD Shrink and encoding MPEG-2.

Back to overclocking, we feel this kit is a pretty good overclocker, but keep in mind that attaining high clock speeds will not be easy if you don't relax the timings.

Anyhow, all of this we've discussed before, so the subject we want to cover today is are you better off buying a highly clocked kit or one that still runs at a high clock speed, but also runs with tighter timings? If you've referred to our TWINX2048-4400 review, you'll know that that kit is very tweakable so it isn't a question if one kit you can fine tune, and the other you cannot.

No, the final decision will actually depend on the CPU and motherboard you currently or plan to own. In our opinion, if you have a CPU that can run in excess of 230FSB, by all means, go for the TWINX2048-4400. The TWINX-2048 3500LL PRO we find is better suited for those of you with setups that run closer to spec or are unable to OC past 230FSB. In that case, you'll be hard pressed to find a faster large capacity kit.

Pros: Great performer, LEDs are always nice for bling, quality ram, lifetime warranty and 2GB of goodness.

Cons: Fast OCers will want to opt for a faster stock kit.

Bottom Line: Depending on your setup, this kit may or may not be for you. Certainly, the TWINX-2048 3500LL PRO is a quality part that ran rock solid throughout testing, and for those of you stuck at the 230FSB hump, we think this is one of the best choices you can make simply because of the large capacity and speed.

If you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.

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