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Corsair XMS XPERT PC3200 Corsair XMS XPERT PC3200: Flashing lights and LED displays for looks? Or is this real enthusiast memory?
Date: June 15, 2005
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is certainly a name that virtually every computer enthusiast has heard of. The new XPERT series I'm sure is going to be one of their new staples. It wasn't too long ago that they got the idea of putting LED's on their ram in order to show usage. Now with this particular kit not only does it have the LED's to display how much the sticks are getting used, but also other vital statistics such as FSB clock speed, voltage, and temp that could tell the user what is really going on.

The Packaging

Clearly wanted people to see the way it all looks on the retail shelf, however ever place that I have gone to that would even sell this sort of ram would never let you handle it with your hands until purchasing.

To reiterate the packaging is very nice and clean, it shows off the product very well. Inside it's very to the point. It contains the ram, their displays, the software that allows the usage of the displays, and a small booklet discussing general usage and installation of the ram, including a basic overview of the software. Notice that the sticks of RAM are larger than standard units.

The displays can be displayed facing either direction on the ram. One major oversight that could be a problem is that the displays take up two ram slots. So usually for the average user, if the dual channel slots are next to each other, they could be faced one each direction, and if they are split then their orientation doesn't matter as much. However in the case that all 3-4 ram slots are populated, then only two of the displays would be able to be used due to their proximity to one another. Another unfortunate problem is that both of the sticks of ram cannot be bound by a single display. I was thinking to myself how useful that would be especially if 4 sticks of this ram were installed on a motherboard. Sure it would take a little bit of ingenuity to make the displays show the vital statistics of each stick of ram, but the extra effort would have been appreciated.

Installation

Installation for this ram was like any other, with the notable exception of actually placing the LED's on the ram. As was said before the displays can be placed either direction on the ram, but not centered etc. I personally came into a few issues with installation that I feel I should discuss. For those of you whom use large heatsinks like me, installing the displays can be impossible. For instance:

This isn't necessarily the fault of the RAM, it just so happens that the Zalman 7700Cu is very large, and even not considering the ram at all, it blocks up two slots all on its own. With this HSF on, I could only install one display. However moving to the stock heatsink, or WC, or even other more extreme types of cooling should not have this problem. However it should be noted that clearance could be a problem in specific setups like SFF's (where height could be a restriction) or in my case large heatsinks.

The way it works

What exactly is the purpose of all of those LED's on that display anyway? Well in short Corsair has a hardware controller on the RAM which collects data and then displays it. This doesn't affect the speed of the ram at all as it is independent which is why the DIMMs are so much taller than regular sticks of DDR ram. This controller collects the data and then displays it across the 10 digit alphanumeric display.

You'll notice that my voltage reading is definitely off. I think the particular hardware that detects the voltage on my particular stick of ram is not functioning correctly (it is also displayed incorrectly in the software). However this had no other effect on the other hardware readings, or the performance of the RAM. In the default settings without using the software, the Displays cycle through the model number, the memory speed (in this case PC3200), current FSB, voltage, and then temp in that order. I didn't get good pictures of the model number and memory speed however because those are actually scrolling marquees, which my camera had a problem with picking up.

What is nice about this display is that it can be used to display whatever custom information the user desires, including custom messages. These messages can even be independent of one another on the different sticks of ram, like so:

It's up to the user though if they like the rest of the way the displays look. This includes the two blue corsairs on either side of the ram, or how the rams' LED blocks look to begin with. I think it would have been a nifty feature to be able to turn off the Corsair ship lights and/or be able to change their color.

If having bright lights doesn't fit the bill for the rest of the case, or there is no window on the side of the case, Corsair's nifty software can monitor everything from a tray icon. The same software is what allows for the messages and/or data options to be changed.

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