Test Setup
AMD 3500+ Winchester, MSI K8N Neo4/SLI Platinum (nForce 6.53), 1GB Corsair XMS XPERT, 2x MSI 6600GT not in SLI (71.84 Forceware), 74GB Western Digital Raptor, Windows XP Professional edition w/ SP2 and all updates.
All ram isn't created equal, and when push comes to shove, many sticks of RAM falter. The default settings for these particular sticks of Ram are 2-2-2-5 1T. Those timings in and of itself is pretty slick for an enthusiast build, but what about overclocking? Fooling around with the RAM took a lot of time but I was successfully able to run the ram at 2-2-2-5 2T @ 232. This was without lowering the Hypertransport setting. Moving up required a lot of loosening of the RAM timings; to achieve 250 FSB lowering the timings to 2-3-3-6 2T was necessary. For the 250FSB OC I also had to lower the multiplier down to 9.0 (which is more than reasonable) but I still did not change the HAT settings even at this clockspeed. Personally I believe that my current means of cooling is holding me back, but to obtain this sort of stability on air is quite impressive.
At all three different clock speeds (stock and overclocked) the RAM ran flawlessly never hiccupping even once. Even with multiple tasks running, and 100% CPU usage constantly for days the RAM simply would not crack.
Sisoft Sandra 2005 Memory
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Ram Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2
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RAM Bandwidth Float Buff's iSSE2
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11x200fsp 2-2-2-5 1T
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5914 MB/s
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5844 MB/s
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10.5x230fsb 2-2-2-5 1T
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6298 MB/s
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6234 MB/s
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9.5x250fsb 2-3-3-6 1T
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6559 MB/s
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6484 MB/s
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Originally I wasn't going to show benchmarks for this RAM because I soon realized that other components in the system were altering the results too much. For instance CPU dependencies based on clockspeed make it very difficult to correctly show a fair speed difference. For instance with the 230fsb overclock without reducing the multiplier the processor was running at 2415MHz which makes it so that benchmarks show an improvement from clockspeed not from bandwidth necessarily. However the purpose of overclocking in the first place is to gain overall system performance and without good RAM FSB overclocking is unattainable, and I assure you this RAM is very capable of FSB overclocking.
Opinion Time!
The question comes up, exactly whom is this ram for? I would have to say it's for individuals that have a setup that necessitate true hardware monitoring. This ram isn't just for anyone; a home user that doesn't overclock at all would have no reason to purchase it whatsoever. Personally I don't even have a window on my case and I do not look at the pretty LED displays at all. However this ram is invaluable to me from the perspective of a reviewer. Not only is it capable of high clock speeds with tight timings but it can truly tell me what is happening with the board. There is no question about whether or not I'm getting the correct clockspeed of the ram with some bundled software that could be questionable, or looking at some BIOS readings that seem strange.
Other individuals that would find this ram useful are hardcore enthusiasts. Those who need to be running the most powerful sticks of ram they can manage. Individuals that have watercooling, or vapor phase cooling would benefit highly from a kit like this, as monitoring can become more difficult at times as clockspeed increases. Knowing the exact temperature and clockspeed in these instances is invaluable.
Not to say anything bad about this product, but Corsair XMS is Corsair XMS, and unless you have a specific reason for needing this sort of complex hardware monitoring, it is hard to justify the cost unless for some reason there is a necessity to show it off in a computer window.
Final Words
Jeremiah's $0.02
Corsair has always been well known in the enthusiast community, and although this particular product is flashier than a lot of their other products that are more subtle and to the point, the ram performs up to par with performance we've grown to expect and love about Corsair. Pair that up with the ability to know exactly what you're dealing with and you have a winner. Although I cannot say I like all of their design choices as far as aesthetics (I know it's their logo, but I could have done without the Corsair ships), the end user will ultimately be the one with that window, and I do suppose it is more interesting that looking at two (or more) plain sticks of ram.
Hubert's $0.02
Jeremiah brings up a point that we've mentioned with past reviews of the ProSeries of ram. If you have a closed case with no window, the LEDs bring little to the table, especially if you're not overclocking. Unlike the ProSeries, the LEDs this time around are very useful and hopefully something we see trickle down to their XMS2 series of ram. This is one area where I disagree somewhat with Jeremiah as the XPERT LEDs aren't just eye candy this time around, and while we realize some people do not overclock, anyone who uses premium memory probably does.
That being said, there are certain instances where the XPERT series will simply not work. Many SFF PCs with the hard drive cage directly over the ram modules may have issues. The Soltek QBIC for example couldn't even fit the ProSeries with this cage installed, so there's no doubt the XPERT will not either. Best to check with Corsair if your mini PC is in question.
Pros: Hardware detection on board, Tight timings, High stability, Great overclocking performance
Cons: LEDs may not be for everyone, Added height and width may make it not suitable for all applications
Bottom Line: Corsair XMS ram in general should be on your very short list for any enthusiast application. After working with this XPERT RAM in particular it's hard to want to use anything else. Corsair once again delivers some of the highest quality sticks of RAM in the industry.
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