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
|
|
Ram
Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2
|
RAM
Bandwidth Float Buff's iSSE2
|
|
11x200fsp
2-2-2-5 1T
|
5914
MB/s
|
5844
MB/s
|
|
10.5x230fsb
2-2-2-5 1T
|
6298
MB/s
|
6234
MB/s
|
|
9.5x250fsb
2-3-3-6 1T
|
6559
MB/s
|
6484
MB/s
|
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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