Corsair TwinX PC3200 XL Pro (2-2-2-5) DDR Memory

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Brian Kristensen
Kurtis
Corsair
Aug. 21, 2004

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Test Setup

The memory was tested in an ABIT IC7-MAX3, which utilizes Intel's 875P chipset. The CPU used was a Pentium 4 2.4c. I have found this motherboard to be an excellent overclocker, as it has allowed me to easily bring a 2.4c to 3.0 GHz. Two 512 MB sticks of Corsair PC3200 XL Pro were tested in dual channel against two 512 MB sticks of Mushkin PC3200 Level II V2. The FSB (front side bus) to memory ratio was at 1:1 during testing. Both brands of memory used stock timings of 2-2-2-5 unless otherwise noted.

Each benchmark is run three times and the results of each test are averaged together. This helps to reduce most random variations between the tests and should provide a better representation of the performance difference between the different modules and setups.

Test System

Pentium 4 2.4c
ABIT IC7-MAX3
ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256 MB
160 GB SATA Seagate Barracuda (8 MB cache)
LiteOn 16X DVD-ROM
Soyo Raptor 400W Power Supply
Windows XP Professional (all the latest updates except Service Pack 2 installed)

Overclocking

Both 512 MB PC3200 XL Pro modules were installed in a dual channel configuration. The timings were initially set to the rated 2-2-2-5 and 2.8 volts. The CPU requires at most 1.6 volts to reach 3 GHz and so that is what it was set at. The FSB to RAM was set to a 1:1 ratio and the memory clock to 200 MHz. Increasing the memory speed in 1 MHz increments allowed me to reach a maximum overclock of 209 MHz at 2-2-2-5 timings. Pushing the voltage past 2.8v did not help the overclock. To test the stability I looped SiSoft Sandra's Burn-In wizard for a couple of hours. I must say that I expected a bit more than this, but let's not start complaining yet.

In order to find the maximum speed overclock that the memory could handle, I increased the timings all the way up to 3-3-3-7 as I pushed the MHz closer and closer to DDR500. The memory clock eventually reached a maximum of 254 MHz (DDR508)! Not only can this memory run with extremely low timings at its rated PC3200 speeds, but it can also hit, and surpass, PC4000 speeds!

During the benchmarking, the memory timings are as follows:

2x 512 MB sticks of Mushkin PC3200 Level II V2 @ 200 MHz: 2-2-2-5
2x 512 MB sticks of Corsair TwinX PC3200 XL Pro @ 200 MHz: 2-2-2-5
2x 512 MB sticks of Corsair TwinX PC3200 XL Pro @ 209 MHz: 2-2-2-5
2x 512 MB sticks of Corsair TwinX PC3200 XL Pro @ 254 MHz: 3-3-3-7

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Page 1: Introduction & A Closer Look
Page 2: Test Setup / Overclocking
Page 3: SiSoft Sandra 04 / PCMark04
Page 4: ScienceMark 2 / Super Pi
Page 5: Conclusion

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5 User Comments

1 - Posted by Guest on August 23, 2004 - 8:33 pm

To test this you used SiSoft Sandra’s Burn-In wizard? Why not something like Memtest which actually does it properly?

Also no single stick result to see what babies can really do? And please lets up the voltage a little.

hmmmmm

2 - Posted by Guest on August 23, 2004 - 9:20 pm

"Pushing the voltage past 2.8v did not help the overclock"

3 - Posted by mrwagner on December 7, 2004 - 1:26 pm

Those are the ones that have the leds on them right? And how much better are they then the kingston hyper x?

4 - Posted by Kurtis on December 7, 2004 - 2:49 pm

do you actually read the reviews or just look at the conclusion? :P

if you look at the review you will see some pictures showing the lights on top of the memory. and we don't have any kingston hyperx to compare to, otherwise we would have had them in the benchmarking pages. :)

5 - Posted by mrwagner on December 7, 2004 - 4:12 pm

LOL my bad sorry im at work and I just kind of skimed your post I guess next time I will have to read more into it huh! 8)

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