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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Introduction

Corsair introduced their PC3200 XL memory last June. The modules are built using Samsung chips which have timings of 2-2-2 at DDR400 speeds. Not only do these chips allow for extremely low latencies at DDR400, but they also have plenty of headroom, allowing for clock speeds in excess of DDR500! The entry of this memory into the market not only signified the return of high-speed, low-latency memory, but also the opening of the floodgates; the drowning of the market in 2-2-2 modules.

Soon after Corsair's introduction, most other major memory manufacturers followed suit. After Corsair's entry, Mushkin and OCZ were among the first to bring their own 2-2-2 memory to the market. Soon after, everyone and their mother had their own memory based on the new Samsung chips. Well, everyone but Crucial, who used similarly rated Micron chips for their PC3200. We have gotten our hands on a few different flavors of this new low latency memory, and today we will be looking at a 1 GB set of Corsair's TwinX PC3200 XL Pro which is rated to use timings of 2-2-2-5 at DDR400 speeds.

A Closer Look

The package Corsair sent us contained a pair of matched 512 MB PC3200 XL Pro modules. A matched memory pair is "specifically designed for motherboards using chipsets with dual memory channels," (PC3200 XL Pro PDF) which means it has been tested and approved to work in dual channel mode. While this is a nice "guarantee," you can usually take advantage of dual channels with any two sticks of the exact same memory.

While this isn't our first time working with memory from Corsair, it is our first time checking out any of their memory modules from the "Pro" line. The Pro modules perform just like the non-Pro modules, but they feature 18 activity LEDs that display each memory bank's activity. This is a cool feature, albeit fairly useless. Thankfully the LEDs pull their power from the memory bus and not an external source. The 3200 XL memory also comes in the standard non-Pro flavor which doesn't feature the activity LEDs.

Due to the Pro activity LEDs, the heat spreaders are much larger than the standard ones found on Corsair's other memory. I wasn't able to remove the heat spreaders for fear of damaging the modules, but from what I can tell, thermal epoxy is used to secure the heat spreaders to the chips.

These PC3200 XL Pro modules are rated to run at 200 MHz, DDR400, with timings of 2-2-2-5 at 2.75 volts. With a default voltage rating of 2.75v, I initially thought that the memory might not be able to run at its full potential in some computer systems. Most motherboards, especially those aimed towards the enthusiast crowd, allow for adjustable DIMM voltage. Unfortunately, some OEM or "plain-Jane' motherboards have the voltage pinned to 2.6v. However, this should not be a problem as I was able to run this memory at its rated speed and timings with only 2.6 volts through my testing.

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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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