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Bradford Day
Kurtis

Jan. 23, 2005

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Corsair XMS Xpert Memory

Aside from the performance, there isn't much in the way of features that differentiate memory modules from company to company. Corsair, being one of the leaders in the memory market, has constantly been working on new features to add to their modules. Corsair first came up with their "Pro' series of modules which featured activity LEDs that light up according to the memory usage. This was a rather nifty innovation and was unique to Corsair for some time. It was only a matter of time before other companies, Crucial and PNY in this case, came out with their own versions of the activity LEDs. During our trip to Vegas, we met up with Corsair to check out what's new in their product line.

Corsair has taken the idea behind the Pro series and expanded it greatly in an attempt to create yet another unique foothold in the market. Their latest innovation, the Xpert series of memory, features a 10 digit display which has many configurable options along with two rows of 12 activity LEDs which work much like the LEDs on the Pro series. The Xpert display is about twice the width of a Pro module and hangs over the memory. The display has two connection points and can be mounted to face either direction.

The Xpert modules have been in development for about a year. Corsair has worked hard to ensure that the display is sturdy. Manufacturing the display posed quite a challenge for Corsair. It took a lot of time to fit such a display and PCB into such a small space. The modules will fit on most motherboards with ease, but problems may arise when used in conjunction with giant after-market CPU coolers or when installed in small form factor systems. The memory can run without the display, and the display itself is hot-swappable, meaning it can be detached and reattached while the computer is running.

The module has sensors and micro-controllers built-in to monitor the voltage, speed and temperature settings. These readings can be rotated on the 10 digit display and the default speed, timing and readings are stored in the EPROM inside the modules micro-controller.

Even cooler is the ability to program what the display, well, displays. You can configure almost any variable imaginable and it is all stored on your computer's hard drive. When the computer is booting up, it will scroll the temperature, voltage and speed. Once the computer has booted into its operating system, it will load and display the custom message and readings stored on the hard drive. The custom messages can be up to 23 characters in length. You can control the direction of the scrolling, the scrolling rate, display time, and you can even reverse (turn up-side down) the text.

The modules come with Corsair's "Memory Dashboard' software which allows you to customize the module's display as well as view the memory information from the desktop. Memory Dashboard tracks the high, low and average values for both the temperature and voltage. The software can also track a few values from other memory modules installed in the system.

The Xpert series will start with the most popular DDR speeds, then move on down the line and eventually cover DDR2 as well. The Pro series will still exist as with Corsair's other memory lines. The performance of the Xpert memory is not sacrificed for the additional features. Xpert modules will have the same performance specifications as the standard XMS modules. Initially, there will be a $50 premium for the Xpert series, but this is likely to go down as production increases, just like with the Pro series. Corsair's new line of Xpert memory should hopefully be on the market sometime this February.

Corsair Water Cooling

Corsair was also showing off their new water cooling kit. The kit uses a Swiftech CPU block and a Delphi DDC 12V pump which is also found in Swiftech and DangerDen kits. Corsair's kit also uses a basic radiator equipped with a 120mm fan. The interesting thing about this kit is the radiator mounting mechanism not only allows mounting to 120mm or 80mm fan holes, but keeps the radiator at a distance from the case to allow for fresh air to pass through instead of the hot case air.

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Page 1: The Last of the Showfloor
Page 2: Corsair XMS Xpert Memory & Water Cooling
Page 3: DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR & UT NF4 Ultra-D
Page 4: The Cars of CES
Page 5: CES Booth Babes

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