In general
the computer industry and enthusiasts are usually very open to change, from new
CPUs and its sockets to motherboards and of course the ever changing landscape
of videocards, you would figure we as a group are used to this type of thing.
With the release of dual core processors, there is
again a bandwidth crunch and DDR2 memory is the only source capable of filling
the void. Memory manufacturers have capitalized on this and are now
releasing some pretty fast DDR-2 memory modules so PCs are finally starting to
see some real performance benefits due to DDR2 RAM.
On the forefront of this DDR-2 RAM movement is the nVidia nForce4 SLI chipset - it's more advanced and supports more features than Intel's counterparts, and allows memory to operate much faster than the FSB. Because of this, memory manufacturers are now releasing high speed memory specifically for the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset.
Corsair is quick on the ball, and today we have some very quick PC2-8000 compatible memory to test as a result. According to Corsair, with compatible supporting hardware, its 240-pin DDR2 Twin2X1024-8000UL memory can run at.....1000 MHz! Amazing!
 |
|
Corsair Twin2X1024-8000UL DDR2 RAM |
|
|
 | |
The Corsair Twin2X1024-8000UL memory has default timings of 5-4-4-9, and to reach 1000 MHz the DIMMs are rated for up to 2.2V. DDR2 memory will generate a bit of heat at really high speeds, so its good to see black aluminum heatspreaders applied. During testing the DIMMs did get quite warm, so it is also a good idea to have active cooling.
Of the big memory manufacturers, Corsair has a couple
source of aid for its customers; from the RAM
Guy's Technical notes to its quick responding support forum and toll free 1-800 support number, it is difficult to beat Corsair in terms of customer service. My personal experience with the company has also been positive. On a defective stick of memory I had about two years ago, the RMA process was quick, painless and I got a replacement memory module within one business week!
Testing DDR2 is
difficult!
With
dual core processors thrown into the mix, testing DDR2 is a lot more difficult than before. Socket 775 Pentium D processors do react positively to lower latency timings, but bandwidth is the bigger issue. This makes a lot of sense if we consider that an Intel Pentium D processor is essentially being dropped into Pentium 4 subsystems that was only intended to support one processor's memory bandwidth requirements.
From PCSTATS tests, even though the second core sits idle for many
benchmarks, bandwidth is still an issue since the OS does communicate to the
second core while the benchmarks are running. With that in mind, when it comes
to testing out DDR2 memory modules, we are really only interested in seeing how
high the memory can clock with latency timings a far second concern. Now, let's
begin the overclocking and see what we can squeeze from these Corsair
Twin2X1024-8000UL modules!
RSS Newsletter
