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Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO DDR2 Memory Review

Memory by KeithSuppe @ 2004-11-24

While there have been many reviews on DDR2, I fear early reviews for the new standard were unconsciously prejudicial. While PCIe/DDR2 technology continues to experience growing pains, Corsair has done an excellent job with what is arguably the fastest memory on the market.

System and Test Setup

Test system setup :

Liquid3D's Test Setup
CPU	Intel PIV 550 SL7J8 Malay
Mainboard	Abit AA8 (BIOS 17)
Memory	Corsair Twin2X1024 5400C4PRO
Video	ATI X800 XT (256MB Cat 4.10)
Cooling	Water cooling kit from Alphacool with NexXxos XP water block
Other	Maxtor Diamond Max 9 Plus SATA 150, 120GB OCZ Powerstream 420W TTGI USA TT-561T2-BK

Benchmarks and Software used:

Windows XP SP2 with:

SiSoft Sandra Memory Bandwidth-Buffered

Futuremark 3DMark 2001SE(build 330)

AIDA32

Hexus PiFast

System testing:

For our first screenshot, I simply ran the system (memory) at default speeds, allowing the Abit BIOS to determine settings. In the Advanced Chipset menu I chose the SPD command (Serial Presence Detect) as I believe this to be most stable with recent Intel chipsets especially those running PAT. Included in the screenshot is the monitoring software Abit EQ, indicating temps, voltages fan speeds, etc. All voltages remained at default throughout, except where indicated otherwise

Madshrimps (c)

It's disappointing to see the memory running so far under its rated speed; unfortunately limitations in the AA8 BIOS prevent higher FSB speeds. While 260FSB was attainable using the 14x multiplier, any attempt to lock the PCI-Express bus results in a “no-post.”

From the default screen, I've provided the maximum performance screen which resulted from running the 14x multiplier at 260FSB. This required a Vcore increase from 1.38V (default) to 1.535V, surprisingly however; VDIMM nor NB voltages had to be adjusted beyond their default 1.80V for DDR2, and 1.50V for the North Bridge chipset.

Madshrimps (c)

This is impressive bandwidth at 6.4GB/s and begins to show DDR2's true potential. This is just 15MHz overclock from the rated speed of these modules, and at just 1.80V.

Let’s see how it the memory does in our benchmarks ->

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