Searching for the Memory Holy Grail - Part 2
by Wesley Fink on August 26, 2003 11:11 PM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Corsair XMS4000
Click the image to view a larger picture.
Corsair DDR500 carries the XMS label, which Corsair uses for their high-performance memory. Modules are packaged with the Corsair trademark low-luster black aluminum heatspreaders and are supplied as a matched pair in a TwinX kit. Corsair uses Hynix chips in their DDR500 — the same chips used by OCZ and Geil.
Corsair has a reputation for reliably meeting or exceeding their performance specifications, and their XMS4000 performed well at DDR500, overclocking to a stable DDR530. While this is excellent performance, we were a bit surprised that the other Hynix chip entries — OCZ and Geil — both overclocked to significantly higher speeds than Corsair. Other reviews that we have seen of Corsair XMS4000 are showing very similar overclocks to what we found, so DDR530 appears to be a typical overclock for Corsair XMS4000.
Corsair XMS4000 — 2 x 512 MB Double-Bank | |||||
Speed | Memory Timings & Voltage | Quake3 fps |
Sandra UNBuffered | Sandra Standard Buffered | Super PI 2M places (time in sec) |
400DDR 800FSB |
2.5-3-4-5 2.55V |
319.63 | INT 2636 FLT 2647 |
INT 4702 FLT 4740 |
132 |
500DDR 1000FSB |
2.5-3-4-6 2.65V |
400.20 | INT 3215 FLT 3246 |
INT 5961 FLT 5951 |
107 |
530DDR 1060FSB |
3-4-4-8 2.85V |
417.43 | INT 3420 FLT 3443 |
INT 6263 FLT 6216 |
101 |
77 Comments
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dshodson - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
So what is the best memory to put in my new dell server coming in a week which has the 875 chip. I heard u cant really overclock this system although i havent received mine yet.Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
Sorry about the typos ( its 11:36 PM here )Thanks
OCZGUY
Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
Uberclocker ,If your having a problem with a OCZ part , email me directly , Most problems are related it simple setup issues , and your problem is verry likely fixed in a few simple steps , or with a bios update
My email is oczguy@ocztechnology.com
I will not like answer your email until tomorow ( tuesday ) as today is a holiday and I am not in the office today
Thanks
OCZGUY
Anonymous User - Monday, September 1, 2003 - link
Hello, I have followd your recommendation and bought an OCZ 4000 in Germany, this weekend. Unfortunately it has not performed to its specification. Can you tell me if there is a special part number I should look for to get their special 'reviewers golden sample' ?UberClocker
Anonymous User - Saturday, August 30, 2003 - link
I think if you have a cpu that will do 250 FSB and you purchase memory based on this article and you get within 98% of the results posted in this article, you owe Wesley $10.00. If 20% of the people with favorable results donated, there would be no more need to advertise. Now for the people who did not purchase ram based on this article and are bitching about it being bias, what are you bitching for?. This article has not cost you a cent.Thanks Wesley, you saved me a $100 on ram. I almost got caught up in all the hype about 4000 and 4200.
Fossil
Anonymous User - Saturday, August 30, 2003 - link
This article goes part way to answering the question of what memory configuration is fastest but I was disappointed that there was no variation in ratio.I would like to see a review that tests agressive timings against high frequency to see what produces the best results.
Also a test of all P4C chips running @ 3.6Ghz to see whether there's any benefit in buying the fastest chip.
With most motherboards easily hitting 1Ghz are we likely to be seeing a P4D which supports a 1066Mhz FSB?
Anonymous User - Friday, August 29, 2003 - link
I think the way to do these reviews is to tell the manufacturer you'd like to include them in a review, purchase the memory from a store you trust, and then get re-imbursed by the manufacturer. That way, there'd be no selected modules and you would know what you were going to put into the review (4 ss vs 2 ds).So, when do we get that part 2 of the 865/875 mobo roundup ?
retrospooty - Friday, August 29, 2003 - link
Wesley,I have run these tests myself on an IC7G at 200 , 230 250 and 280 FSB and found that 5:4 2-2-2 always beats 1:1 at 2.5-4-4, even 2.5 4-3 ... However SOME motherboards arent as efficient at 5:4 with some types of ram as others... If you try the same test on several different mobo's I think you will find that 5:4 2-2-2 is quite a bit faster in non-synthetic mem test benchmarks.
Oldfart # 64, you are right about the reviewers and using the synthetic tests to boost sales. good point.
Anonymous User - Friday, August 29, 2003 - link
If your not going to overclock, get low latency pc 3200 or 3500, the PC4000 wont help you at alleven IF you ARE going to overclock, the PC4000 will not likely get you better performance.
Anonymous User - Friday, August 29, 2003 - link
#67 I'm not an expert by any means but here is how I understand this discussion:If you are planning to use one of the faster processors such as the 3.0C you won't be able to achieve a big overclock because the multiplier for that processor is 15. If you want to use a higher speed processor such as the 2.8C or the 3.0c, you really dont need to spend the money on faster memory such as the PC4000 because you probably won't be able to overclock to a point that you will be able to reach a front side bus speed of 250mhz which is the lowest rated speed (x2=ddr500) of the memory module. So as the article has explained,you would be better off with
slower ram that has faster timings. However, if you have a slower processor such as the 2.4C or the 2.6C, you should be able to achieve a higher overclock because these processors have lower multipliers. In this case you would need faster ram such as the PC4000, because with these processors many have been able to set their front side bus up to and beyond 250mhz. In most scenarios with fast processors/slower ram vs slower processors/faster ram, IMHO, the performance difference may be fairly equal. What is really happening is a cost/benefit consideration. As always be careful!!! Overclocking can damage your system...you do it at your own risk!