Corsair XMS 3000 DDR366 Memory

Manufacturer: Corsair Micro
Supplied by: Corsair Micro
Street Price: $190 

by Dean Barker  (7/14/2002)

There are lots of claims floating back and forth about memory hitting one level or another.  But one name that seems to keep coming up in Corsair and their XMS line.  With the claims Corsair is publishing, its no wonder.  They report that their XMS3000 has been verified to hit 185MHz (2-3-3 1T) and 166MHz (2-2-2 1T).  These are some pretty bold claims.  There are a lot of memory makers who make similar claims only to be able to achieve them at significantly lower memory settings. 

Corsair sent over a 512mb stick of their PC3000 (aka DDR366) memory for us to take out on the track.  I'm not going to get hung up attempting to explain every nuance of memory here.  There are many sites out there where this information is available.  What I do plan to do, is see if the XMS3000 can take the heat.  Our testing mythology is simple, lets see what this stick taps out at 2-2-2 1T and 2-3-3 1T with no errors or abnormalities.  We also plan on pushing for the limits of setting the memory at 2.5-3-3 2T.

Let's take a physical look at the XMS3000 before we get started.  The black heat spreader is a definite attention grabber as is the Corsair logo.  (For those of you who don't know, a corsair is a pirate or buccaneer.)  The heat spreaders are clamped down with a wire clip of some sorts.  Not that this is needed, because I tried to remove the heat spreader to look at the memory itself and decided with the pressure I was exerting on it, I was encroaching on the point of breaking something.  And if there is one thing I don't want to break before I even try it out, it is a 512meg stick of DDR366.  Below are a couple of shots of the memory.

    

As a quick aside; Corsair puts more stock in selling 512 meg sticks of memory because they state one 512 meg stick will outperform two 256 meg sticks of identical memory.  Personally, I've never tried to test this but it does seem logical.

Enough talk, lets start this show.  For our testing we will be using SiSoft Sandra 2002 Pro and Mad Onion's 3D Mark 2001 SE.

 

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