Corsair XMS3500 DDR 433 memory

Performance

Our testing methodology is simple; keep putting the jack on the memory bus until the DIMM fails then kick things down one notch.  In order to test the stability of the memory speed it settles on, we are going to run the SiSoft Sandra 2003 burn in module as well as Mad Onion's 3Dmark2001 SE in a continuous loop for one hour to confirm that our final max memory speed was stable.

We are going to tap the Corsair sticks out at three levels: 2-2-2-5 1T, 2-3-3-5 1T, and 2.5-3-3-6 2T.  Corsair claims the memory can hit 434 MHz DDR at 2-3-3-7 1T.  Our testing mainboard only gave us the RAS active to precharge option of 5 or 6 cycles which is a respectively more aggressive settings for the RAM.  Most of you who will run memory at the north of 400MHz mark, will do so at the most aggressive settings that stability will allow you to get away with.  With this in mind, I'm mainly wanting to see the high water mark for this stuff running balls to the wall.

Test Bed

• EPoX 8K9A (KT400) mainboard

• AMD Thunderbird 1.0GHz (unlocked)

• Winfast GeForce 3 Ti500 VGA card

• Maxtor D740X-6L 40gb ATA-133 7200RPM HDD

• Generic 52x CD-ROM

• Windows XP Pro

Results

Conclusion

WOW!  Now that bears repeating.. WOW!  Up until now, the in house memory record at the aggressive memory timings has been 388 MHz (194 MHz x 2 DDR.)  The XMS3500 blew the doors slam off of this by coming in at 408 (204 MHz x 2 DDR.)  To pull this into a little tighter perspective, the previous speed demon, a stick of Corsair XMS3200C2 at the least aggressive settings maxed out at 414 MHz.  The XMS3500 knocks firmly on the door at 432 MHz at these settings.  I can almost hear the Doppler Effect now!

Corsair claims the memory will run 434 MHz at 2-3-3-7 1T.  The closest setting we tested to this was 2-3-3-5 1T which gave us 430 MHz.  If our mainboard had the ability to turn the RAS active to precharge level down to 7, I have no doubt the Corsair would have hit 434 MHz.

Corsair as usual, has the fastest RAM around and we can recommend it without concerns or reservations.  Congratulations to Corsair for picking up another Editor's Choice Award.  Sidewinder Computers has Corsair XMS3500 in both 256mb and 512mb DIMMS in stock.

Pros:

• A rock solid max ceiling of 432 MHz!!

• Spanks 408 MHz at the tightest memory timings we could throw at it.

• Cool looking heat spreaders offered in silver or black.

Cons: 

• ZERO CONS!

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