Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO DDR2
"XMS2 REVISITED"
January 18, 2005
Manufactured by Corsair Memory
Introduction
When we first reviewed the Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO DDR2 back in August 2004, we were impressed by its stability, performance and the headroom it provided for overclockers and enthusiasts. However, we weren’t able to determine its maximum operating speed via overclocking due to hardware limitations we have at the time.
Today, equipped with better hardware that can go the distance, we will try to find out its overclocking potential. Note that this is not a review of the product as we have already done that before, here. This is merely an overclocking test to find out what the Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO DDR2 1Gb Kit is really capable of.
Test Setup
| Hardware |
| ABIT FATAL1TY AA8XE i925XE Motherboard supplied by Iway |
| Intel 3.6GHz ES Prescott LGA775 supplied by Intel |
| Sapphire RADEON X800XT - 256MB VIVO PCI-E supplied by Iway |
| Asetek WaterChill Liquid Cooling System |
| Western Digital 120Gb 7200 rpm |
| TASK 520w ATX 2.0 PSU 24pin |
| Software |
| Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| ATI Catalyst 4.12 |
| Direct X 9.0c |
| Benchmark |
| SiSoft Sandra 2005 |
| PCMark04 |
| 3DMark 2001SE Build 330 |
| Quake 3 (640x480) |
| Doom 3 (640x480 Medium Quality) |
Overclocking Results
Using a highly overclockable LGA775 motherboard, the ABIT AA8XE FATAL1TY i925XE, paired with an unlocked Pentium 4 3.6GHz ES Prescott LGA775 processor, we were able to run the Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO DDR2 rock solid to an amazing 760MHz DDR2 at its rated latency of CAS 4-4-4-12 and up to an incredible 838MHz DDR2 at CAS 5-5-5-12!
This is with the memory running in dual channel configuration and with the voltage set at 2.0v. We used a 14x multiplier on the unlocked processor with FSB set at 285MHz (1140Mhz quad pumped) for the overclock at CAS 4-4-4-12 setting and FSB 314MHz (1256MHz quad pumped) for the overclock at CAS 5-5-5-12. Memory ratio was set at 3:4 to run asynchronous with the processor.
We believe that this may not be its peak yet as we are pretty sure that it was our processor that's holding us back. You see we're already running our 3.6GHz processor at 4.4GHz with water and we cannot lower our processor multiplier anymore. Had we have access to an Intel P4 processor with a much lower multiplier like 12-13, we could have pushed the Corsair DDR2 modules further. At 838MHz DDR2 though, there is nothing to complaint about.
14 x 285MHz FSB / 760MHz DDR2 (4-4-4-12)
How's 8K on the Sandra memory test sound? Note that Sandra 2005 reports the fsb wrongly by detecting it as 290FSB when in fact it is running at 314FSB. Guess Sandra couldn't keep up with the extreme FSB the Fatal1ty board can manage.