Corsair memory shootout???

lioninstreet · Post by **lioninstreet** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 11:09 pm

Would anyone care to share their experience using some Corsair sticks? In your opinion would there be any advantage for me to upgrade from the 2 512 cmx 3200xl I am currently running? Ive heard great things about the 3500c2 bh5's low latency and chips. the 4000 & 4400 as well but didn't know how they would compare. I am running on my 3.4C 875p neo fsi2r. Thanks in advance for the replys

gvblake22 · Post by **gvblake22** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:52 am

Well, I don't have any personal experience with Corsair RAM of any flavor but I can say that BH-5 is going to really shine only if you can feed a lot of voltage to it (like 3.4v or more)so if you don't have the neccesary adjustments to do that then BH-5 isn't necessarily the best choice. Corsair's RAM based on Samsung's TCCD chips however can run tight timings (2-2-2-x) at slower speeds (<215-220mhz) and really high speeds (250-300mhz) with more relaxed timings (2.5-3-3-x to 3-4-4-x). The Corsair PC-3200 "XL" (which stands for Xtra low latency) and the Corsair XMS PC-4400 stuff from Corsair are both TCCD based RAM.

But Corsair is far from the only manufacturer of RAM based on TCCD chips:
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2235

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 12:10 pm

BH-5 really needs the volts to shine, if your looking for good P4 performance then TCCD is the way for you to go as it has more headroom and requires less voltage.

LVCapo · Post by **LVCapo** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 1:40 pm

I'm currently using the 4400C25PT and love it. I run 272 FSB 24/7 with 2.85 v going through them. I have run them as high as 290 FSB without errors in memtest, but they get pretty warm. If you want tight timings they work great there too. I can run them at 2-2-2-7 at 200FSB, making these very versatile memory sticks.

PowerGlove · Post by **PowerGlove** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 2:35 pm

Good luck finding the 3500c2. From what I recall those have been outof production for awhile. You should be able to get the XLs up pretty high if you loosen the timings up a bit.

I would say Go 2.85v

CAS 2.5
RCD 3
RC 3
TRAS 7

With that you can most likely soar up to at least 250 (PC-4000). If it fails try taking the TRAS to 8 and the CAS to 3. In most cases I would venture to sa you can get beyond 250 with the XLs.

LVCapo · Post by **LVCapo** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 2:44 pm

I was running some XL, and regardless of what I set it at, it wouldn't break 230FSB.....great memory for the timings though.

PowerGlove · Post by **PowerGlove** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 3:38 pm

capper5016 wrote:I was running some XL, and regardless of what I set it at, it wouldn't break 230FSB.....great memory for the timings though.

What voltage were you pumping and what motherboard did you use? Both play a vital role here.

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 4:45 pm

PG you can still get them used but these days they are still very expencive, i got luck with my KHX (BH-5) and only paid 205 shipped.

LVCapo · Post by **LVCapo** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 7:23 pm

welll, saying as I do a lot of the testing here....I'd say just about every configuration you can think of...ASUS, ABIT, DFI, Chaintech, MSI......I hear people a lot of times recommend people only buy PC3200 and that it overclocks just as well as 3700-4000, that isn't necessarily true, which is why its only rated to 3200. Its the luck of the draw, sometimes you get some great stuff, some times you get stuff that will only do what its rated for.