Corsair XMS Pro PC3200c2 2GB Review - Closer Look at the Memory Kit
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The Corsair XMS Pro PC3200c2 Memory Sticks
The most noticeable things about the kit are the black aluminum heat spreaders. Due to their size and ridges, they are supposed to have 95% greater surface area than ordinary memory heat spreaders. That should help dissipate any memory heat.
While some people speculate that heat spreaders don’t help memory, recent tests distributed by a tester from Corsair showed that you can get a handful of MHz more when overclocking chips with them. Just looking at these spreaders, they certainly don’t look like they’ll be outdone by any of the other designs I’ve seen.
Even if the heatspreaders did nothing, they still look really distinctive. The LEDs on the modules are very attractive and a cool feature. Each stick has 18 activity LEDs that light up more as the RAM is in use. It looks inspired by stereo VU meters. Instead of the lights bouncing as the music plays though, these lights bounce as your computer loads new rooms in Fear and Far Cry.
There are the lights going at it. For cases with windows, this really adds a whole new element of activity to the inside of your case.
Setting it up: Adjusting the memory timings and voltages
With the memory installed in the test system, I opened CPU-Z to look at the timings and frequency. It turned out that the BIOS automatically detetced the timing 3-3-3-8, instead of the advertsied 2-3-3-6. This little difference was due to the JADEC standard of the memory being 3-3-3-8, which you can see in the SPD timings below. In your PC the BIOS will use this as a default. Corsair set this to make sure the majority of computers would be able to boot with the RAM, even if they can't push up the timing to the specifications.
Everyone will need to make a manual adjustment to reach 2-3-3-6, since that's how the memory was designed. I went into the BIOS and bumped up the voltage from the detected default of 2.60V to 2.75V, the level that Corsair tested the memory at. After that, I changed the 2 timings that were different. Everything went smoothly, even though I'm testing the memory on a motherboard which is not on Corsair's compatibility cerification.
After the quick adjustment, here is CPU-Z.
Memory
SPD
You can see the SPD timings in the second screen, which will tell BIOSs the defaults. When you buy the memory, just remember to make the quick settings adjustment so you’ll have 2-3-3-6.
After bumping the voltage up and lowering the timings, there wasn’t a lot of flexibility for an overclock. Corsair probably built this as RAM to perform well at their tested specs, and overclocking wasn't important. This is alright. Even without overclocking, you'll see this kit has some serious speed in our benchmarks.
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