Corsair TwinX 3200 LL DDR RAM

Company: Corsair Micro
Product: 2 x 256MB TwinX 3200 LL DDR RAM
Street Price: ~$145 USD
Date Reviewed: April 22, 2003
Reviewed By: Joey C. aka Chong345
Rating: (9.5/10)

Introduction:

Corsair has been one of the leading manufacturers of memory specifically designed for gamers and other enthusiasts. Their high quality modules perform well and their lifetime warranty & support is outstanding. Not too long ago we have seen a huge boost in systems using dual channel motherboards like the nForce 2, SiS 655, and the Intel E7205 chipsets. The performance gains from using dual channel memory are hard to dispute, as many tests will show.

In response to the dual channel trend, Corsair has released their TwinX memory modules. Corsair has specifically designed these memory modules for us in dual channel systems. Today we are going to look at the Corsair TwinX 3200LL (Low Latency) memory modules and see exactly what the gains are from using this memory.

Examining the Memory:

The TwinX modules come in pairs. The modules we are testing are 256 MB, which totals 512 MB. Corsair, also has a 1GB kit as well. This memory, like the rest of Corsair’s Xtreme Memory Speed line, comes with heat spreaders. These black heat spreaders are there to help dissipate the heat given off by the memory chips. This will help to increase the life of the memory as well as possibly aid in overclocking them and using higher voltages.

Corsair has programmed these memory modules to run at 2-6-2-2 1T timings at 400 MHz DDR. The memory has also been designed for plug and play capabilities. When the memory is put into the system, it configures itself to run at lower latency timings for increased performance. The modules have all been tested in pairs on an ASUS A7N8X motherboard at the specified timings. Immediately after they are tested they are packaged together to ensure the modules run together in a dual memory configuration. Like all other memory from Corsair, these modules are backed with a lifetime warranty.

What are some of the benefits of using paired memory? Since the memory sticks are packaged together after they have been tested together makes sure the modules that the end-user receives will be stable and perform well. Mixing different memory could lead to system instabilities or the memory modules might not run together due to compatibility issues. This takes the guesswork out of choosing memory for a dual channel motherboard. In addition, we feel that since memory speeds are not getting much faster, this give memory manufacturers another stepping-stone before moving to faster memory. Recently many other manufacturers have also started producing these paired memory kits.

Test Setup:

To test this memory we decided to use our ABIT NF7-S v2.0. This board is a good overclocker and we have tested it up to 228 MHz FSB prior to this review. In addition, our Athlon XP 2800 is unlocked by the motherboard, which makes overclocking very easy since the CPU will not be bottlenecking the system.