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Here at ExtremeMHz, we highly praise Corsair memory for their high performance
and reliability that allowed us to take our systems to new levels. They have
earned a good reputation among PC enthusiasts and overclockers with the
introduction of the XMS series. Today, we not only look at one of their new
XMS Pro series modules, but their current flagship product, the TwinX1024-4000PRO.
While Corsair has had DDR500 modules on the market for some time, the new XMS
Pro series lineup sport a highly unique feature never seen before that should
be a real treat among the growing number of case modders and enthusiasts. The
PRO series has larger heat spreaders that include LED's on the top, 18 to be
exact! Aside from great looks, the LED's do serve a purpose. Let's take
a closer look.
Packaging
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The blister package includes a 1GB TwinX matched memory
pair. This consists of two CMX512-4000PRO memory modules that have been
tested together on a dual channel DDR motherboard. A pamphlet is
included which provides installation instructions and product features.
Pro Series Enhancements
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The first thing you'll notice is the
significantly larger heat spreaders. Much larger when compared to an XMS
series module. These new high-efficiency heat spreaders provide optimal
cooling and are designed to draw heat away from the memory chips. They
are bonded using a unique thermal adhesive.
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The top of the massive heat spreader houses the
activity LED's. Corsair is the first company to offer an activity meter
on memory modules. These not only look cool, but provide real-time
memory activity level. Each memory bank has a row of nine dedicated
activity LED's that light as the level of activity increases. There are two banks, providing a total of 18 LED's in green, yellow,
and red to indicate the highest activity level. This is an excellent enhancement that should
provide you with a good indication of how much memory is being used in a
particular program or task.
Lights, Camera, Action!
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We took some shots both at idle and under
stress. When running idle, you'll have the first two bars lit.
Under stress, you can see how it goes from green to red indicating maximum
memory usage.
**click to play**
10 sec video clip
We decided to provide a 10 second video clip of
the LED's in action. We ran an MPEG1 video clip encoded in VCD format in
order to demonstrate memory usage during playback.
OK, so they look great but, how well do they
perform? Let's find out!
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