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Overclocking & Performance
Plug-n-Frag Technology
**click to enlarge**
Corsair’s trademarked technology provides
advanced latency values pre-programmed into the SPD (serial presence detect)
chip on each module. For the overclocker, this means that the XL modules
automatically boot up at extremely aggressive 2-2-2-5 latencies with no
additional BIOS tweaking. On our Soyo Dragon 2 Platinum, they did indeed
report the default lower timings and there was no need to manually change
them.
The XPERT modules are currently available in two
models, the XL series and C2 series. However, I was quite pleased to
receive the XL samples, as I honestly think these are the best modules I've
had the pleasure of using. In order to explain why, I have to
touch once again on the subject of Memory Bandwidth vs. Latency.
Memory Bandwidth vs. Latency
If you are an avid overclocker, you know that in most cases, you have to
sacrifice lower timings in order to achieve a much higher overclock. This
is primarily because most modules are simply not designed to run at such
aggressive timings at high FSB settings. This is why a majority
of DDR400+ modules have such high latencies and actually perform quite poorly
in comparison. Fortunately, the XL series modules, although rated at
400MHz, still offer high overclocking capabilities without sacrificing its
rated low timings. This is why I particularly like these sticks so much
and the performance tests certainly do show.
With the excellent new Koolance PC3-720BK we
just reviewed, I was able to easily run these modules at 500MHz, while still
maintaining low timings. In fact, they are quite flexible depending on
your overclocking needs. For example, I can run these completely stable
at up to 230FSB while still keeping the super low 2-5-2-2 timings.
However, if you're like me, and want to push your system to a higher level,
they are capable of running completely stable at 250FSB with timings of
2.5-6-3-3. You'll need to pair them with a quality motherboard in order
to achieve these results. In simple terms, they allowed us
to take our 2.8GHz C class processor to a stable 3.5GHz.
This resulted in some rather
impressive performance. Let's begin with the SANDRA 2005 Pro results...
SANDRA 2005 Pro
We can clearly see that the aggressively low
timings and higher FSB certainly play a role in overall scores with synthetic
benchmarking tools like the excellent SANDRA suite. I was able to hit
the 6K mark with these modules and run them completely stable at 500MHz.
PCMark 2004
For a while, I've been personally using the
older PCMark 2002 suite simply because the first builds of PCMark 2004 were
quite unstable. However, their new version has improved enough to start
using their new suite for testing purposes.
Again, we see some impressive results,
especially when compared to other test systems. There is certainly a
significant gain in overall performance when running at a much higher 250FSB.
I would like to emphasize that a majority of
overclockers may indeed be turned-off by PC3200 memory. However, these
are not your average 400MHz sticks, and the results do prove that. In
fact, I've had the pleasure of using DDR500+ modules and always have gone back
to these simply because of their impressive performance and high overclocking
potential.
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