I wanted to see what this RAM could really do especially at 2-2-2 1T because its specifications are 2-3-3 1T. I rebooted the computer and went into the BIOS, I had to mess around with the FSB, multiplier, Vcore, Vdimm, and other settings to get this to do what I wanted but that’s all part of the overclocking game. After about an hour of testing I finally got this board to do what I wanted it to. I got this stick of RAM up to 200FSB (2-2-2 1T) with all of the other settings in the BIOS at the most aggressive.
I had to bump the Vcore up to 1.90v which the EPoX 8K3A+ will do without any modification and the Vdimm was set to 3.1v which is quite a lot more than the default 2.5v. Once again I am not seeing how high I can get the MHz on this testing because I don’t want the CPU holding me back, I want this RAM to be able to do what it can.
Getting the higher MHz is just a matter of moving up the multiplier which you can do very easily. I am really impressed that this RAM could do 400Mhz 2-2-2 1T I didn’t think it was going to be able to with my initial testing but after some work I finally got it stable. I tried to go higher than 200FSB but doing so lead to my system being unstable.
There is a pretty good boost in scores with this jump from 166 to 200 FSB as you can imagine. I really wish that I had a KT400 motherboard right now so I could really test this stick of RAM out the right way. Until I get one this motherboard will have to suffice, needless to say the results are very impressive.
After bumping up the FSB to 200 Quake 3 gained 12.6 more frames per second than it did at 166 FSB. Jedi Knight 2 gained 5.7 FPS more than at 166 FSB. If I were to overclock my video card and overclock the CPU to its highest the results would be amazing I’m sure.
Conclusion
Corsair has once again made an outstanding product and my thoughts of the company is still the same as it was from when I reviewed their XMS2700. They are continuing to make superior products which can outperform almost any other in the market. This is the best stick of RAM that I have come across so far and it is very high quality. I really love the fact that this stick was able to run at 2-2-2 1T @ 200 FSB because that’s faster than its specifications. I really need a KT400 motherboard because I want to see how high I can get this stick of RAM on a motherboard that can actually utilize the full potential of it. If a KT333 motherboard can do DDR400 2-2-2 1T a good KT400 motherboard should own. This stick of RAM is going to cost you about $200 which isn’t cheap but the quality and performance that you are going to get from it are more than worth the money. Overall I am going to give this stick of RAM a 10/10 and award it the OCmodshop seal of approval. I would like to thank Corsair for sending this module over for review.
Pros
- Can run at 400MHz 2-2-2 1T
- Can handle high voltage (3.1v)
- Heatspreaders
- Able to perform better than specifications
Cons
- None
