Corsair have an excellent reputation in the industry for producing some of the best performing sticks you can buy. Founded in 1994, Corsair should have the experience to take on all-comers. In our PC2700 shootout however they took a bit of a stumble, being outclassed by competing brands. The stick we are looking at today is Corsair's flagship, the CAS 2 PC3500 module - certified for use at 433MHz at tight timings. Quite a boast, but will it live up to its claims?
As you can see Corsair comes with fancy looking heat spreaders. They are 100% aluminium and do precisely nothing for heat dissipation. They are identical to the Thermaltake brand 3rd party spreaders you can purchase from many overclocking stores.
Here is the stick provided by Corsair. Unfortunately they sent me a 256MB stick rather than a 512MB stick which will make a slight difference to how high the stick will go. Nonetheless, let's get on with the testing, but keep in mind a 256MB stick will always out-perform a 512MB stick that uses the same components.
Speed Checkpoint
Stable?
400MHz CAS 2.5
PASS
400MHz CAS 2 FASTEST
PASS
433MHz CAS 2.5
PASS
433MHz CAS 2 FASTEST
PASS
450MHz CAS 2.5
PASS
450MHz CAS 2 FASTEST
PASS
480MHz CAS 2.5
FAIL
480MHz CAS 2
FAIL
500MHz CAS 2 FASTEST
FAIL
500MHz CAS 2 TURBO
FAIL
Woah! Storming through our checkpoint up to 450Mhz the Corsair is truly an amazing stick of RAM. Note for all of the tests in this review, I used a V-DRAM of 2.7V after certifying that it completes its rated speed at stock voltage. The Corsair had no trouble doing 433MHz at 2.5V. Much improved Corsair! The highest I was able to get the Corsair was a rock solid 231MHz, or 462Mhz DDR. That’s an impressive 29Mhz over its rated speed! The rest of the sticks have their work cut out already...
