Corsair is still the most successful performance memory manufacturer, despite an ever-increasing amount of opposition. The 2GB kit submitted by the California-based company is their PC3200 C2PT part, which is rated for 2-3-3-6 timings on both Intel and AMD Athlon 64 platforms. Corsair is using the same heat spreaders they have utilised for several years, though these particular models feature the PT (platinum) variants.
To ensure that the Corsair modules you have purchased are genuine, Corsair now prints holographic stickers onto all of their memory modules. Onto this sticker is printed CMX1024-3200C2PT, which is the part number, as well as various other serial numbers and ratings information. When purchasing Corsair always make sure you have a hologram stuck on the heat spreader, as you wont qualify for their excellent lifetime warranty without it.
When installing the corsair into the motherboard, slightly less aggressive timings than the rated speed were loaded by the SPD chip. We were, however, able to manually tighten these in the motherboard BIOS to an impressive 2-3-2-5 setting, at which the memory was completely stable in both Memtest 86+ and a windows environment.
Moving up to 217MHz (PC3500 speed), we needed to relax the timings to 2.5-3-3-6 timings to retain stability, but this is still good performance for a PC3200 part. At 233MHz (PC3700 speed) we were still able to use these reasonably tight timings and retain full stability. At our next speed bump (250MHz) we had to fully relax the timings to 3-4-4-8 to remain 100% stable, though this was accomplished at a 1T command rate – which has a far greater impact on performance than any of the other memory timings. The maximum speed we were able to obtain was 254MHz at 2.8V. If the voltage was increased any higher, this top speed was actually reduced, so 2.85V certainly seems to be the sweet spot for this memory.
As with a number of competitors in this group test, Corsair have chosen to utilise Infineon wafer in this memory, which is what gives it its excellent low latency abilities, yet still relatively good scaling at more relaxed settings.
Overall the Corsair is an excellent example of flexible memory. Perfectly happy to run at very low latencies at stock speeds, scaling well over the speed bumps and reaching a highly respectable maximum clock speed of 254MHz. The Corsair is currently retailing for £211.44 including VAT from Chillblast, which makes it an excellent purchase.
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