Corsair XMS3 DHX PC3-12800 (DDR3-1600) 4GB Kit

Test Setup

To ensure that all reviews on Overclock3D are fair, consistent and unbiased, a standard set of hardware and software is used whenever possible during the comparative testing of two or more products. The configuration used in this review can be seen below:

 

 

While we was unable to obtain any similar specification 4GB DDR3 kits in time for the review, it will certainly be interesting to see if the Corsair kit can make up for its 200mhz speed disadvantage over the Crucial and CSX kits with its extra 2GB of memory. While we’re not expecting any miracles, Corsair has performed extensive research in the “gaming with 2GB vs 4GB” area and has published some interesting results.

 

To guarantee a broad range of results, the following benchmark utilities will be used:

 

 

All 3D based benchmarks were performed using a resolution of 1024×768, low quality settings and no additional AA (Anti Aliasing). This reduces any affect that the graphics card may have on the results, either positive or negative, leaving the CPU and Memory subsystem to do most of the work.

 

 

 

While our natural-born instinct as overclockers was to jump right in and start pumping extra voltage through the Corsair kit, there is one important issue that needs to be explored first: stability. Too often here at Overclock3D we’ve received memory kits that simply don’t work at their advertised speeds or voltages, leading to system crashes, corrupt OS installs and generally a lot of missing hair from the OC3D review teams’ heads.

 

Therefore, the first part of our testing procedure before we started getting our hands dirty was to test the Corsair kit at 1600mhz, 9-9-9-24 with 1.8v:

 

  

 

Thanks to the combination of NVIDIA’s EPP2.0 profiles and the ASUS Striker II 790i chipset motherboard, the installation and configuration of the modules was immensely easy. A quick flick of the “SLI Ready Memory” option in the BIOS to “Enabled” saw everything configured automatically and installing Windows presented no issues.

 

The stability of the kit was further reinforced when we performed a gruelling hour-long OCCT stress test on the entire system. Once again, this test passed without fault, indicating that the Corsair XMS3 DHX PC3-12800 kit is rock solid at stock settings.

 

 

Moving on to the fun stuff, the Corsair didn’t disappoint here either. Managing to hit 2000mhz without any adjustments to voltages or timings, this just goes to show that even Corsair’s non-Dominator kits pack a serious punch. Interestingly, bumping up the voltage didn’t seem to help take the kit much further than this, with a not-so-stable overclock of 2024mhz being obtained with the use of 1.86v.