Corsair 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 DIMM Kit review - 1 - A flashy introduction

Corsair 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 DIMM Dual Channel Kit

SKU: TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX
Info: Corsair

It's quite amazing what the effect has been on DDR2 memory prices lately, no let me re-state .. extraordinary. See, memory modules always have been rather high-priced. But if you'd look at a histograph of the last two years, you'd spot a very nice trend line (well for the consumers at least). And that's good .. as with memory hogs like Windows Vista and today's applications we can certainly use two or more GB of memory in a PC. When you look at a Vista based PC, the one thing it actually does well, is how it makes use of the memory available. Vista basically prioritizes your applications and background tasks and adapts to the way you work by tracking the programs you use most often and preloading these into memory.

And this is where we land at the premises of Corsair. See, I'm making a plea to move forward towards 4GB in a PC, and that's mainly due to it's current price. What we'll do today is have a look at a Corsair 4 GB Dual-channel memory kit (two DIMM modules), priced at € 88,00 !

Corsair recently released an EPP DDR2 800 kit of memory, not that special yet they released a 4 GB kit rated PC2-6400 with uptight timings. And that is interesting as the larger your RAM modules tend to get storage size, the more latency they'll get, making them slower in response times. Today's tested memory has pretty nice timings at 4-4-4-12. What these numbers mean we'll explain on the next page by the way.

Next to that this (2x) 2GB 6400C4DHX memory, we noticed, has EPP embedded profiles, making them SLI Memory ready. It has nothing to do with SLI other than the fact that there are enhanced EPP settings saved in the RAM modules themselves, we'll also explain this on the next page or two.

XMS2 DHX is a mainstream product (Dominator being high-end, as you know) but since this model is a low-latency 800MHz kit (4-4-4-12) it has a bit more punch. It should also be fairly flexible for overclocking at higher latencies (say the JEDEC values of 5-5-5-18).

The end-result, a 4GB dual-channel memory kit with pretty darn okay advertised timings... but is it any good ? Well, let's find out.