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Packaging and
Installation
The RAM came in the standard bubble
package that we are used to seeing.
The Fan came shrink wrapped in a
plain white box. Nothing fancy, but packaged well enough to
minimize the risk of shipping damage.
Memory installation is extremely
simple, align the notch, push down. The fan is equally simple.
The legs of the fan attach to the memory clips, simply put one side on
and stretch the other leg over the other set of memory clips. The
legs are flexible enough that you won't need to exert much force, yet
stiff enough to prevent falling off.
Installed the fans set directly
above the installed memory.
Testing and
Overclocking
For this review we'll be
using an eVGA nForce 680i motherboard which is based on nvidia's 680i
chipset. The CPU is overclocked to 3.2GHz using a 400MHz FSB and voltage
of 1.325. Here is a basic rundown of the test system:
|
Hardware |
Model |
|
Motherboard: |
eVGA nforce 680i SLI |
|
CPU |
Intel C2D E6400 |
|
Video Card |
eVGA 7900 GTO |
|
Storage |
Seagate 400GB SATA |
|
Optical |
Lite-On 16X DVD+/-RW with
Lightscribe |
|
Memory |
Corsair XMS2 Dominator PC2-9136 |
|
Cooling |
Corsair Nautilus 500 Water
cooling kit |
I used the Dominator airflow fan
to Overclock the memory. According to Corsairs website, with
the fan installed it's safe to run the memory at 2.5v! This is
as far as the eVGA board would allow me to go. I must say it
felt a little odd using the max setting on memory voltage. You
can overclock this memory a couple of ways, manual or using the EPP
settings.
EPP and SLI-Ready
Memory Explained
The EPP feature only works with "SLI-Ready"
memory. The SLI-Ready Memory setting in the bios is, in my opinion,
for the inexperienced, and/or to quickly setup the memory bus speed
settings. It identifies the memory and correctly sets the memory bus
speed. In this case, it will change the memory bus speed from
800MHz, to the correct bus speed rating of this memory which is
1142MHz. It does not change anything else, including memory timings.
Not to knock the EPP feature, but EPP is not a magical setting that
will automatically overclock memory or lower memory timings below
factory recommendations. SLI-Ready memory will work with just about
any non EPP motherboard and you do not need SLI-Ready memory to run
in a SLI motherboard. EPP and SLI-Ready memory is only an
enhancement feature. I decided to set the BIOS to expert and
manually configure the memory.
Results
While I didn't expect the memory
to overclock, I was able to get a little more out of it. Using
the Airflow fan and increasing the voltage to 2.5V, I was able to
push the memory to 1275MHz. I was impressed with the memory's
ability to overclock, but the timings had to be relaxed so the
performance was not any better. Keeping the memory at its
default timings of 5-5-5-15, I was able to get 1200MHz. This
provided a nice little boost in performance.
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