After installing the two Corsair modules in our test system, we ran CPU-Z in order to see how they were identified by WinXP (SP2).

According to Corsair, the SPD should be seen as DDR2-800 5-5-5-15. What we saw was DDR2-600 5-5-5-15 or DDR2-800 5-5-5-18. The CPU details were:

The first tests ran with these settings. Then we set the Corsair modules to 1000Mhz with timings 5-5-4-9, according to the specifications. In order to achieve this, we had to increase the FSB of the CPU as well as the memory and the Vcore voltages.

In order to be sure that the memory was running without problems at this speed, we used Memtest86, latest version. And indeed, all tests finished successfully without reporting any errors. The memory bandwidth according to Memtest86+ was 4326MB/s. This was the second setup we used for our tests, since it was the highest setting for the memory. We also tried to set it a little bit higher but Memtest86+ reported several errors during the fifth test.

Finally, we chose to use another setup for our review. This time, the memory would be running at 800Mhz, as it should be according to SPD. One more time, Memtest86+ finished without reporting any errors.

Here's a rundown of our testbed:

System Specifications
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.73Ghz Extreme Edition
Cooler: Thermaltake Golden Ord II
Case: Antec
Motherboard: Asus P5WD2 Premium
Power supply: CoolerMaster 450W
Memory: Corsair CM2X512-8000UL (dual channel)
VGA: Asus N6800GT PCI-E
Hard Disk Drive: WD800JD 80GB 7200RPM
OS: Windows XP Pro SP2
Drivers: 7.1.8.4
DirectX: v9.0c

Benchmarks & Applications used

• Memtest86+-1.60
• Sisoft Sandra 2005
• PcMark04
• Performance Test V5.0 ( PassMark)
• Half Life 2 - VST
• CPU-Z v1.29