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Corsair XMS not very "extreme" at all...UPDATE: Problem specific to 2700 XMS with Micron chips

The Sauce

The Sauce

Diamond Member
I was having trouble o/c'ing my FSB on the new A7N8X with XMS 2700 (333DDR). From 166 --> 170 was a no go, even with all the buses locked and everything else at default. I could not believe that this "extreme" memory could be to blame for the problems but, sure enough, I bumped up the voltage to the RAM and the problems went away. Not even good enough for a measley 4 MHz overclock??? Not very extreme in my book. So word to the wise...this RAM is not for overclocking. Right now the price difference between the 2700 and 3200 is only $6 per stick anyway so I would just go with the 3200 (already RMA'ed my 2700 and am saving $12 in the process - how phat is that?).
 
Corsair XMS is designated to hit a clockspeed and not much higher. I believe your stick of XMS was designed back when PC2100 was dominant. Remember, corsair does produce XMS 3500 (DDR 433) so you can get some of that.
 
P.S. Whenever an XMS line is released it's almost ALWAYS built to a non industry spec. I.E. XMS 3500 when PC2700 is still the oficial standard. Those modules can do DDR433 CAS 2.0!!!!! :Q
 
why would corsair sell memory at lower than what they can test it for? they're not intel, and the yields aren't that good. i wouldn't expect it to go much faster than whats printed on the label.
 
P.S. your complaint is comparable to complaining about how PC150 RAM will only clock up to 155. Back then 150 wasn't a standard, so there were people who pretested for that speed. XMS 2700 memory was released when PC2100 was a standard and Jedec hadn't ratified PC2700 yet.
 
My pc3000 cas 2 stuff is pretty good.....I ran up to 390mhz still at cas 2...It ran 400mhz still at default vdimm with cas 2.5....neede a .1v boost at 416mhz and timings got more conservative....Runs fine memtested all the way up to 428mhz. Boots up to 436mhz, but needs .1v more vdimm. It doesn't pass memtest for overnight testing. At 436mhz it also experiences restart issues...At 442mhz ddr still benches fine in all apps but I get restart issues and start getting some corruption. It passed prime95 for 8hours at 1.6@2.66 w/ 442mhz w/ 1.69v. Howvere prime95 is not a good test of memory IMO.
 
The 2700 stuff is WEAK, I have the 3200 and it's running at 180 Cas 2-2-2-5-1T default voltage. I've gotten it to 190 with the same settings, but my sound card gets messed up due to the high FSB. If you got 3200, 180mhz with the most extreme timings and default voltage should be easy.
 
I have the 3200 and I'm running at 420 DDR(158 FSB@4:3) with the most agressive timings and a .1v bump.


Self
 
Well, he might have thought the PC2700 might have been "under-clocked" PC3200 now that PC2700 spec has been finalized and has matured. Going by other semi-conductor part fab processes (CPU and GPU), even lower "clocked" parts tend to be higher performing parts in disguise. We've all seen it, A3 cores in Ti4200's, AGOIA, AROIA, AIUGA late stepping Athlon's and P4A's at 1.8 etc. I guess thats not the case with memory, either that, or they still have some existing memory from the PC2100 fab processes. Or maybe memory manufacterers aren't so fast to upgrade all their fab processes and do in fact produce PC2100 and PC2700 parts at the same time?

Chiz
 
P.S. your complaint is comparable to complaining about how PC150 RAM will only clock up to 155. Back then 150 wasn't a standard, so there were people who pretested for that speed. XMS 2700 memory was released when PC2100 was a standard and Jedec hadn't ratified PC2700 yet.
Click to expand...

Hey this memory is 2 weeks old! Trust me, PC2700 was a standard two weeks ago. And also my point is really that good memory should have some headroom. Not necessarily for overclocking, but for stability. Generally speaking, if memory is no good at 167 MHz, then how stable can it be at 166 MHz? Get my point?
 
Originally posted by: Snatchface
P.S. your complaint is comparable to complaining about how PC150 RAM will only clock up to 155. Back then 150 wasn't a standard, so there were people who pretested for that speed. XMS 2700 memory was released when PC2100 was a standard and Jedec hadn't ratified PC2700 yet.
Click to expand...

Hey this memory is 2 weeks old! Trust me, PC2700 was a standard two weeks ago. And also my point is really that good memory should have some headroom. Not necessarily for overclocking, but for stability. Generally speaking, if memory is no good at 167 MHz, then how stable can it be at 166 MHz? Get my point?
Click to expand...

You may have bought it two weeks ago but newegg has been sitting on it for however long and it was designed when PC2100 was standard. With the Corsair XMS really means "tested out of spec for the next higher level" and not a whole lot more. It's pre-overclocked for you. They sell non-XMS official PC2700 that is better.
 
BAH! What you're saying is all garbage. Corsair XMS modules are consistently good overclockers. Did anyone else in here agree with you that Corsair gets bad O/C's? No. YOU GOT A STICK THAT WON'T RUN PAST 166MHZ!!! STUFF HAPPENS! Seriously, it's not that big of a deal. Every once in a great while, you can get a bad stick of memory. That's not to say that that stick didn't pass their quality control, it just happens to not O/C. A majority of Corsair XMS memory DOES O/C well, yours didn't, it's OK. If you had RMA'd that stick (though it did run correctly), you'd probably get one that would O/C just fine.

This is a note to all O/C'ers: don't fly off the handle just because your O/C isn't as good as someone else's. I understand that this is an extreme case as you can't get an ounce more out of it, but again, you're overclocking it over it's specifications. Some people get Athlon 1700+'s that O/C to 2+ GHz, while others barely get them to 1800+ or 1900+ speeds. You're overclocking. It's a luck-of-the-draw kind of thing.

When you, personally, get two seperate sticks from Corsair that don't O/C at all, then come complain to me.
 
Did anyone else in here agree with you that Corsair gets bad O/C's? No.
Click to expand...
Um...actually YES. Several people in here have reiterated that this memory is no good for overclocking (BD231, tbates757, FishTankX). Perhaps you ought to actually read the threads before you start flaming in them, numbnuts.

That is not to say that maybe I didn't get a bad stick. You may very well be right. I suppose that sort of thing is possible although it's never happened to me before. Perhaps you could find a more agreeable way of making that point, though.
 
Originally posted by: BD231
The 2700 stuff is WEAK, I have the 3200 and it's running at 180 Cas 2-2-2-5-1T default voltage. I've gotten it to 190 with the same settings, but my sound card gets messed up due to the high FSB. If you got 3200, 180mhz with the most extreme timings and default voltage should be easy.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree. I've run my XMS PC2700 up to DDR400 and the only reason I didn't go higher is that my CPU couldn't handle it (although I was nearing my RAM's limits, as well, as I had to set the CAS at 2.5). Snatchface, I believe you got a bad stick. Check out the CPU/OC forum sometime, nearly everybody swears by Corsair XMS, though there are some Samsung fans, as well. THUGSROOK, our resident OC'er extraordinaire, runs nothing but Corsair XMS RAM in his systems and has several sticks of PC3000 and PC3200C2 running around DDR430-440.
 
Well I'll buy that. Nonetheless with the recent memory price drops, I was able to return my 2700 and upgrade to 3200 - saving money in the process 😉 Problem solved for me. I'm sure that I could have o/c'ed the stuff higher with more voltage and increasing the CAS latency.
 
yeah man you just ended up with a stick that can only handle what it was speced at. Most of the time corsair ram goes way higher than its spec. I have a stick of corsair 2400 that does 2700 speeds at cas2.
 
It appears there are two different versions of that memory.

read this review for details it explains how you can tell which version you got.
Review

sucks that you may have got the old version 🙁
 
Aah...well there is the answer. I must have gotten the older Micron-based sticks. The newer Sumsung stuff got up to 190 in their tests. Very interesting indeed. Well the 3200 should solve the problem anyway as that comes with the Samsung chips. Based on this information I would STILL advise anyone out there memory shopping now against getting the 2700 XMS, despite what Ilmater has to say...at least until all those Micron sticks get flushed out of inventories.
 
I actually would have expected it to all be gone already. Most people seem to find Corsair XMS to be consistently good overclockers. I think you may have simply been unlucky this time.
 
Well I only bought the memory 2-3 weeks ago when building my new system so apparently it's still out there. And I bought it from Newegg which moves quite a large volume of the stuff....I would imagine.
 
Well the 3200 should solve the problem anyway as that comes with the Samsung chips
Click to expand...
The XMS 3200 uses Winbond BH-6 chips.

Current chips used in the XMS series:
XMS2700C2 rev 1.3 = Samsung rev D 6ns rev 2.1 = Winbond rev B 6ns
XMS3000C2 rev 2.1 = Winbond rev B 6ns
XMS3000 rev 2.1 = Winbond rev B 6ns
XMS3200C2 rev 1.1 = Winbond rev B 6ns
XMS3500C2 rev 1.1 = Winbond rev B 5ns
Click to expand...
 
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