Corsair And Crucial
Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9
Rated at DDR3-1600 CAS 9-9-9-24, Corsair’s latest modules put stability, capacity, and compatibility ahead of frequency and latency. We find a 1.50 V rating written right on the module, which means that these should run on nearly any DDR3-based system.
Maintaining compatibility is easy, since Corsair programs these to default to DDR3-1333 CAS 9. A single XMP of DDR3-1600 runs at 1.50 V, but only Corsair knows for sure why this wasn’t included within normal SPD registers. We’re guessing the 2T command rate is the culprit, though reliance on XMP means that motherboards without this feature must be manually configured to run at the rated settings. We’ll use 1T exclusively in today’s test.
Also available in Blue (add a B to the end of the model number), Corsair offers a lifetime warranty to the original purchaser of its DRAM products.
Crucial Ballistix BL2KIT51264FN2001
Crucial did not update its Ballistix portfolio to reflect the limited BCLK adjustment range of Intel’s LGA 1155 platform, but instead lists its LGA 1156-spec DDR3-2000 as the highest performance 8 GB kit. The same kit turns up when searching “compatible memory” for some P67 motherboards, even though most builders can’t get the specified speed to run. We’ll test these at DDR3-1866 and DDR3-2133, both of which are valid settings for our platform.
That is to say, the DDR3-2000 rating isn’t a hardware problem; it’s more of a marketing issue. Our search of Crucial’s Web site for DDR3-1866 and DDR3-2133 yielded no 4 GB modules at all, and relabeling/reprogramming these at a standard ratio could have filled at least one of those gaps.
Serial presence detect tells motherboards to use DDR3-1333 CAS 9 at boot, but anyone with an XMP-capable motherboards will also find this memory’s rated settings. Our test board set the correct DRAM ratio without the BCLK overclock, resulting in the expected DDR3-1866 data rate.
Crucial memory carries a lifetime warranty for the original purchaser.
