Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Memory Kit Review

Overclocking

For overclocking I used the same ASUS P5E3 Deluxe (X38 chipset) motherboard that was used for benchmarking and pushed to see how far we could take the memory kit on this platform.

To start off overclocking I kept the FSB the same and tried to see just how tight I could get the timings to see what I could get. This 9-9-9-24 based memory kit could do 8-8-8-24 timings with no problems at all. If you want to increase up to 2.2-2.3V the kit can run 6-7-6-18 timings with full stability. With 2.3V we were able to get the kit to run 6-6-6-18, but it crashed on several benchmarks and we didn’t want to add more voltage to the memory kit.

The performance at CL6 timings was quite impressive though and these Samsung IC’s are looking very impressive!

Now that we know how tight the timings can get with no changes to the clock frequency let’s see how far we can get with the stock 1.80 Volts on the memory and CL9 timings. With the default timings of 9-9-9-24 we were able to reach 1860MHz, which is an extra 260MHz over the stock clock frequency of 1600MHz. This is also within 5MHz of our all time high with this specific Intel Q9300 Quad Core processor. Looks like this memory kit is looking even better!

Just for fun I tried to see how tight I could get the timings and I figured out the Samsung IC’s really love tight timings with 2.2-2.3 Volts once again. The system was up and benchmarking with stability at 1860MHz with 7-7-7-20 timings. Very impressive results considering the kit started out life with the results shown below.