Corsair PC2-5400UL DDR2 Memory Review

What is under the Heat Spreader?

When removing the heat spreaders on Corsair’s 5400UL memory i heard a sound i’ve never heard before. It was like someone just popped open a can of soda, only i was taking off heat spreaders. Looking down at the modules that just “popped” open, I noticed that Corsair is no longer using thermal tape on their DDR2 modules! I just yanked the baked on heat spreader and sounded like i snapped the module in half! I suggest not removing yours since removing the heat spreader will void your warranty and the heat spreaders are now “bonded” to the memory IC’s.

Once I removed the heat spreaders I found that Corsair is running Micron IC’s on these high speed/low latency memory modules — Micron “Fat Body” D9 IC’s. The full part number was found to be MT47H64M8BT-3. For those of you who don’t know, these FBGA IC’s from Micron are in the 64 Meg x 8 configuration and are rated by Micron at 3ns. Meaning they come from Micron rated for DDR2-667 at a CAS Latency of 5 with 1.8V. Corsair Memory then sorts and speed bins these IC’s and picks only the best to go on their 5400UL parts. I’m not sure what the fallout rate is on these IC’s, but Corsair is hitting PC2-5400 at 3-2-2 in mass now!

Decoding The IC:

For those of you that want to know the inside scoop on everything we broke down what the codes on the IC mean below. If you would like to do this on one of your personal modules or to double check us you can find the most current data sheet found right here on the Micron site.

Key Features:

• Memory amount: 2 x 512MB
• Access time: 3.0ns Micron D9 64Meg x 8 “Fat Body” IC’s
• 675MHz (PC2-5400) Unbuffered DDR2 Modules
• CAS latency: 3 clock cycles
• RAS precharge: 2 cycles
• RAS active to precharge: 8 cycles
• Command rate: 1T (1 cycle)
• Black heat spreader for thermal diffusion
• Latency: 3-2-2-8-1T
• 2.1V
• Lifetime Warranty

Now that we know what IC’s power the memory and what exact IC’s are being used on the memory kit we can look at our testing to see how it really performs.