Corsair TWINX2048-4000PT
Corsair is the most widely recognized brand of Enthusiast or high-performance memory in the world. Corsair also maintains very visible support in the form of RamGuy, who provides support for Corsair products at www.asktheramguy.com and as a participant in many Forums.
The 4000PT include matte silver-colored aluminum heatspreaders that are appropriate for the Corsair Platinum series. There are no LEDs or diagnostic strips that would increase the cost of the 2GB kit. Corsair also markets an Expert line of DIMMs, which include programmable LEDs that can display memory speed, memory voltage, and other useful memory diagnostic data if that is an important feature for the buyer. The 3500LL PRO that we reviewed in Part 1 of the 2GB roundup used Infineon memory and featured diagnostic LEDs. Whatever you are looking for in your 2GB memory purchase is likely available as a Corsair product.
Specifications
The TWINX2048-4000PT is rated at CAS3 at DDR500, with slow rated timings of 3-4-4-8 at default voltage.
Test Results
To be considered stable for test purposes, Quake3 benchmark, UT2003 Demo, Super PI, Aquamark 3, and Comanche 4 had to complete without incident. Any of these, and in particular Super PI, will crash a less-than stable memory configuration.
Despite the somewhat slow rated timings of the Corsair 4000PT, the memory managed to work fine at faster timings at almost every speed setting. While it is not included in the chart, we were able to run at the rated DDR500 speed at 3-3-3-8 timings at 2.8V instead of the specified 3-4-4-8 timings. The Corsair 4000PT is not the fastest 2GB memory in the roundup, but it manages to perform within a few frames of the fastest 2GB kits at every tested speed. In addition, the 4000PT turned out to be a really excellent overclocker, reaching a stable DDR580 speed.
While this Corsair kit will not satisfy those who want the fastest 2GB kit available, the 4000PT will be a good choice for those who are willing to give up a few frames at each speed in exchange for a 30% to 40% lower price. The one thing that you won't have to give up is great overclocking capabilities, since this Corsair is one of the most overclockable 2GB kits in the roundup.
Corsair is the most widely recognized brand of Enthusiast or high-performance memory in the world. Corsair also maintains very visible support in the form of RamGuy, who provides support for Corsair products at www.asktheramguy.com and as a participant in many Forums.
The 4000PT include matte silver-colored aluminum heatspreaders that are appropriate for the Corsair Platinum series. There are no LEDs or diagnostic strips that would increase the cost of the 2GB kit. Corsair also markets an Expert line of DIMMs, which include programmable LEDs that can display memory speed, memory voltage, and other useful memory diagnostic data if that is an important feature for the buyer. The 3500LL PRO that we reviewed in Part 1 of the 2GB roundup used Infineon memory and featured diagnostic LEDs. Whatever you are looking for in your 2GB memory purchase is likely available as a Corsair product.
Specifications
The TWINX2048-4000PT is rated at CAS3 at DDR500, with slow rated timings of 3-4-4-8 at default voltage.
| Corsair TWINX2048-4000PT Memory Specifications | |
| Number of DIMMs & Banks | 2 DS |
| DIMM Size Total Memory |
1GB 2GB |
| Rated Timings | 3-4-4-8 at DDR500 |
| Rated Voltage | Standard (2.6V) Voltage |
| SPD | 3-3-3-8 |
Test Results
| Corsair TWINX2048-4000PT (DDR500) - 2x1GB Double-Bank | |||||||
| CPU Ratio at 2.4GHz | Memory Speed |
Memory Timings & Voltage |
Quake3 fps |
Sandra UNBuffered | Sandra Standard Buffered |
Super PI 2M places (time in sec) |
Wolfenstein - Radar - Enemy Territory fps |
| 12x200 | 400DDR | 2.5-3-3-7 2.5V |
528.3 | INT 2448 FLT 2599 |
INT 6001 FLT 5973 |
83 | 116.0 |
| 11x218 | 436DDR | 2.5-3-3-7 2.6V |
536.2 | INT 2592 FLT 2741 |
INT 6427 FLT 6345 |
83 | 117.3 |
| 10x240 | 480DDR | 2.5-3-3-7 2.7V |
549.0 | INT 2796 FLT 2910 |
INT 6703 FLT 6642 |
81 | 119.3 |
| 9x266 | 533DDR | 3-4-4-8 2.7V |
545.0 | INT 2844 FLT 3088 |
INT 6960 FLT 6880 |
81 | 118.9 |
| 9x290 (2.61GHz) |
Highest Mem Speed DDR 580 |
3-4-4-8 2.8V |
580.8 | INT 3201 FLT 3357 |
INT 7542 FLT 7393 |
74 | 128.6 |
Despite the somewhat slow rated timings of the Corsair 4000PT, the memory managed to work fine at faster timings at almost every speed setting. While it is not included in the chart, we were able to run at the rated DDR500 speed at 3-3-3-8 timings at 2.8V instead of the specified 3-4-4-8 timings. The Corsair 4000PT is not the fastest 2GB memory in the roundup, but it manages to perform within a few frames of the fastest 2GB kits at every tested speed. In addition, the 4000PT turned out to be a really excellent overclocker, reaching a stable DDR580 speed.
While this Corsair kit will not satisfy those who want the fastest 2GB kit available, the 4000PT will be a good choice for those who are willing to give up a few frames at each speed in exchange for a 30% to 40% lower price. The one thing that you won't have to give up is great overclocking capabilities, since this Corsair is one of the most overclockable 2GB kits in the roundup.
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bigtoe36 - Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - link
TomThe parts are 2x1204, we don't supply single sided CE5 512 kits, infact no one does.
For the record, 4000eb is 2048mb so 2x1024mb modules.
Wesley Fink - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
The OCZ we tested is definitely a 2GB kit. I changed the Corsair name in the review since they refer to 2GB kits as TwinX 2048. However I just double-checked their web site and OCZ uses the 1024 to describe the dimm size. In fairness they are officially a 2x1024 kit, so I will update the reference to hopefully clarify what we tested.The memory manufacturers all have pretty awful naming schemes for their memory, but OCZ is still one of the most confusing.
CCUABIDExORxDIE - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
how does crucial not get gold? honestly, go out and try to buy the EB 4000 or the Redline PC4000, you cant cause of Infenions horrible yeilds. so in your mindset, the gold winner should be the UCCC corsair stuff. also where is the Gskill pc4000 and the Mushkin pc4000?? There should have been more UCCC tested and less CE-6.just my opinion though.
Wesley Fink - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
You can not presently buy Crucial any where, and Crucial told us they would not likely have the product available again. Infineon has had problems with consistency since October, but all of the memory manufacturers here assured us the Infineon-based dimms were current products and supply would continue. Some even sent links on where you could buy the Infineon dimms.We asked manufacturers to submit their "best" 2GB kit. There was nothing to stop them from submitting both Infineon CE and Samsung UCCC for the roundup. As we found in the review Samsung UCCC is not as fast as Infineon at most speeds, but it does overclock just as well, and it's generally 30% to 40% cheaper. At present Samsung UCCC chips are easier to find, but manufacturers tell us recent Infineon is finally producing better yields - and chips are becoming available again.
CCUABIDExORxDIE - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
alright...what about this? http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productdetails.asp?s...">http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productde....asp?sub... aww a bit of misinformation? thats rightozzimark - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
while we're mentioning misinformation.. it was stated that teamgroup can be had at newegg? atm, i'll have to disagree.second.. micron chips don't go to just crucial. i have a set of 2x1gb teamgroup in my hands that i need do a review on that use micron chips, and they easily hit 280mhz on a DFI that appears to be having serious VTT stability issues :P
Wesley Fink - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
We checked with Newegg and Team is not available there. We have removed that comment from the review and asked Team where buyers can buy their memory in the US. We'll post the info when we get an answer.cool - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
@Wesley:On the "Test Configuration" page, I noticed that you're using the following nForce drivers: "NVIDIA nForce Platform Driver 6.86"
When will they be released and do they solve the PATA/SATA and nvFirewall issues that are still plaguing nForce4 users?
Wesley Fink - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
I apologize for the typo. We used the latest release 6.70 on our DFI nF4 SLI. The latest release for AMD X16 is 6.82, and we listed a beta x16 driver rev we had on an x16 machine used for editing.The platform driver version has been corrected in the article.
PrinceGaz - Monday, January 23, 2006 - link
Hopefully one day, the nVidia softtware team will pay some attention to its chipset drivers and get these issues with the PATA/SATA drivers, which in v6.70 still have issues on my nForce4 mobo, albeit not so badly as some earlier drivers, but are still unreliable enough for me to revert to the default Windows ones.As for the hardware firewall; I'm not even going to consider installing the drivers and software for that given the continued reports it has of causing serious problems. I'd rather let my dual-core processor do the work on one of its cores, which as I use Kerio Personal Firewall would hardly be noticed even in a multi-threaded app as it takes very little CPU time.
Given the mess nVidia have made of the nForce chipset drivers, and how Microsoft recommend ATI graphics-cards for the Vista betas as their drivers are better; I really do wonder if nVidia who built a good reputation for themselves with rock-solid graphics-card drivers a few years ago have lost the plot. I bought an nForce4 mobo and 6800GT last year, but am increasingly thinking an ATI graphics-card would have been a better choice, and if similarly feature-rich mobos with other chipsets were available then, that any of ATI, VIA, SiS would have been a better choice than nVidia.
It's sites like this that have over-hyped nVidia mobos since the nForce2 on performance alone that I'm sure contributed to their dominance, and the sorry state of afares we are in with their chipset drivers as there is little competition and can afford to give it low priority.