Corsair XMS4000 Twinx Memory Review

When overclocking your system one of the first stumbling blocks that you encounter is a non-booting system due to running your memory out of frequency. Some of the common tricks to overcome this are to relax the memory timings or to use a memory clock divider to reduce the memory frequency. Both methods have their drawbacks, relaxed memory timings provide slower memory response and a slower memory clock means lower available bandwidth. With the introduction of Corsair XMS4000 at least one of these drawbacks can be eliminated.

Having memory that will run reliably at a (250x2)Mhz memory clock is an excellent solution for the overclocker wishing to get the most from their system. When it comes to the average enthusiast that may not overclock on a regular basis the relaxed timings have a detrimental effect to system performance. This can be overcome by manually adjusting the memory timings though given the wide abundance of excellent DDR400 and 433 modules the XMS4000 might not be the best choice.

The Corsair XMS4000 TwinX memory is clearly overclocking memory for the avid overclocker.

So to sum up here is my list of Good things and Bad things.

Low Latency @ DDR400
DDR500
Real paired memory
Ability to run overclocked at 1:1
Cooler Running memory
Heat spreaders that work

Higher Cost
Higher SPD Programmed Latency
No economical benefit to DDR500, yet

I would like to thank Corsair Memory for helping to make this review possible.