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The Verdict

Woah .. I didn't expect a 2GB kit to be performing this fast, I honestly figured it would perform in the "mid-range". I was really expecting a 2GB memory kit to be performing slower, yet Corsair did some real magic here as it was able to keep up with the fastest memory we have in house. With standard SPD set timings and default low JEDEC voltage levels this kit simply kicks the proverbial behind. From all kits we tested only the PDP memory was (at default SPD timings) slightly faster due to a faster timing, but man .. bring this Corsair kit on as it doubles memory capacity.

Gaming wise the difference between one or two GB simply does not matter heaps. However, we did see a very sizable improvement in the new Quake 4 title though. It's not "just" memory size and timings, games (and applications in general) need to swap way less (pagefile) and that has a very positive effect on your gaming experience (less stuttering). That alone should not be a reason to pickup a two GB kit though. On the other hand, at this price level, I do believe you should consider buying 2GB over 1 Gb of memory as the pending release of Windows Vista is slowely getting nearer, and just for the sake of the future ... in 1-2 years from now 2GB will be as common as 512MB is right now.

Not once did we encounter stability issues, so that's definitely worthy of mention and I've tried this memory in two different systems. Well now .. that's some pretty cool stuff to have in your gaming rig eh? You'll have plenty memory for the next year or two/three. The memory of course looks beautiful with the LED activity, especially in these Christmas times ;-) Since we are talking about the LEDs, for some of you they really do not matter, but others will love it. Fact is that this is product branding and it will set them in a different light to the competition.  Hey, it's on there .. it's a dirt cheap thing for Corsair to do and it's good stuff for sure, especially in a case modification for the "Cool" factor.

Now what to recommend .. should you go for 1 or 2 GB of memory in your new gaming rig ? So personally I'd favor the 2 GB kit of course but you need to cough up roughly 300 USD for it and that is quite a sizable sum of money. However, the trend over the past few years has clearly been showing a large increase in memory consumption. For that amount of money you will get very tight timings which can be up-to 5% and depending on the game 15% faster compared to memory with "regular" timings. Quake 4 was the one game that was showing a massive advantage when we had 2 GB in the test system, even at 1600x1200. So you decide to buy this kit then you are future proof and hey ... future games will most certainly love it. So if you have some memory to spare then think of it as an investment you will not regret.

Last but not least I just have to mention that the kit comes with a life-time warranty.

As always many

Two Gigabyte Dual-Channel DDR memory - PC3500

Product: CMX1024-3500LLPRO 2x1024MB with 2-3-2-6 timings
Manufacturer: Corsair
Information: Click here