Let's get one thing straight: I'm a BIG performance nut. Those of you familiar with my forum posts should be well aware of that fact. I hold absolutely NO loyalty to any vendor; my loyalties lie with my family, and my desire for extreme performance, within my budget.

The fact that Corsair has remained at the top of my list over & over has nothing to do with brand-loyalty, it's just that they make kick-ass products. Let's see if they continue that tradition with their brand new DDR2 product, XMS2 Pro Series. The review sample I received from Corsair was the Twin2X1024-5400C4Pro, which is a 1GB kit rated at 4-4-4-12. I had one problem, however: None of the rigs I own support DDR2. A quick call to Albert Wong, from AE ComputArE, and I had in my hands a freshly minted Intel 530 CPU rated at 3.0 GHz, and an Abit AA8 uGuru 3rd-Eye motherboard to run it on. All set. Let's put this stuff through the wringer.

Specs

Taken directly from the Corsair product page (Adobe Acrobat Reader required):

- 1024MB of memory in a pair of 240-pin DDR2-DIMMs
- Two matched CM2X512-5400C4PRO modules
- Implemented using32M x 8 DDR2 SDRAMs
- 100% tested at 675MHz...at 4-4-4-12 latency settings at 1.9v
- SPD programmed at 4-4-4-12 values

The RAM

According to the specs, we're in for a helluva ride! Packaging is standard fare for Corsair; it arrived unharmed, and unblemished. The label on the stick describe the stock latencies for this RAM. Let's take a look at the product:

We've got platinum-colored aluminum heatspreaders, that have been installed with thermal pads instead of double-sided sticky tape. Kudos to Corsair for helping to cool the RAM, instead of insulate it.

Notice too the funky LED's along the top edge. This is standard fare with the PRO series RAM from Corsair. It's basically an activity indicator, visually displaying what's going on in the circuitry of your sticks. An excellent feature for the few of you with windowed cases. Here's an action shot: