DDR2 has long been the choice of Intel systems with speeds continually rising while latencies are falling. Recently Corsair announced the fastest DDR2 we’ve heard of (in terms of outright MHZ). It is always enjoyable to receive something that is the “fastest” and today’s review product is on paper the fastest DDR2 available. We will take a look at performance and how it could improve a system currently running some high specified DDR2-800 (PC-6400).

Packaging

Corsair packaging is a pretty standard affair and in the case of their XMS2 PC8500 that continues to be the case. These modules come in the plastic packet (yes we still wish companies would use something more protective) and underneath the sticks there is an insert which gives you marketing information.

The Modules

The modules which Corsair sent us are rated as PC-8500 which means they run at 1066Mhz. The timings Corsair have chosen to use are 5-5-5-15 which is quite impressive as many DDR2-800 sticks are actually around the same timings. The voltage used by the memory is 2.2v for 1066mhz operation.

As you can see from the above picture the modules feature Corsairs standard heatsink design, a black aluminium spreader. Attached to the heatspreader is a sticker with the module details printed upon it. As these are desktop DDR2 modules they use 240pins and our review samples are 512mb sticks which feature 8x64mb Micron D chips.

Turning the stick over we can see the heatspreader is attached to both sides of the module, no surprise there, and that there is a further sticker showing the Corsair branding.

Before we look at the performance of the sticks it should be noted that the SPD settings for these modules are actually 800mhz 5-5-5-15. So if your board doesn’t allow any higher setting than DDR2-800 the sticks will still work perfectly well. Higher settings are achieved through BIOS configuration.