When you're paying top dollar for high performance
memory it's always a plus if it looks classy too and Corsair
have produced two flavours of their XMS3500, a "Platinum"
version that comes with a silver coloured heat spreader and
a standard version that comes with the patented black heat spreader.
Both seem to be quite efficient in terms of keeping reasonably
cool plus they look damned sexy through a side window mod.
Both versions however remain the same under the
hood featuring 5ns Winbond memory chips. The theoretical limit
of any 5ns memory is 200MHz (400MHz DDR) but as with most things
speeds tend to increase over time as yields improve and provided
a manufacturer is prepared to hand pick and test the components
it's perfectly possible to put together something as far over
spec as the XMS3500 appears to be. Of course this weeding out
of sub-par chips takes time and effort and this in return reflects
in the price.
The Winbond W942508BH-5 has become an increasingly
popular memory chip and features strongly in the recommended
memory lineup of most KT400 motherboard manufacturers such as
the one below for the Gigabyte GA-7VA, GA-7VAX and GA-7VAXP.
Unfortunately though there isn't a great deal
of technical info about it on the Winbond site. Even their W942508BH
PDF doesn't make mention of the 5ns variant. Interestingly although
Corsair quote a 2.5V setting it appears Winbond are suggesting
2.6V for their BH-5.
