Corsair Blog

When Intel® launched the Sandy Bridge (AKA the 2nd Generation Intel Core™ Processor Family) architecture they changed the game in overclocking, running high base clock was a thing of the past. In order to overclock Sandy Bridge to its full potential, an unlocked multiplier was needed. The new Sandy Bridge-E processors that Intel announced today (we also announced our quad-channel compatible kits today) is based on the same architecture, but Intel made a key change in order to allow higher base clocks. The reason for the limited base clock adjustment was due to the link between base clock and the PCI-E/DMI Controller. Intel added the option called CPU Strap that allows the PCI-E/DMI Controller to run at a frequency near 100MHz +/-10%. You are now able to run higher base clocks however there are limitations. Along with these higher base clocks you can now also run the memory frequency much higher versus Sandy Bridge.

KitGuru, Vengeance® 1100 Communication Headset Review — "Corsair has struck a good balance between professional and gamer-enticing aesthetics with this headset.  This, combined with the all-round good performance means that you can use it for work or play without issue."

NeoSeeker, Vengeance 1500 & Vengeance 1300 Gaming Headsets Review — "After spending a solid week with both the Vengeance 1300 and 1500 headsets, it is easy to recommend both as solid replacements to traditional desktop speakers, or lesser quality headsets. However, the design of the Vengeance gaming headsets is vastly different so both the 1300 and 1500 are suited for different segments of the market. The Vengeance 1500 is the higher-end model, and as such support audio formats such as Dolby Digital and Virtual 7.1 Surround. This makes it an ideal choice for gamers and movie buffs that are looking for solid audio to match the content. The Vengeance 1300 on the other hand is an analog headset that performsbest when paired with a high-end audio card that can push the unit to its threshold."

TechPowerUp, Carbide Series 500R Mid-Tower Case Review — "Corsair has already managed to impress with the Carbide 400R chassis and the more potent 500R is no exception. It takes the already great 4-series Carbide chassis and improves on its cooling possibilities, adds a fan controller to adjust the rotation speed and give the user the possibility to remove the hard drive cages to make room for long graphic cards. Also with an updated edgier design, some may just go ahead and dish out the 40 US Dollar more for the Carbide 500R."

TweakTown, Carbide Series 500R Mid-Tower Case Review — "Looking back through Corsair's history of cases, I have yet to be disappointed with any of them. I had their flagship on my desk for over two years, and it just recently got replaced. I also have the 600T SE currently in use, and it was the case that sold me on what a white case looks like done right -not looking like somewhere to test culture samples. The 500R keeps that aggressive classic muscle car aesthetics that sold me on the 600T, yet it takes a whole other approach in its shape and design and leaves me with that same warm fuzzy feeling that looking over at my 600T once gave me. For those who love what Corsair has to offer, but were turned off by the overly rounded approach of the 600T design and won't settle for the average black chassis, the 500R is a perfect solution to your needs, wants, and desires."

Hardware Secrets, Hydro Series™ H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler Review — "The Corsair H100 was the best CPU cooler we’ve seen to date. With its 240 mm radiator, which is twice the size of the radiator seen in most sealed liquid cooling systems, it outperformed all the air coolers and liquid cooling solutions we tested so far."

Today we announced our newest line of solid-state drives, the Corsair Performance Pro Series™ SSDs. Designed with the Marvell SATA 6 Gb/s SSD controller, they deliver impressive performance when reading and writing compressed as well as non-compressible data, such as audio, images, and video files. Additionally, Performance Pro Series SSDs have built-in advanced background garbage collection to allow for consistently strong performance even with operating systems that do not support the TRIM command. This integral performance optimization makes Performance Pro SSDs an ideal solution for RAID configurations, which typically do not support TRIM.

Overclocking on liquid nitrogen and pushing hardware into the danger zone can be very frustrating but can also be rewarding. We recently released an overclocking video that showed you how I prepare my motherboards to run on liquid nitrogen. I recently took the same setup from the video but with a different CPU, and tried to set the 3DMark03 world record with it.

KitGuru, Vengeance™ 1500 Dolby 7.1 USB Gaming Headset Review — "As hoped, the performance of the headset was very strong throughout all of our gaming, movie and music tests.  Both Dolby Headphone and the 7.1 virtual surround sound technology give the gaming and movie experience an extra dimension and improve the overall audio quality.  We are also able to optimise the sound balance of the headset for different types of playback, using the presets within the control panel."

Overclock3D, Carbide Series™ 500R Mid-Tower Case Review — "The long and short of it is the 500R is a great case for the money out of the box and 90% of you will be perfectly happy with what gets delivered. The other 10% of you can get your tools out and make yours unique with minimal effort and claim those all important e-peen inches over the stock case boys! Its been a long time coming but thank you Corsair, for your efforts we can Award the 500R the first Gold award since we reviewed the white 600T!"

Vortez, Carbide Series 500R Mid-Tower Case Review — "I’ve been impressed by the 500R and actually quite excited about sharing this review with you. 500R looks spectacular in white – Corsair have done a great job in almost every aspect of this case but the visual appearance is fundamental to all the hype surrounding it, it just oozes style and charisma."

Benchmark Reviews, Carbide Series 500R Mid-Tower Case Review — "Yes, the Carbide 500R performed exquisitely. With four stock fans it rivals the best in cooling performance. Under extended stress in a cramped environment it kept CPU and GPU temperatures stable in a safe zone below 80 °F using the lowest setting on the fan controller. It also builds quickly and effortlessly. If you had all your parts ready it could be built in under ten minutes, including pretty cable routing. This is probably true for almost any build since the 500R is ready to receive a variety of components."

Hexus, Carbide Series 500R Mid-Tower Case Review — "By taking the foundations laid by the 400R and adding a sprinkling of useful upgrades - including a bundled side intake and removable hard-disk cages - Corsair has created a £90 solution that offers excellent cooling performance in a tidy, well-rounded package."

Legit Reviews, Carbide Series 500R Mid-Tower Case Review — "We really liked working with the Corsair Carbide 500R as the design was very well thought out. The fit and finish were excellent with great paint work and the black and white theme is very attractive. Airflow is a non-issue in this case with more options than the majority of users would even consider or require. The cable routing was easy and the rubber grommets really add a polished look when you are done building in this case. The bonus integrated fan controller and LED on/off switch was a nice touch on the I/O panel but we really appreciated the inclusion of USB 3.0 ports on the front. Corsair was even thoughtful enough to include the conversion cable to USB 2.0 to extend the compatibility. Removable hard drive cages allow for super long video cards to make sure this case can last for several builds. Finally all the little sound dampening touches with rubber mounts a means this case will run quiet especially with the fans set to low. "

Benchmark Reviews, Carbide Series 400R Mid-Tower Case Review — "The Corsair Carbide 400R mid-tower case is an all-around overachiever, covering all the fundamentals of a gaming case while at the same time making small but extremely effective design innovations. The mainstream market for gaming cases is quite crowded and there are plenty of various offerings available. Very few, however, provide as much interior room and demonstrate remarkable engineering acumen as the Carbide 400R."

VR Zone, Enthusiast Series™ Modular TX550M 550 Watt Modular Power Supply Review — 9/10 score — "Corsair is a company committed to quality and the TX550M is no exception. The power supply is very well made, with no manufacturing flaws and with very good components, although some hardcore enthusiasts may miss the all-Japanese design of the more powerful TX750M unit. Corsair covers their product with a 5 year long warranty, testament to their faith on this unit’s long term reliability."

Bright Side of News, Flash Voyager® GT USB 3.0 32GB USB Flash Drive Review — "The Corsair Flash Voyager GT USB 3.0 32GB USB Flash Driveis an incredibly fast drive, with maximum speeds rivaling that of most conventional SATA hard drives. At a high capacity, the drive serves perfectly as a device for saving media, copying large swaths of data from one computer to another, or even for running an operating system off of via USB 3.0 (such as a utility version of Linux)."

Corsair has created five different profiles for the Vengeance™ 1500 Dolby 7.1 USB Gaming Headset which are included with version 1.1 of our headset driver software. This post will briefly explain the various profiles, what they do, and how they were selected.

Corsair headset driver version 1.1 software includes these five presets. For those who do not see these profiles in their software, please go to the Vengeance 1500 product page to download the software.

When running headset driver version 1.1, plug in your headset, and open up the software by clicking on the "Corsair" icon in the tray. You will see the following five profile settings.

As the names suggest, we made these EQ profiles to provide users with the optimal settings for various scenarios. We will go in-depth to explain what exactly each EQ profile does and the thought process behind them.

JonnyGURU, Enthusiast Series™ Modular TX550M Review — "Corsair's new TX modular series gets a recommendation here today. And it is well deserved. This unit is exceptionally good for a little 550 watt unit. It runs cool, it's incredibly stable, and it keeps ripple and noise under half of the ATX specification. No, it's not the latest and greatest when it comes to the push toward higher efficiency, but let's be honest here... the difference to your wallet between Bronze and even Platinum isn't as great as you might think. You could easily do worse than this unit right here."

AnandTech, Carbide Series™ 500R Mid-Tower Case Review — " As always, Corsair has produced a case that's reasonably attractive, idiotically easy to assemble, and a solid performer. In some ways it's really the high point of their enclosure business. There are alternatives, but if you like the way it looks and want something easy to build, the 500R is worth your hard earned money."

Neoseeker, Carbide Series™ 500R Mid-Tower Case Review — "Corsair now has multiple award winning cases under its belt, so when it comes to designing a chassis for the mainstream market they have a lot of experience to fall back on. This is clearly evident when looking at the 500R, as it includes several features found in both the Obsidian and Graphite series, yet it still fits into a more affordable package."

Hi Tech Legion, Force Series™ 3 60GB SATA 3 6Gb/s Solid-State Hard Drive Review — "Overall the Corsair Force 3 60GB SSD fits the budget of most mainstream users and provides a significant performance boost for those looking to upgrade from their 1st generation SSD or platter HDD. The Corsair Force 3 60GB also comes with a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter so it is ready to be installed and used right out of the box without spending extra on a 2.5" mounting kit. It is not often that you find the lowest priced product perform beyond those of its more expensive peers but the Corsair Force 3 60GB SSD seems to have been built to defy expectations."

eTeknix, Corsair Vengeance PC3-14900 8GB 1866MHz Memory Kit Review — "The Corsair Vengeance range of memory provides users with compatability and functionality at a price that is affordable, and if you want something a bit extra, Corsair cater for that too with their fantastic overclocking ability that we saw today."

Long time Corsair forum member Rafael Jaimes III, better known to forum readers as "Synbios", recently sent us some documentation of SSD life testing utilizing our Force F40-A SSDs that he's done. He is extremely knowledgeable and helpful to Corsair forum readers. We found the results to be very interesting and we think you might also. Here is his submission in its entirety.

When it comes to choosing the right memory for your system there are three main factors to consider regarding performance. These factors are memory frequency, latency and density. This presentation will briefly go over these performance factors and also explain Intel® XMP (Extreme Memory Profile). With XMP the days of trial and error memory overclocking are gone. XMP allows guaranteed overclocked memory performance to be enabled with the “flick of a switch”, while still allowing expert users the option of manual configuration and tweaks, beyond the officially tested and guaranteed overclocked settings.

Click the picture below to launch the presentation:

With the availability of more affordable liquid nitrogen pots, more and more users are starting to overclock using liquid nitrogen. However there is still some mystery about how its done and how the system is prepared. In this video I will take you through the process of insulating the motherboard, and show you how to get started overclocking with LN₂.

I used the folliwing hardware when I shot this video:

• Intel® Core™ i7 990X Extreme Edition CPU
• Asus Rampage III Black Edition motherboard
• Asus ROG Xpander (allows 4-way SLI)
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX580 (x4)
• Corsair Dominator® GT memory (CMGTX2)
• Corsair Professional Series™ Gold AX1200 PSU (x2)
• Corsair Force Series™ SSD