Corsair works very hard with Intel to provide memory that complies with Intel's XMP standards. This means that not only does the user get the benefit of predefined performance settings, they also get an extra level of assurance that Corsair memory is tested with and compatible with their Intel based system. In fact, Corsair has more XMP approved memory listed at Intel than all other memory vendors combined on the Intel XMP charts:
The Hydro Series™ H100 is the new top of the line all enclosed water cooling CPU coolers from Corsair. The H100 is similar to other Hydro Series CPU coolers from Corsair with a few exceptions, the main one being that the H100 uses a longer 240mm radiator. Luckily all of Corsairs PC cases will support the H100 and this blog will serve to illustrate the process. We will be installing it in our Carbide Series™ 400R mid-tower case.
Hexus, Vengeance™ Low Profile White — 1.35V 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 Memory Upgrade Kit Review — "Our advice to most consumers would be to choose a reputable brand and pick up an 8GB, CL9 kit that'll do 1,600MHz at low voltage. It's a future-proof configuration that hits a sweet spot of price and performance, and it's perfectly realised by Corsair's Special Edition Arctic White Vengeance LP."
TechRadar, Force Series™ 3 120GB SSD Review — Four out of Five Stars — "One hundred and seventy English pounds for a 120GB SSD powered by the latest SandForce SF-2200 controller and 25nm NAND flash memory? Looks like a bit of a bargain, particularly compared to 120GB-ish drives with the Marvell 9174 controller, such as the Intel 510 and Plextor M2S."
Neoseeker, Hydro Series™ H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler Review — "Looking beyond the size and price, the H100 is simply amazing. It offers best-in-class performance and just looks epic when installed. On top of this, it has options to increase or decrease the fans' RPM levels in real-time, supports Corsair's upcoming Link platform, and can accommodate up to four 120mm fans."
Overclock3D, Hydro Series H100 Review — "The fact you can still turn the H100 down easily is in my eyes its trump card, because its roughly a 4-6c increase but with a massive reduction in noise. So you can set your system up with some hefty over-volts and overclocks for 24/7 and still be able to keep things cool and quiet but with a flick of a switch you can unleash the full cooling power for those silly bench runs and even higher over volts that you would not want to be running 24/7."
AMD recently launched their AMD Fusion™ APU's which integrate a GPU on the CPU. You might be asking yourself what is an APU? It is AMD's new Accelerated Processing Unit that combines a CPU and GPU on one chip. The GPU on the APU chip shares the system memory with the CPU. This makes memory frequency crucial to get the most out of your integrated GPU.
Gigabyte™ posted some results they got when they tested an AMD A8350 APU on a GIGABYTE A75-UD4H using Corsair Dominator® GT memory. They tested four different DirectX 11 titles with five different memory frequencies ranging from 1333MHz to 2400MHz. In one case going from the default 1333MHz to 2400MHz they almost doubled their frame rates!
PC Perspective ran some tests with Corsair Dominator DDR3 memory with their modules clocked all the way up to 1866MHz. All five gaming tests saw an increase in frames per second when overclocking the memory. Here is what Ryan Shrout of PC Perspective had to say:
"Look at those AMD results, the differences are actually quite impressive. The boost from 1333 to 1600 MHz produced the most dramatic results though the jump to 1866 MHz (but at slightly slower timings) still brought performance up."
From the results above you can see high speed memory makes a large impact on the graphics performance using AMD's new chips. Motherboard manufacturers like Gigabyte have options on their AMD boards supporting frequencies up to 1866MHz and even 2400MHz when overclocked! Add in some high frequency Corsair Dominator or Vengeance™ DDR3 memory modules and you can get the best performance when using the integrated GPU on AMD's APU.
In May, we created a video that demonstrates how to upgrade a power supply and a video card. Since it was aimed at beginning and intermediate PC users, we chose a system that's a popular choice for a first computer — a Dell Inspiron.
We couldn't leave well enough alone, so we've tricked out the Inspiron again, this time with a 120GB Force Series™ 3 SSD and eight gigabytes of Vengeance™ Low Profile memory. The performance improvement is dramatic. Along the way, we discovered that the Inspiron desktop PC doesn't quite conform 100% to industry standards, but we were able to work around it pretty easily.
If you're like many of our customers, you've already moved past the pre-built PC stage and you're comfortable assembling systems from the ground up. Creating this video was fun, because it allowed us to get back to the basics and show off the power of system upgrades to viewers who haven't yet worked up the courage to perform their own upgrades. And, it's always satisfying to see some amazing results with just a little work with a screwdriver.
ProClockers, Force Series™ 3 SSD Review — "With the performance number we saw here today we feel that there is no better time than the present to upgrade from the typical mechanical drive to an ultra-fast SSD like the Force 3."
TweakTown, Hydro Series™ H80 CPU Cooler Review — "What the H80 has for me to see value in is simply three things. Number one is performance; I mean it rocked our TECC and showed us that these coolers can keep up and run with the big dogs. The adjustable at a touch cooling, with the option for the additional Link later on makes the new Hydro series coolers even more adaptable. To round out the trio, there is the mounting."
Hexus, Carbide Series™ 400R Mid-Tower Case Review — "The Carbide Series 400R doesn't have the visual lure of Corsair's previous solutions, but it manages to retain a lot of what's good about the Graphite and Obsidian Series enclosures and offer it in a package costing less than £90."
Guru3D, Carbide Series™ 400R Mid-Tower Case Review — "However for 99 bucks you do get a serious chassis that does not forfeit a lot, in fact labeling it mid-range or mainstream doesn't even do it justice. The work space inside is great with easy access to pretty much anything and with 8 expansions lots there is plenty room for multiple graphics cards that are lengthy. Everything can be installed tool free and the new retention 3.5" HDD clips work a lot better then the previous models have shown."
Towards the end of May this year we launched our Dominator® GT CMGTX7 DDR3 memory upgrade kit. This kit consists of two 4GB memory modules for a total of 8GB of memory. They are rated at 2400MHz 9-11-10-30, which make it the fastest 8GB production DDR3 memory kit available. The last time I overclocked high density modules was when I was testing the 16GB Vengeance kit, which overclocked to 1921.8MHz. You can read more about my earlier Vengeance overclocking run on the Corsair Blog. Since I love pushing components to their limits I wanted to see what the new Dominator GT kit could do.
The Hydro Series™ H100 is the new top of the line all enclosed water cooling CPU cooler from Corsair. The H100 is similar to other Hydro Series CPU coolers from Corsair with a few exceptions, the main one being that the H100 uses a longer 240mm radiator. In order to install the H100 in your case, you will need to have room for a 240mm radiator. This guide will serve to illustrate the general instalation instructions which can be followed with any case. If you have one of Corsair's PC cases, you can find a specific guide for your case in the links below.
Hexus
TechRadar
Neoseeker
Overclock3D
Overclock3D
ProClockers
TweakTown
Overclockers Club
