Fastest Memory Race Heats Up - Corsair Announces 2533MHz DDR3

The whole 'fastest memory' halo product race is a bit of a farce.  In terms of DDR3, Corsair started the race back in 2007 with their first set of Dominator modules, running at 1600Mhz, 10-8-8-24.  This has been followed and bested, mainly by Corsair, but with sneak appearances by Kingston, G.Skill and Patriot (see below).

Available as single sticks from the Corsair website, these new GTX4 modules will set you back $325 for each 2GB stick.  With rather slack timings of 9-11-10-30 at 1.65V, each module is handtested using a Core i7 Lynnfield CPU on a Gigabyte P55 motherboard.  Michal Nowicki, Corsair's inhouse overclocker, advises that 'most CPUs will require sub-ambient cooling to run [these modules] at their maximum speed'.

Despite the lifetime warranty and the ability to boast about a 'halo' product, I can't see a point in these sticks - even for overclockers.  With such slack timings to begin with, I wonder just how much headroom is available, when other 2400+ kits with better timings are available.  At $325 a stick, you really are shooting yourself in the foot.

But alas, these modules will sell, and Corsair know they will.

A brief (and abridged) history on the latest and greatest memory is summarised below: