Results:

Stock speeds

   Well, that's pretty conclusive. 2GB of high quality ram has no limitations over 1GB of ram at stock speeds. When you look at just the 2GB kits, they have the exact same settings. This basically proves right out that there is a difference between the cheap stuff, and the good stuff.

Over-clocked speeds

   Now, for all the overclocking, I was using the stock heatsink, so I wasn't able to get up to 2700 MHZ or any real high clock like that. But I was able to get decent numbers with both Corsair sets. And true to their claims, the XMS 4000 was the only set that I could use 250mhz with, though the fastest speeds were using 11 multiplyers.

   This is truly the ram you want if you are going to overclock an AMD 64, 500mhz (effective) is what you need to use to get the best performance. I did not notice the ram getting any hotter, but I do not have an accurate method to mesure their temperatures.

Longterm use:

   Quite simple here, since I recieved the XMS 4000PT in mid december, I have not had a single crash. There is no real difference in temperature from the older corsair

Conclusion:

    Compared to the Value ram, Corsairs XMS 4000PT is definitely a lot faster. The ability to reliably go to 250mhz speeds (when paired with a motherboard capable of it) means that you don’t need to sacrifice speed for capacity.

   From my use, real world performance does not seem to be largely affected by the difference in most day to day uses. Where you do start to notice extra performance, is ripping DVD’s or other applications where large amounts of information need to be swapped in and out of ram quickly. For most games, you aren’t going to notice any difference. More ram will almost always out perform faster ram when it comes to games.

Pros:

• Fast, 250MHZ

• Reliable / Lifetime Warrantee

• Large size

Cons:

• Real-world performance gains might not be seen by some

Extra observations:

   I found that even with 2GB of ram, playing battlefield 2 at any setting above “low” still chopped quite regularly, and still noticeably (yet playable). So I decided to see what would happen if I put Corsair’s XMS 4000, with GeIL’s  2GB value ram in at the same time.

   While the performance of the Corsair ram was reduced to the level of GeIL, it completely eliminated any chop while playing the game. (even at 1600x1200 and high settings). Since I use a 32 bit windows, I only have 3.37GB useable instead of 4GB, but it still works, and I had no reliability issues. It’s just disturbing that any game needs more than 2GB to run completely smooth.