Corsair Vengeance Quad-Channel Memory Review - PAGE 1

Corsair Vengeance DDR3 memory modules are geared toward the enthusiast and overclocking communities. The reason the Vengeance memory modules can target these market segments is because they are selected for their high-performance and overclocking potential. In addition, all kits of Vengeance memory utilize an aluminum heat-spreader design that improves heat dissipation for overclocking and, if it matters, a sleek design that can be had in multiple colors.

The Vengeance memory kits examined today are designed for the new Sandy Bridge-E platform, as they utilize a quad-channel design. There is no real difference between dual, triple or even quad-channel memory kits, but since the host system can support a certain amount of channels there must be a certain amount of memory present for the system to run the appropriate amount of channels. That's the reason X58 motherboards required three modules to run in triple-channel mode and Sandy Bridge motherboards require two modules to run in dual-channel.

In our initial review of the SB-E platform, we observed a massive memory bandwidth increase in comparison to any other consumer based platform on the market. This allows SB-E to deliver amazing performance for data-intensive applications. However, how this translates into benefit for the average user has not yet been fully examined. So, in this review we intend to find out exactly how the increased memory bandwidth affects tasks such as gaming, video decoding and transferring files.

We'll be examining two kits of Corsair Vengeance memory; both are 16GB kits of DDR3 1600MHz memory rated at 1.5 volts, but each uses different settings and heatsink designs. The first is a standard Vengeance kit that utilizes a finned aluminum heat spreader design and has timings of 9-9-9-24. The second kit is the Vengeance LP (Low-Profile), which as the name suggests has a low-profile heat spreader that will allow the DIMMs to fit in tighter spaces. This kit also has slightly tighter timings of 8-8-8-24.

Both the Vengeance and Vengeance LP memory modules are currently available at retail and have a street price of $89 and $149, respectively. While the price of the LP kit we received is higher than the Vengeance kit, the difference in price is due to the tighter latencies and not the size of the heat spreader. So, any 16GB Vengeance kit with a CAS 8 rating is going to be around $149, while the CAS 9 models will retails around $89.