The first kit was Corsair 2x1GB XMS3500LLPro. Infineon chips on this RAM meant good timings but didn't benefit from increased voltage. Maxed out @ 245 2.5,3,2,6 2.7v. Not going to get close to going 1:1 to 300 HTT 
The second kit was Corsair 2x1GB XMS4000pt. Samsung UCCC chips have looser timings than Infineon but i saw reviews with this RAM running over 290Mz so i wanted to try it. This RAM didn't want to budge off it's stock speeds. Would bench at 255Mhz but would only be Prime stable on stock 250Mhz. Voltage all the way to 3.0v didn't help tighten the timings and achieve Prime stablity even at stock. Maybe a hint of that whole DFI/Corsair incompatability question mark?
All the previous o/clocks had benched ok. The 3500 pair couldn't get me to 3Ghz without running them near stock speed on a divider. The 4000 pair got me to 3Ghz but only at 250Mhz 3,4,4,8. To get great benches on air cooling i wanted RAM that would go 300Mhz at good timings. So.....
Crucial Ballistix. This article decided it for me....
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2676&p=5
...and one of the previous best with the Corsair memory..
Would have like to have tried Mushkin Redline 4000 2x1GB but availability is poor. The Crucial Ballistix performs better but has that reliability question. According to the AnandTech article...
..."some users have been killing their Crucial Ballistix 2GB kits. It appears that the culprit is high memory voltages. We did a survey of a number of Forums and found that, in most cases, the memory was dying at voltages of 2.85V and higher. Our advice, which we also followed in benchmarking for this review, is to keep voltages below 2.85V with the 2GB Crucial Ballistix kits."
Haven't pushed my luck so far with a one shot benchmarking run. I need better cooling to go beyond 3.06Ghz. Needed to loosen timings a bit once i reached 290, to be able to boot, from 3,4,4,8,6 1T to 3,4,4,10,8 1T 2.8v. Good as gold on 300Mhx now.
The second kit was Corsair 2x1GB XMS4000pt. Samsung UCCC chips have looser timings than Infineon but i saw reviews with this RAM running over 290Mz so i wanted to try it. This RAM didn't want to budge off it's stock speeds. Would bench at 255Mhz but would only be Prime stable on stock 250Mhz. Voltage all the way to 3.0v didn't help tighten the timings and achieve Prime stablity even at stock. Maybe a hint of that whole DFI/Corsair incompatability question mark?
All the previous o/clocks had benched ok. The 3500 pair couldn't get me to 3Ghz without running them near stock speed on a divider. The 4000 pair got me to 3Ghz but only at 250Mhz 3,4,4,8. To get great benches on air cooling i wanted RAM that would go 300Mhz at good timings. So.....
Crucial Ballistix. This article decided it for me....
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2676&p=5
...and one of the previous best with the Corsair memory..
Would have like to have tried Mushkin Redline 4000 2x1GB but availability is poor. The Crucial Ballistix performs better but has that reliability question. According to the AnandTech article...
..."some users have been killing their Crucial Ballistix 2GB kits. It appears that the culprit is high memory voltages. We did a survey of a number of Forums and found that, in most cases, the memory was dying at voltages of 2.85V and higher. Our advice, which we also followed in benchmarking for this review, is to keep voltages below 2.85V with the 2GB Crucial Ballistix kits."
Haven't pushed my luck so far with a one shot benchmarking run. I need better cooling to go beyond 3.06Ghz. Needed to loosen timings a bit once i reached 290, to be able to boot, from 3,4,4,8,6 1T to 3,4,4,10,8 1T 2.8v. Good as gold on 300Mhx now.
