Corsair talks DDR3, EPP and Overclocking

In a performance gaming “trax” seminar held by Intel yesterday, Corsair detailed some of the upcoming DDR3 products it is currently readying:

• Corsair DDR3 modules will be out before the P35 (Bearlake) motherboards arrive in the next few weeks.
  
  
• Corsair will ship both standard 1066MHz XMS3 modules with heatspreaders as well as 1333MHz modules with DHX technology.
  
  
• Only the ultra high end will be “Dominator” branded, but a larger range is set to use the DHX heatsink technology.

Corsair also delved into a little spontaneous Q&A and revealed that they have tried watercooling but have found it offers very little for cooling unless you pass water right over the memory chips. Due to the extreme limitation of space between the memory modules, this makes it extremely difficult to do effectively. Also, the technological challenge of cost reduction, large investment in extra kit for little gain and end user ease of use just put them off entirely.

Corsair slips us some DDR3 details

Today, bit-tech managed to get a word with John Beekley, one of the Co-Founders of Corsair Memory from back in 1994, to help confirm some details from yesterday’s event.

• Since EPP is synonymous with Nvidia motherboards, I asked John if we’d be seeing it more available with Intel motherboards. He replied that the Bad Axe 2, based on the Intel 975X chipset already has EPP included but Corsair and Intel are working closely together to ensure future performance motherboards also include it as well.
  
  
• bit-tech has been wondering for a while why Corsair chooses to use three 40mm fans instead of a single axial fan for its Triflow module. John informed us that Corsair looked at this as an option, but were unable to come up with a solution that was acceptable from a cost or aesthetic standpoint. And in its testing it found that the current solution provided excellent results already.
  
  
• We enquired as to what memory chips would be used on Corsair's DDR3 1333MHz DHX modules and if it was still using Micron, like many of its DDR2 modules use? Although he wasn’t sure exactly what was being used in the future performance modules, Corsair is currently looking at two vendors but neither of which are Micron.
  
  
• Finally we asked when can we expect to see low latency DDR3 modules, rather than the CAS6 or 7 we are currently seeing due to hit the market. John reminded us that it depended on what the motherboard will accept, so we can only assume the first generation DDR3 chipsets won’t be as tweak-friendly as we’re currently used to with DDR2. He also pointed out that DDR3 is optimised for high memory frequencies, so it is not really clear yet how low the latencies will go.

And finally on a related note, the new performance Intel X38 chipset to supersede the aging Intel 975X will be arriving on the 3rd or 4th of June, depending when your Week (33) starts. In other words, we'll see an announcement at Computex.

Discuss in the forums.

Update (17:20 in Beijing): After spotting a "DDR3 Wall" in the hall downstairs where venders show off their own Intel related wares, I had a nose at the timings each module is rated. On average they are shipping with around a CAS-6 or 7, with nothing currently any quicker.