Sent to us behind but a thin plastic sheen as every high performance module on the market today, the first thing that slid into our minds after looking at these modules was just a simple "wow". The sleek, sexy black modules capped in the LED bars arrived tucked snugly in the package, coddled in amongst a sea of foam peanuts. Across the packaging was just some rudimentary information about the model name of the modules (TWINX-2048-3500LL), not to mention the varying awards bestowed upon this memory over its lengthy lifespan. While there might be absolutely no information on the packaging regarding ideal voltages and timings, all this can be found on the spacious corsair stickers donned by the monstrous heat spreaders.
While much of the information is sealed below a clear topcoat on the sticker, the version of the sticks (in our case, Version 2) rubs off all too easily. As to the contents of the sticker, it lets us know that these modules are rated to pull off speeds of 217 MHz (DDR433) with latencies of 2-3-2-5. What the sticker does not tell you however is that the modules offer an optimum level of voltage. Considering that reports in the wild have indicated these sticks to be saddled with Infineon CE-6 memory chips, which are known to respond well to either stupendously low, or reasonable voltages. To those of you who would prefer us to be a little less vague, that translates into a range of 2.2 up to 2.8 volts. Unfortunately, there are precious few users (namely owners of the DFI Expert Series of motherboards) that will ever see voltages this low, but there are users nonetheless. Moving from what's underneath the jet black aluminum to the spreaders themselves, the first and most noticeable thing to find is the large embossed XMS logo, fed by welling ridges along the sides of the dims. Above this, a large recessed area holds the black and green stickers as described before, along with other information, such as a link to the product webpage and a serial number. Further north from these impressions is another collection of ridges before the top of these unusually high modules is crested. Adorning the upper strip are what have made the Pro line famous - a duet of LED bars which pulse in unison to indicate memory utilization.
Flanking these bars to the sides are wee versions of the corsair logo, as well as Corsair spelled out in nice white block letters. While the Pro modules may be wide, they aren't quite as wide as some other modules on the market, so they can be easily stuffed into slots next to each other. While this might be just fine for DDR400 operation, you'll find out just how fast these sticks heat up when the clocks head sky high. Perhaps the only issue we have to said modules is that when they're installed vertically, or in strangely placed slots, the Corsair lettering begins to look as if it'll slip from the modules, well, either that, or that it clings to it's life hanging from an upside-down stick. More importantly however, these heat spreaders do add looks to functionality, yet having more heat dissipation area on memory is really irrelevant when you have a fair deal of CFM being pushed over the sticks with a beefy fan. That being said, our overclocking was done under the aid of such a fan, mostly due to the fact that these modules rather liked the taste of grilled flesh when run bare. That being said, let's just see how far above spec they can be pushed.
