GeIL Enhance CORSA 1600MHz CL9 8GB DDR3 Review

👤by David Mitchelson Comments 📅07-12-11
Testing Methodologies & Overclocking

CPU Intel Core i5 2500K (3.3GHz)
Motherboard ASUS P8P67
Memory
- 8GB GeIL Enhance CORSA 1600MHz 9-9-9-28
- 8GB GeIL EVO CORSA 2133MHz 10-11-11-30
- 8GB Patriot G2 1600MHz 9-9-9-24
- 8GB G.Skill Sniper 1600MHz 9-9-9-24
- 4GB Kingston HyperX Special Edition 1600MHz 9-9-9-27
- 4GB G.Skill RipjawsX 1600MHz 7-8-7-24
- 4GB OCZ Reaper 1600MHz 8-8-8-26

CPU Cooler Noctua NH-D14
Graphics ZOTAC GTX 460
PSU OCZ Fatal1ty 750W

For the purpose of testing I will be using the Enhance CORSA kit and all subsequent Sandy Bridge memory on the ASUS P8P67 motherboard, using the Intel 2500K. Below is a photo of the recently reviewed EVO kit (uses the same size heatsink) showing clearance compatibility with Noctua NH-D14.


EVO CORSA kit installed on the ASUS P8P67 with Noctua NH-D14


Overclocking

With BCLK being fixed on the Sandy Bridge platform this has now altered the way we can overclock. Overclocking power with Sandy Bridge is concentrated on the CPU rather than memory. We do not have the flexibility we once had by changing the BCLK in order to move the frequencies in small increments, instead we have only set margins to move in because of the divider that is set. So available we have 1066MHz / 1600MHz / 1866MHz / 2133MHz / 2400MHz. In essence we have little room to experiment with, but let’s see what we can do.

Sadly, any kind of modification to this kit resulted in boot-up problems. I tried nudging the kit up to 1866MHz and increasing voltage with CAS timings and immediately i hit a barrier. Even trying to improve CAS timings by lowering slightly at stock frequency of 1600MHz resulted in issues. So below is the CPU-Z screenshot of stock settings.



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