Corsair to Continue Receiving Samsung TCCD Memory

Doggie Fizzle writes "Bigbruin.com has a review of some Corsair XMS TWINX1024-4400C25PT DDR, but info on the future of TCCD may be the most interesting part. TCCD chips are well known for their proven overclocking, but the buzz is that Samsung has stopped making TCCD chips, and that we will no longer see them on the market once the current supply runs out. Not true according to Corsair. According to a source quoted in the review, Corsair will soon be the only source of TCCD chips."

Comments

Oblig. Red Dwarf Reference

[JamesD_UK]

Personally I don't much like the XMSTWINX1024-4400C25PT. I think it's a jerky name. Still, it could be worse. I once knew an memory stick whose middle name was 2Q4B. Poor sucker!

Is there really a difference?

[Dancin_Santa]

I can't tell the difference between a machine running with this XMS memory and one with normal DDR SDRAM. Sure, I can see the difference in the benchmarks, but real-life speed isn't really a problem. For all intents and purposes, it's the same.

In addition, it's the limited bus speed of the x86 architecture that is the primary bottleneck these days. Running at only a fraction of the processor speed, memory accesses are slow because the bus can't keep up with the CPU and everything in turn waits for the bus to catch up. RAM running at any speed faster than the bus will be unnoticeable from the perspective of a user.

I don't think anyone thinks that we should all just sit around on our laurels and let technology stagnate, but really... Faster memory... Big whoop.

Re:Is there really a difference?

[taskforce]

Actually, the memory is kinda the bottleneck. Becuase current RAM technologies has a speed which matches the bus, increasing the bus higher it great except for the fact that RAM can't stand going that high. Most new Athlon64 boards with Hypertransport can hit 1.25Ghz bus speed (if you take into account the HT multipliers) but RAM speed dividers have to be used to keep the memory from dying, which as any overclocker knows is more often than not the problem with any overclock. (Most modern CPUs and motherboards have loads of bus speed overclockability in them.)

Re:Is there really a difference?

[dreamchaser]

Bus speed is not the limiting factor, especially not with AMD's x86 implementations. Memory *latency* is the biggest problem with high speed memory, and TCCD's are known to clock fairly high while maintaining low latencies.

Re:Is there really a difference?

[Ford Prefect]

I can't tell the difference between a machine running with this XMS memory and one with normal DDR SDRAM.

And there was me still having difficulty telling the difference between EMS and XMS memory - does anyone else feel that computer technology is leaving them behind?

I built myself a new PC earlier this year. Half the acronyms had changed since I'd built my previous one... ;-)

Re:Is there really a difference?

[Anonymous Coward]

Kind of the bottleneck? There is not "kind of" about it. It is one of the bottlenecks. Otherwise, why do we have caches?

And what does HT link speed have anything to do with memory on Athlon 64? Unless you're running multi-processor Opteron, CPU's memory accesses don't travel through the HT link. Internal path between CPU core(s) and DRAM inside K8 is way faster than any current DRAM technology can use. Not only that, it scales with K8's frequency, unlike HT or DRAM.

And what does that "hit 1.25GHz" tell you anyway? First of all, HT links are double-pumped, so 1.25GHz at 8-bit link is 2.5GB/s (minus overhead). Same at 16-bit link is 5.0GB/s (minus overhead). Frequency alone doesn't tell you anything. I fear the original poster may have been thinking that since it's 1.25GHz (>>400MHz of DDR400), it's plenty. Yeah right. Dual-channel DDR400 has 128-bit bus width (6.4GB/s), not that this has anything to do with memory bottleneck since CPU/DRAM traffic does not travel on the HT links.

Who's modding these "Insightful?"

Re:Is there really a difference?

[developer55]

"Sure, I can see the difference in the benchmarks, but real-life..."

Real life?
For many on this site, benchmarks are "real life"

Re:Is there really a difference?

[Metasquares]

Aren't the memory controllers on new AMD processors on-die now anyway? That'd make the bus speed irrelevant to memory performance (according to the hype, anyway).

Re:Is there really a difference?

[jacksonj04]

I just built my brother a new PC, and at the end realised that I hadn't ripped my hands to shreds, broken at least 6 fingernails, had to re-solder pins on the motherboard, or used 17 different types of mounting screw. The case speaker header on the motherboard even had proper male connectors!

Where's the fun in that?

Re:Is there really a difference?

[StuffJustHappens]

It's easy - STFU and RTFM ;-p

Re:Is there really a difference?

[Zackbass]

Parent is funny because it's true. This isn't "upgrade to make our system go faster" RAM, it's "upgrade so you can go futher out of spec on your FSB to go faster RAM". It's simply pushing the overclocking wall a little bit further out. It's all right there in the article.

Re:Is there really a difference?

[Saeger]

I too built my new PC in February, but only really noticed a handful of acronym changes in the 3 years since my last build:

AGP -> PCI-Express
ATA -> SATA-{1,2}
GDDR -> DDR (on my vid card)

Supply and demand?

[moz25]

How much demand is there actually for these chips? Obviously it's not *that* high as there would be no point in discontinuing them otherwise. Corsair has built themselves a strong reputation for the niche market of overclockers and this will strengthen their position.

Re:Supply and demand?

[tomstdenis]

This just in, spending 200$ per MB for memory to get a 0.01% speed boost has been determined to be not worth it.

It is cool to have low latency high freq memory but honestly... In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter unless you're much faster or much slower.

A CL from 2.5 to 2 is faster ... but you're not going to really notice it.

Now say double the bus width or frequency with a CL of 2 ... that would be a nice increase in speed.

The other problem is these DDR/QDR schemes... if you want say 5 bytes of some line in memory somewhere... you're at the mercy of the address speed not the read speed.

Tom

Re:Supply and demand?

[hlygrail]

There is actually quite a large demand for these chips among PC builders who know what they can do. The average Joe who walks in and says "I want more memory" isn't going to have a clue, or a care, about these chips. But they do make a distinct difference.

I recently built myself an Athlon64 (3200+) system and put in a 1GB (2x512MB) set of Corsair "value brand DDR memory (recommended by the motherboard manufacturer, DFI). I had stability problems at stock speeds all around and RMA'd the first pair. When I had the same problems with the second pair, I gave up and went to the TwinX PC4400 memory (TWINX1024-4400C25) with TCCD chips.

I haven't regretted the extra money once. Although I hadn't intended to do an excessive amount of overclocking, this system is totally stable (24 hours of Prime95 and 24 hours of Memtest86+ in a ~82F room) at nearly a 50% overclock on the CPU and memory both, with stock cooling on everything. You just can *not* do that with value branded memory, much of which isn't ever tested before being sold.

Also, with the TwinX label, you're getting a matched pair of sticks, so timings and overclocking aside, things just work out better, and it's a pretty sure bet that the sticks won't turn out bad when under load.

(I used to buy only Micron for SDRAM because I got sick of flaky systems only to have Memtest confirm a bad memory stick, but Micron's DDR memory isn't up there in the quality rankings just yet.)

Review

[dawnread]

A review of these chips compaing performance on AMD and Intel processors!

There Is No

[Anonymous Coward]

Such word as noone! No One is NOT A COMPOUND WORD!
First one to spell no one as noone is a moron!

Re:There Is No

[Kaenneth]

english is a living language.

no 'astronauts' 100 years ago.

'bling' wasn't a word 10 years ago.

I once had a teacher that used to say " 'um' is not a word, it is not in the dictionary. " whenever a student speaker said 'um'. When she did it to me I open the dictionary on her desk to the 'U's...

um also umm Audio pronunciation of "um", interjection.

Used to express doubt or uncertainty or to fill a pause when hesitating in speaking.

2 days suspension for insubordination.

Re:There Is No

[FrostedWheat]

'bling' wasn't a word 10 years ago.

And won't be again in 10 years.

Hopefully.

Re:There Is No

[WIAKywbfatw]

I can't tell you how gusperred I'll be when that's true.

Re:There Is No

[youngerpants]

It's a perfectly cromulent word!

Re:There Is No

[Deusy]

You're just jealous of my BLING BLING! Eeeee-asy now!

Re:There Is No

[PakProtector]

Stuponfucious

Re:There Is No

[OldeTimeGeek]

'bling' wasn't a word 10 years ago.

Is bling a word?

Re:There Is No

[Minwee]

And its use embiggens us all.

Re:Such a good idea?

[Breakfast Pants]

That isn't true at all. Gratned you got the first post, but you did so by completely making something up on a topic on which you have no knowledge. Samsung's packages are what made TCCD chips known for their overclocking abilities. Almost any article you read about it, Samsung's packages are the ones being overclocked.

i didn't know you could overclock DDR

[circletimessquare]

you would think that at a certain speed, human legs and feet simply couldn't keep up

Re:i didn't know you could overclock DDR

[Minwee]

Obviously we haven't been going to the same arcades.

Corsair is STILL receiving memory chips

[Zog The Undeniable]

And in other news, the earth is STILL spinning, Keira Knightley is STILL hot and most Slashdotters STILL aren't getting some. Really, is this a newsworthy story? And yes, I did read TFA. Thank you for wasting 2 minutes of my life ;-)

Re:Corsair is STILL receiving memory chips

[TobyWong]

Are you an overclocker?

Based on your comment I would have to say no.

The supply of new TCCD chips is of great interest to anyone in the OC community.

Re:Corsair is STILL receiving memory chips

[karnal]

Hell, I'm married and I hardly get any.

Name?

[Bananatree3]

Imagine....

Sales Clerk:May I help you?

Customer:Yes, I was wanting to ask about that new Corsair RAM.

Sales Clerk:Which one?

Customer:Oh you know, the one with the really long, hard-to-understand name...

Sales Clerk:pardon?

Customer:Ummm, the one with random letters and numbers in it...

Sales Clerk:Sir, if you wish to speak to me, please do so coherently.

Customer: (!#*$! If I could only remember that @!#!@# name!)

Re:Name?

[Scarblac]

Customer: It's the XMSTWINX1024-4400C25PT. Finally!

Sales Clerk: No... I'm still not getting anything... Er, could you try it in a higher register?

Customer: What do you mean in a higher register?

Sales Clerk: What?

Customer (in a high-pitched voice): I wish to have one memory stick XMSTWINX1024-4400C25PT.

Sales Clerk: Ah! That's it, hang on a moment.

Re:Name?

[crunchly]

Ah, so you were shopping at Radio Shack. That explains it.

e.e. cummings

[Potor]

e.e. cummings used noone, and poets (e.g. Shakespeare, Goethe) generally define acceptable language.

Re:e.e. cummings

[grouse]

poets (e.g. Shakespeare, Goethe) generally define acceptable language.

That's a pretty ludicrous assertion. Especially the idea of e.e. cummings determining the English language.

Re:e.e. cummings

[Potor]

Um, what are you talking about? Poets and writers are the guardians of orthography and style. This in mind, the works of Shakespeare and King James Bible have had an incalculable influence on modern English, just like Goethe and Luther's Bible on Modern German.

Anyway, if some AC will tell me that noone is not a word, and e.e. cummings uses it to excellent effect, well, who do you think has the greater opinion?

I guess that, since this is slashdot, it is the notion of incalculable that bothers you ...

Re:e.e. cummings

[powerlord]

Exactly. I remember my English teacher in High School tell me that I couldn't just make up my own words because they helped fit the meter. She said I wasn't E.E.Cummings yet (although she did smile and didn't take off any points for it).

Paging Ralph Nader

[Mille Mots]

When will the public wake up and realize that these big corporations are only in it for the buck? They don't care about our safety!

These Corsairs are Unsafe At Any Speed!

Uhh, what's that? Corvair? Uh, never mind.

Re:Paging Ralph Nader

[superpulpsicle]

I don't know why you referenced a book from Ralph Nader as a prove that the memory sticks are unsafe. But hells, I love the idea! Please do it for Bush next time.

Overclocking Dance Dance Revolution makes

[tepples]

Overclocking Dance Dance Revolution makes In The Groove. You try doing a 13-footer (Pandemonium oni, 11-step-per-second runs stretched over 2 minutes) and tell me if you're overclocked.

Above that rate, people tend to play on the keyboard, and the game turns into Beatmania.

Re:XMS TWINX1024-4400C25PT DDR

[El_Servas]

It depends
In spanish you would say something like...
"Equis Eme Ese Twin Equis mil veinticuatro guion cuatro mil cuatrocientos ce veinticinco pe te de de erre."

------
"Me da por favor dos dimms Equis Eme Ese Twin Equis mil veinticuatro guion cuatro mil cuatrocientos ce veinticinco pe te de de erre?" :)