Corsair Memory today announced their new XMS3500 memory modules for gamers and overclockers. The novelties are designed to work at 434MHz with CAS2 and provide peak theoretical memory bandwidth of up to 3.5GB/s. The 256MB module is marked as CMX256A-3500C2, while the 512MB one is marked as CMX512-3500C2.

In order to make the modules work at 434MHz with CAS Latency factor 2, Corsair Memory had to change the formula that represents the other timings of the module. As a result, the new devices can be described as "2-4-4-8-1" (CAS Latency - RAS Precharge - RAS-to-CAS Delay - RAS Active to Precharge - Command Rate), while the previous products’ formula was 2-2-2-5-1. Frankly speaking, only the first and the last parameters can affect the performance, while the remaining are not very important in almost all the cases, hence, the speed of the modules will still be higher compared to the cheap devices with CL3 and so on.

Corsair Memory utilises 6 to 8 layer PCBs, special shielding against noise, 30 micron gold plating of the DIMM contacts, eliminating of parasitic capacities and inductivities, for their modules. Nevertheless, the company only validates one PC3500 module per system, because there may be some problems with such modules when working in pairs due to the shortcomings of memory controllers. The XMS3500 modules are shipped with a pre-installed aluminium heat spreader, which is available in either a black or a platinum finish.

It is quite strange, but the company performed their internal testing using VIA KT400 based mainboard with Athlon XP processors, while it would definitely be better and, maybe, a bit more useful to test them using the Pentium 4 based platform. The latter consumes more memory bandwidth, hence, it would have more performance gains from such memory.

The XMS3500 memory modules are available immediately. According to PriceWatch, one 512MB module costs starting from $206, almost two times more than the cheapest PC2700 device.