Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600MHz review

With 2GB now being the base RAM volume for general Windows 7 machines and 4GB the sweet-spot, on a dual-channel rig 8GB is the next logical step up. The issue though is whether going for higher capacity would serve you better than opting for a faster kit.

This is the real difficulty with looking at such large capacity set ups; you can pick up a 4GB Corsair Dominator GT kit for around the same sort of price that is rated at 2,133MHz. And that sort of pacey RAM can make a real difference to your system performance.

Higher capacities above 4GB though deliver less of a tangible benefit.

That is unless you're a serious picture/video editor however; you creative types then will see serious gains when you're working with large files. You'll also notice the difference if you're switching between different applications.

For those that are after gaming performance however then going for the higher-rated memory will make more sense.

A quick look at the benchmarks show the extra performance you'll get from the 2,133MHz kit. You'll also get a boost from lower-latency kits, such as the £60 4GB 1,600MHz which runs at 8-8-8-24 compared to the Vengeance kit's 9-9-9-24.

But still, £100-odd for the Corsair Vengeance 8GB kit of fast DDR3 is impressive, especially considering at this time last year that would have easily cost twice as much.

It also works out for the upgrader in a way too.

If you're sitting on a couple GB of 1600MHz RAM, you could whack your memory capacity into double figures simply by adding in this Corsair Vengeance kit. That would be silly amounts of RAM which nought but the budding Lars Von Trier among you could use to its fullest.

But the fact remains that as a twin module kit it wont fill up your board's memory slots means that it can be added in, or added to, in the future.

The jury is still out then on the speed versus capacity debate in RAM terms as well as in non-volatile storage terms.

It's not just the SSD vs HDD argument where this question is constantly raised. As with so many things it depends on the usage model; for most of us 8GB will be more than you'll currently need or notice, but for the creatives out there £100 for 8GB is well worth it.

We liked

Quite frankly at the moment 8GB is a bit of an overkill unless you use your PC predominantly for creative tasks such as video editing or image manipulation.

But at just over a ton for the lot it's hard to argue with the Vengeance kit's value.

We disliked

Unless you are a creative then opting for a faster-rated RAM kit will offer you more of a performance increase.

And compared with lower-latency 1,600MHz kits from Corsair the performance of this Vengeance kit comes in below it.