It’s been a long wait, but builders of Intel systems finally have some things to celebrate. Namely, the Pentium D 820 and 830 processors offer a relatively inexpensive dual-core path to those looking to make the move. At the same time, the associated DDR2 SDRAM has only gotten faster while prices have dropped sharply. Among those companies competing on ever-slimmer margins for your DDR2 dollars, Corsair offers a value line promising remarkably good performance, their TWIN2X-5400C4 kits.

Some readers may scoff at the notion of CAS4 RAM, but it’s important to remember that at its rated data rate of 675MHz, CAS4 is the real-time equivalent of PC4000 CAS3. And while we’ve certainly reviewed quicker RAM in Crucial’s Ballistix DDR2, the bottom line here is absolute: This 1GB kit cost far less than the vaunted Ballistix at any speed! With so much value on the surface, can these modules offer the performance and stability needed to make good on the promise through rigorous testing?