Corsair's XMS2 Dominator: The World's Fastest DDR2?

pschmid

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Corsair has applied its DHX heat sink technology to PC2-8888 1 GB modules, promising greater performance and reliability for the enthusiast. We put it to the test and see if their claims hold true.
 

vikris

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Commercial, nothing special in this review. I saw an increased performance for 2-3%, nothing more, just more cash.
 

niz

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These won't even fit in most cases, as the motherboard ram slots are usually under the side of the HD/CD drive cage.

There's not enough space for the extra heatsink height + fan height. In my case, I couldn't fit just the ram in because of the extra heatsink height alone even if I didn't fit the fans.
 

The_OGS

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Corsair's XMS2 Dominator: The World's Fastest DDR2?
Nice memory :^)
Forget the silly fan-thing (whose fans should be blowing up not down, right?) and be happy that speeds are getting higher and timings are becoming tighter.
I bet those sticks will do CAS3 at 800DDR, no problem LoL!
Nobody 'needs' the increased speed/bandwidth but we could all use CAS3 timings at something below 2.3V...
Corsair PC2-6400 CAS4 is great stuff, but too costly - however, these developments indicate this will be a more mainstream part in 2007.
The Dominators sure look kewl though, heheh (givin' me a chubb...)
Regards
 

hball

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Corsair has applied its DHX heat sink technology to PC2-8888 1 GB modules, promising greater performance and reliability for the enthusiast. We put it to the test and see if their claims hold true.

I would have liked to see these sticks compared to these mushkins, these Patriots, these OCZs and these GSkills. Why not show the competition?

Because quite honestly, Corsair is the king and all these others are just playing catch up. On the other hand, I would certainly agree that the extra performance isn't worth the extra cost. However, it doesn't change the fact that Corsair is the king.

hball
 

clue69less

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I would have liked to see these sticks compared to these mushkins, these Patriots, these OCZs and these GSkills. Why not show the competition?

Because quite honestly, Corsair is the king and all these others are just playing catch up. On the other hand, I would certainly agree that the extra performance isn't worth the extra cost. However, it doesn't change the fact that Corsair is the king.

So the way it works is that nobody gets to challenge the king?

I think not! Some hard-core OC'ers have done very well with some of the sticks I link.
 

niz

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Corsair's XMS2 Dominator: The World's Fastest DDR2?
Nice memory :^)
Forget the silly fan-thing (whose fans should be blowing up not down, right?) and be happy that speeds are getting higher and timings are becoming tighter.
I bet those sticks will do CAS3 at 800DDR, no problem LoL!
Nobody 'needs' the increased speed/bandwidth but we could all use CAS3 timings at something below 2.3V...
Corsair PC2-6400 CAS4 is great stuff, but too costly - however, these developments indicate this will be a more mainstream part in 2007.
The Dominators sure look kewl though, heheh (givin' me a chubb...)
Regards

I read somewhere on the Corsair website that they are actually 'electrically the same' as the 6400c3 product, whatever that means. The chips on the 6400c3 are already hand-selected, so presumably that means for the dominators they are just even more tightly hand-selected. Equally possible is that they just glued a heatsink on to some 6400c3s and that its just the active cooling that makes a difference.

The extra $150 bucks or so for a matched pair of 2gb dominators over a matched pair of 6400c3s seems too much to me, given the hardly measureable OC improvement it means to apps/games. It just seems like a nerd-tax.
 

clue69less

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I read somewhere on the Corsair website that they are actually 'electrically the same' as the 6400c3 product. The chips on the 6400c3 are already hand-selected, so presumably that means for the dominators they are just even more tightly hand-selected.

That's right, the individual chips get binned for premium product. Then, after the sticks are assembled, they get burned in, then go on a rig and their performance is checked. Some manufacturers do extensive testing and their product quality is a result.

More probable is that its just the heatsink + active cooling that makes a difference.

It can't hurt...

The extra $150 bucks or so for a matched pair of 2gb dominators over a matched pair of 6400c3s seems too much to me, given the hardly measureable OC improvement it means to apps/games.

One of the reasons I asked for more comparisons is that the benchmarks didn't show a whole lot of advantage. I'd think that the value of tigher timings and/or higher bandwidth will vary depending on the CPU, mobo and their setup. I look forward to controlled comparisons of the new high end DDR2 on a variety of systems, especially after the next round or two of mobo and bios tweaks. I don't think that the memory makers are gutting their customers on expensive RAM - instead I think it's not trivial to find premium chips that will deliver.
 

The_OGS

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I'd think that the value of tigher timings and/or higher bandwidth will vary
Yes - but typically there is not much benefit to excessive bandwidth (especially if it comes at the cost of latency).
However, tighter timings will always have an immediate, tangible effect.
The CAS latency and speed in MHz for a given chip are inversely proportional, so CAS3 at 533MHz = CAS4 at 800MHz = CAS5 at 1066MHz or whatever... no surprise to you people, but news to some folks.
I am running my OCZ memory @533MHz @CAS3 at very low voltage, which pleases me greatly.
Surely this is much more important than having some huge bandwidth @CAS5...
Note: ABit BIOS for P965 mobo (AB9) shipped ver/ 1.2 and worked great with my Conroe and OCZ, posted right up no problem when built ~1 month ago.
Default = 1.8V memory (worked okay for me @ 533DDR).
Since then, ver/ 1.3 and 1.4 BIOS releases have increased Default voltage to 2.0V!
So clearly some folks were having issues. Hey, many mobos won't even give you as much as 2.0V, LoL, so that's a good thing.
Intel users are going nuts trying to get 800DDR or higher speeds - why?
Clearly, having tighter timings at a lower (synchronous) speed is more attractive,
L8R
 

clue69less

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Yes - but typically there is not much benefit to excessive bandwidth (especially if it comes at the cost of latency).
However, tighter timings will always have an immediate, tangible effect.

The recent Tom's article that addressed tight timings vs. high clock was not definitive, at times agreeing with your position, at times disagreeing. I've seen similar commentary elsewhere. No doubt, many hard core overclockers have found success by searching out a low latency solution. On one of my boxes, I get better performance for imaging and video apps by going the medium timings/high bandwidth route. I've only spent maybe 500 hours on that overclock thus far so maybe I'm not optimized.
 

Redbeard

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Corsair's XMS2 Dominator: The World's Fastest DDR2?
Nice memory :^)
Forget the silly fan-thing (whose fans should be blowing up not down, right?) and be happy that speeds are getting higher and timings are becoming tighter.
I bet those sticks will do CAS3 at 800DDR, no problem LoL!


We designed the fans so that they would push airflow across the fins of the heatsink. Drawing in cooler air and blowing it over the modules proved most effective in our testing.

The Dominator design was done in order to drive technology forward. It's not a price/performance ratio part, just like a Ferrari isn't. Our goal was to make the world's fastest memory and we did that, at a price. It's extremely difficult to make.

The ICs used are the same ICs we've used on the 6400C3 modules, Micron rev D. There's no secret to this, as every manufacturer with high-end memory is using these ICs. The difference is these are screened at the IC level extensively, then built onto modules and screened at the module level as well. Then we add heatsinks and screen them once again. We have, without a doubt, the most extensive and effective screening process in the industry, as shown by our rock-solid stability and the fact that we make the world's fastest DDR2 modules.

For some of you guys who say "this is nothing you couldn't do yourself", you're right.

If you had a few hundred thousand ICs from Micron and a $100,000 tester, you could screen the ICs yourself. You could pay a few thousand dollars to have somebody custom design you a PCB for the memory, then a few more thousand dollars to buy a bunch of them. Then if you had some soldering equipment designed for RAM you could build up some modules, and if you had a few of the world's fastest DDR2 motherboards (right now, the M2N32-SLI from Asus is pretty nice) you could test them at that level, provided you had a good memory test. Then you could go to a machine shop and have them craft you a couple of heatsinks for them. You put those on there, and screen them again, and after all that, your 100,000 ICs have turned into maybe 10 modules that will do 8888 at C4 @ 2.4V. So you take the rest of your ICs and make 6400C3s, 6400C4s, 8500C5s, etc. And those 10 modules cost more than they might be worth to some people, just like that Ferrari costs more than it would be worth to some people.

But then again, some people want the fastest in the world and are willing to pay for it.

We still make great value parts. The 5400C4s are good overclockers, the 6400 parts are great as well.
 

niz

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One of the reasons I asked for more comparisons is that the benchmarks didn't show a whole lot of advantage. I'd think that the value of tigher timings and/or higher bandwidth will vary depending on the CPU, mobo and their setup. I look forward to controlled comparisons of the new high end DDR2 on a variety of systems, especially after the next round or two of mobo and bios tweaks. I don't think that the memory makers are gutting their customers on expensive RAM - instead I think it's not trivial to find premium chips that will deliver.

One of the things I like enough about Corsair memory to be a purchasing factor is the inclusion of EPP. It basically tells the motherboard how hard it can be overclocked so if you have an nVidia chipset you can leave it to the motherboard's proprietary overclocking system to get it right.
 

3lfk1ng

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Corsair, epp, sli certified, best looking, the fastest...but not by a large margin.
I wanna see these "sisoft sandra" against the new OCZ and the current Mushkin i have heard so many great things about.

Most likely I buy these when they aren't $150 over the other comparable modules.

Corsair Rocks!
 

clue69less

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One of the reasons I asked for more comparisons is that the benchmarks didn't show a whole lot of advantage. I'd think that the value of tigher timings and/or higher bandwidth will vary depending on the CPU, mobo and their setup. I look forward to controlled comparisons of the new high end DDR2 on a variety of systems, especially after the next round or two of mobo and bios tweaks. I don't think that the memory makers are gutting their customers on expensive RAM - instead I think it's not trivial to find premium chips that will deliver.

One of the things I like enough about Corsair memory to be a purchasing factor is the inclusion of EPP. It basically tells the motherboard how hard it can be overclocked so if you have an nVidia chipset you can leave it to the motherboard's proprietary overclocking system to get it right.

That's fine for you. I overclock the old fashioned way: I EARN it. Actually, I've piddled with the automated scheme enough to know I'd rather do it myself. Alas, you have a solution you're happy with, and I have mine. I wonder how what percentage of hard core overclockers use the mobo's system to do their OC??? I've never seen one of the owners of a large OC machine on XS being done on auto. Ahh, what do they know? Wusy, why doesn't your C2D OC manual tout the advantages of automated overclocking?
 

niz

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That's fine for you. I overclock the old fashioned way: I EARN it. Actually, I've piddled with the automated scheme enough to know I'd rather do it myself. Alas, you have a solution you're happy with, and I have mine. I wonder how what percentage of hard core overclockers use the mobo's system to do their OC??? I've never seen one of the owners of a large OC machine on XS being done on auto. Ahh, what do they know? Wusy, why doesn't your C2D OC manual tout the advantages of automated overclocking?

I agree that manual tweaking is the best way to go, but the automated system gives you a good starting point.

You can iterate through many 'tweak/stability test/re-tweak cycles before you get to your absolute best configuration. Depending on your carefulness, each 'stability test' phase may take at least a couple of hours before you're happy its really stable. Starting from the automated best OC point rather than 'not-overclocked' point could save you a lot of time.
 

The_OGS

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Hi Redbeard,
Thanks for posting, we love to hear Knowledge.
Forget the silly fan-thing (whose fans should be blowing up not down, right?)
Of course that's just wrong - up is not even up anymore, when a tower case is righted, LoL. Sorry 'bout that, I was just saying we probably won't require it. But it's a good thing.
Who said they could make memory chips like Corsair themselves? Hah! Good luck, LoL. No way.
Redbeard, does my OCZ use those good chips too? It is in my sig and they call it Revision2 edition...?
I still suspect benchmarks that measure strictly memory bandwidth might not get you much more than the Sandra Crown, but certain situations can benefit it's true.
Heck, now they can make the CPU FSBs much faster without any memory bottlenecks whatsoever (no problem at all, LoL)
So, who's the big competition Redbeard? It's OCZ right?
I've been buying Corsair for years, never a problem.
My old Corsair (TwinX DDR) would come up 2-2-2-5, didn't matter what speed, it always came up automatically. It is now old but still running flawlessly for its new owner...
I would have Corsair now but they were out of stock... heheh.
I can tell you that my OCZ heatshields are kinda warped and pulling away from the chips. They looked real pretty, new in the package. Hmmm...
Regards
 

niz

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The smarter bunch who doesn't want to get ripped off by you guys goes out and hunt for the correct modules w/ Micron D9GKX with the right binning to reach 550Mhz 4-4-4-12 @2.45V.
That's what every AM2 overclockers should be doing.

Quite frankly, I know more about your gimmick company than you do.

How do you find modules with the right binning? I've never seen that information in any specs...
 

1Tanker

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Corsair has applied its DHX heat sink technology to PC2-8888 1 GB modules, promising greater performance and reliability for the enthusiast. We put it to the test and see if their claims hold true.
In Canada, this stuff is absurdly priced. Better to jump to a higher model CPU. If you already have the top model, then spend the extra on a Phase-change set-up. :wink:

$799.99 CAD
http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=5133

$740.72 CAD
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=20540&vpn=TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF&manufacture=CORSAIR

And these 2 online-stores are 2 of the cheapest in Canada. 8O