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

Conclusion

Corsair did it again : The firm released a product that actually makes a difference in the enthusiast memory market space. If you have a powerful platform, the Dominator memory module will allow you to reach higher levels of system performance. This is particularly impressive as memory performance is not imperative for high overall performance with today’s dual-core processors and their large caches. As long as you have a reasonable amount of memory (ideally 2 GB), any decent memory at average timings will do the job. Deploying a faster processor or a more powerful graphics solution will usually give you a better bang for the buck than the highest-end memory product.

But there are people who don’t want to leave any stone unturned, meaning that they are eager to squeeze maximum performance out of every component - including the memory. If you want the best of the best, Corsair seems to have a new object of desire. Dominator sets out to rule.

Most people probably won’t be able to spend several hundred dollars on memory, but since Corsair wants to use this technology for all of its performance memory, we’re sure that there will be affordable products available soon as well.

Author’s Opinion

The performance gain of the Dominator memory is not very large, and you can expect the price premium for it to be substantial. Don’t forget that you can get a faster CPU for the price difference between standard DDR2-800 memory and the Dominator memory. However, if you want maximum performance this memory is impressive thanks toits ability to sustain CL4-4-4-12 timings at up to 1200 MHz. This product is for enthusiast and heavy overclockers who want it all.

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Related Articles :
Tight Timings vs High Clock Frequencies
Navigating the Memory Upgrade Jungle
In Search of True DDR2 Bleeding Edge Memory
How Much RAM Do You Really Need ?

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