The Corsair Dominator Platinum Special Edition Torque series are one of the prettiest memory modules money can buy. The Heat-treated effect on the top bar and the black brushed heat spreader are a real feast to the eye. While some might want to debate the lack of RGB I find it daring that Corsair brings out a high end memory kit sporting just a solid white LED light.

Regarding speeds Corsair chose not to go straight into the higher frequency regions.  A wise choice as for most platforms 3200MHz is plenty for great all-round performance. Anyway, running 3600MHz is warranted thanks to the B-Die IC binning done by Corsair. Nevertheless how high you can push these will depend a lot on the opted platform you tend to run these sticks on. Running very high memory frequencies is not just a matter of plug in and play. The memory controller of your processor and the motherboard must be able to handle the provided bandwidth. For Intel's Z170/270 I see no problem, neither for X299. The older Intel X99 and any DDR4 AMD platform might be another cup of tea. Hence why Corsair labels these as optimized/compatible for Intel 100/200 platforms.

Secondly, while one would expect loose timings of CAS Latency 16, Corsair opted to go a bit tighter than most vendors and chose CAS 14 for their XMP profile. On paper this looks extremely good, but this lower latency will not make up for the raw frequency of slightly higher specced kits. Look at the tweaked results, plenty more power is up for grabs.

The tweaking potential is good for a quad channel kit, with speeds of up to 3800MHz on the X299 platform. Yet B-Die based IC memory kits are more than just raw frequencies. One can tune and tweak these to get the best performance possible. The 3600MHz CAS 13 clearly shows there is a lot more unexplored potential. Take note that these frequencies and timings could be used for daily usage and not solely for benchmarking. For the die-hard overclockers on Z270 we could run frequencies of 3866MHz at CAS 12. These settings are not for the faint-hearted as it required 1.85V DIMM. 4000MHz C12 was sadly not possible, with neither of the four sticks. If you are a die-hard OCer, better look elsewhere, this kit will not be your next World Record breaker.

Who will buy these Torque kits? Possibly users that like to have the most sexy memory kit on the planet, or the ones that prefer to use a limited Edition memory kit, that sports them looks to kill. Now the average Joe might be held back by the steep retail prize, even though they might make everybody drool. One has to remain honest in the fact that Corsair is charging quite a premium for the limited edition looks these Torque memories offer. No arguing possible though on the out of the box performance. These Torques are pretty spot on and a tad better than other offerings when comparing the same memory frequencies. Though if we start to compare that price tag again, it is clear one can buy faster siblings at other vendors. Remember though speed is not everything, a fast memory kit is a combination of good clocks with appropriate XMP timings, a rule that the Corsair engineers followed nicely.

Corsair has upped the level of gorgeous looking memories, the Fremont team have proven that there is no real need for RGB. Performance wise the 3200C14 Torques offer a good combination of speeds and timings. Tweakers will love to explore new performance levels with these stunning Samsung B-Die based kits. These sick looking Torque kits are however only available through the Corsair website, a logic move as they are produced in limited numbers, Sadly this leaves no room for any possible debate on the prize.

If you want a great-looking memory kit that has plenty of performance under the hood and that will blow your friends minds than these Dominator Platinum Special Edition Torque kits are highly recommended. Get them while they are hot!!

PROS:

• High build quality
• Performant heatspreaders
• Stunning looks
• XMP Speed versus timings ratio
• Good overclocking potential

CONS:

• Price premium

We wish to thank Pascal and Harry from Corsair for the Torque review sample. Bernice from Gigabyte for the AORUS X299 Gaming motherboard.