Dominator Revisited

As I mentioned before, we already had an in depth look at the Corsair Dominator not that long ago. Back then we have focused on the design principles however, whereas now we'll want to take a look at how the modules scale against the fierce competition.

For those who do not want to go over the entire review of the dominator, here are once more the full specifications for the PC8888C4 (.pdf) we are including in this roundup :

Test Specifications:

Each module pair is tested together at 1111MHz

Tested and packaged in pairs

Packaged together immediately following system test

Tested at EPP SPD settings (4-4-4-12-2T ) at 2.4V at 1111MHz

SPD programmed at: JEDEC standard 5-5-5-18 values at 800MHz

EPP standard 4-4-4-12-2T, 2.4V values

Features:

2048 Megabytes of DDR2 memory

Two matched CM2X1024-8888C4D modules

Corsair 's proprietary DHX technology dissipates heat two ways: it draws heat away from the module through the RAMs and provides an additional path for heat transfer within the module through the ground plane.

SPD includes Enhanced Performance Profiles (EPP) which allow automatic overclocking to aggressive performance settings.

Comes with Dominator Air flow Fan for maximum thermal transfer

100% tested at 1111MHz in high performance DDR2 motherboards

Lifetime warranty

And if you can't remember how they looked like: they still look like they can kick some serious....


Front side look, with the description of the modules


Back of the modules, as pretty as the front side

The innovation of the modules lies in its heat spreaders (or heat sinks as Corsair likes to call them) which in my opinion really look nice, but may be over the top for some who like a more sober look. The fins you see at the top lighten the design and aid in the cooling of the modules. The height of the modules could interfere with some of the cases and/or CPU coolers around, especially Small Form Factor (SFF) cases and larger 3rd party CPU heatsinks, be sure to check compatibility with your other system parts before deciding to buy. Again, if you want to know more about the design of these modules, head over to our previous review.

Performance

These Modules are rated at 1111Mhz with timings of 4-4-4-12, at 2.4V. They are also equipped with additional EPP programming, just like the Team Group and the OCZ memory. Because of the rating of these modules at 1111Mhz, which is already very high, you might be a little disappointed in the headroom of these modules.

On the cas 4 settings, I only got them up to about 1120Mhz, Orthos stable, at the warranted 2.4V, which represents not even a 1% overclock. I have seen better results around the web with this kind of memory, for example at this Xtreme Systems thread, which offers a nice performance check by XS memory guru bachus_anonym. However, 1120Mhz is still nothing to complain about, and this way the Dominator comes into second place in our roundup.

When we change settings to cas 5, the memory scaled up to 1150Mhz with 5-6-6-18 timings, again at 2.4V. I honestly expected a little more headroom here as well, but these results are exactly in line with the other contestants, except Team Group. Anyway : Corsair grabs second place here too.

Last but not least : the cas 3 performance. To end with a glorious note, performance at cas 3 was the highest of all our contestants, and really impressive in my opinion. We topped out at 907Mhz with 3-3-3-9 timings, again at 2.4V.

Below are the copies of the screenshots from the different Orthos runs for this memory as well.


Left to right (click to open) : Maximum CAS3, CAS4, CAS5


Test setup

Time to have a look at our test setup now, which we also introduced briefly in our previous Dominator review.

Test Setup
CPU	Intel E6700 Core 2 Duo Cooled by Tuniq Tower 120
Mainboard	Asus P5B-Deluxe/wifi AP (modded)
Memory	2x 1Gb Generic PC4300 Ram (4-4-4-15) 2x 1Gb Mushkin PC8000 Redline 2x 1Gb OCZ PC8500Pt SLI/EPP 2x 1Gb Team Group PC6400 "333" 2x 1Gb Corsair Dominator PC8888C4
Other	Sapphire X1950XTX LG DVD-rom drive Wester Digital Raptor WD800 SATA OCZ Powerstream 600 Watt PSU

A small word on the "Generic PC4300" : this module is a 533Mhz part with quite basic timings, at this time of writing anyway. Actually, this "Generic" module does not really exist: we constructed this module with the Corsair Dominator modules, but slowed the modules down to 533 Mhz DDR with (relatively) slow timings. The timings we "arranged" are 4-4-4-15 timings. You might wonder why we chose exactly this speed and these timings. We could have picked an even slower part with PC3200 speeds or 5-5-5 timings, but than again, these modules are barely available anymore. The cheapest memory kits you can find nowadays are almost all capable of doing 533Mhz with 4-4-4 timings, so in our opinion, this seemed like a nice performance base to start from.


Let's start the testing on the next page ->