X58 Triple Channel DDR3 Memory Roundup! 8 Mid-range Kits Tested

Memory by thorgal @ 2009-04-09

In the ever raging sales battle among memory manufacturers, the Core i7 launch must have been the wind that shook the barley. While everyone was convinced i7 would be the real start of DDR3 technology, it also was a ´back to the drawing board´ call for most, having to come up with lower voltage memory parts - with decent performance - in a hurry. Four months into the launch now, we present you with a roundup of 8 mid-range kits from 8 different manufacturers. Begun, the new battle has.

  • prev
  • next

Corsair Dominator PC12800C8

Corsair PC12800 "Dominator"

Since it has been a while since Corsair joined a review at Madshrimps, we're glad that they did change their mind and sent us a review kit to include in this roundup. The kit you'll be seeing today however, is a review kit provided to us by our sponsor Tones. The kit from Corsair will be featured in a little follow-up article to compare performance of these retail modules to the newer revision they sent us.

Here's a word about Corsair:

Regarded as one of the most prominent memory manufacturers, Corsair has been making memory products since 1994. For the first 5-7 years of their existence, Corsair focused on the business market of servers and workstations. Only in the last couple of years, especially since the introduction of PC-133 SD-Ram, the consumer market really became interesting for RAM development. At that time people became aware that faster ram was a worthy investment, and the overclocking market was born. In the last 7 years, Corsair has put more and more of its eggs into the basket of gamers and overclockers and has become the company all others measure their success by. Today, Corsair still makes server and workstation ram, and the so called "value-select" memory for the budget oriented consumer, but they are especially famous for the XMS memory line, which stands for "Extreme Memory Speed". This lineup has been around for a couple of years now, and has constantly been refreshed by new products... In the middle of 1996 the new Dominator lineup was added, which has since been revamped with the introduction of DDR3 memory...


So have a look at the retail box that we received:


(click for larger version)


At first, I could hardly believe this was a normal retail box, because it is actually huge to be holding only... 3 memory modules. The box is plane white, rather thick cardboard, a box for a non-retail review sample one would think. Inside we find three blisters, each holding one memory module, and surprisingly enough an airbag to keep everything in place, and prevent damage. This is of course some very sturdy packaging, and guarantees the safe arrival of the memory modules. I'm not sure if this is the final retail package for these modules, as the more recent modules seem to have different packaging.

Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)
Packaging: more shots


Now for a first look at the new dominators themselves :

Madshrimps (c)


I think most people will agree if I say these modules look great. They don't just look great, but also feel very sturdy, and just ooze quality. Those that have been reading my reviews over the last few years might know that I really liked the original Dominators. Madshrimps was lucky enough to review the "good old" PC8888C4F Dominator kit right upon launch. Back then I realized that Corsair had produced something really special: the dominators introduced the dual path heat exchange or "DHX", and the heatsinks (and not "spreaders", as I was repeatedly told ;-) ) remain a thing of beauty until the present day. Today's Dominators are quite different however, as the sink is more of an integrated cooling block now, whereas the original were 4 different light heatsinks glued together. The current package is much more durable, but I can't help but think that the cooling performance cannot be equal with the new heatsinks, as the surface area went down significantly. Of course, DDR3 uses much less voltage than its DDR2 micron counterpart (we're talking 1.65V vs. 2.45V here) and as such heat should never become a problem.

Upon talking to Corsair about the new heatspreader design, they gave me a little more information regarding the technology behind them :
The new DHX heatsink is called DHX+ and it is thermally equivalent the original DHX in terms of passive cooling performance. The change in surface area is basically offset by having physically more metal (hence the sturdy, weighty feel). It still uniquely cools the face of the ICs and the heat leaked into the PCB from the BGA leads.


There's no doubt more to tell about these modules, but this I'll reserve for a little followup review featuring the new revised kit that has arrived in our labs last week. Meanwhile, enjoy the pics in the thumbnails below.

Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)
More module images


These are their specifications (.pdf) :

  • 1600MHz DDR3 (PC12800)
  • Latencies : 8-8-8-24-2T (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS-CR)
  • Operating voltage : 1.65 Volts
  • 240pin DIMM
  • Intel XMP profile : 8-8-8-24/1600Mhz @ 1.65V
  • JEDEC spec : 9-9-9-24/1333Mhz @ 1.5V
  • Parity : Unbuffered
  • Memory size : 3x 2048Mb

    These specifications are in line with the offerings from the competition, nothing special here. Corsair did program an XMP profile into the modules' SPD, which will make sure your modules will run at their rated speeds, latency and voltage when used on a motherboard with Intel chipset that supports these profiles (like X48 or X58).




    Overclocking

    To start the overclocking fun, let's have a look at cas 7 first. Results were excellent using this setting, topping out at 785Mhz (1570Mhz DDR) with 7-7-7-20-1T timings. This is the same result we had with the Mushkin modules, and the resemblance doesn't stop there, unfortunately. At cas 8, we ran into the exact same issues we saw with the Mushkin kit, and the memory refused to clock any higher than 840Mhz (1680Mhz DDR). Behavior was very strange, as no amount of voltage or relaxed timings would increase the top speed. To make a long story short : the cas 9 results are an identical 840Mhz, just like the Mushkin kit. Relaxing to a command rate of 2T, trying different QPI voltages, sub timings, memory dividers or core or memory voltages, all stayed the same. I actually ran several hours of prime at 840Mhz, whereas the next step (846Mhz or 6Mhz more on the 2:12 divider) was an instant failure, sometimes even with rapid bluescreens. I've never had memory fail so sudden on me, so this behavior really left me puzzled. I contacted Corsair and Mushkin about the issues, and helpful as they were, I haven't been able to best this result so far. Both Mushkin and Corsair have sent me a follow-up memory kit, which we'll be reviewing shortly.

    To end the OC chapter on a positive note, I can report that Corsair did not have a problem with cas 6 operation at 1333Mhz as well.

    Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)
    Testing maximum cas 7, cas 8, cas 8 fail


    Finally, let's have a look at Crucial...>
    • prev
    • next
    Comment from Kougar @ 2009/04/10
    Quote:
    I decided not to include the results in this review yet, as there wasn't actually anything wrong with the kits at their rated speeds. Both did the rated speeds and timings without any issues, they just didn't overclock to any satisfying level.
    This has been observed with Corsair Dominator kits in other reviews. Link

    I was just about to buy a kit of OCZ Platinum, nice to see the overclocking results here, thank you. Should probably mention the 6GB OCZ Platinum 1600MHz kit is available for $80 shipped AMIR, cheapest 1600MHz kit of all those tested.
    Comment from blind_ripper @ 2009/04/10
    80$ , thats cheap!

    btw u got a pic mixed up @ page 8 from the OCZ's, cas 7 has the cas8 pic .
    althoughe very nice work thorgal
    Comment from thorgal @ 2009/04/10
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kougar View Post
    This has been observed with Corsair Dominator kits in other reviews. Link

    I was just about to buy a kit of OCZ Platinum, nice to see the overclocking results here, thank you. Should probably mention the 6GB OCZ Platinum 1600MHz kit is available for $80 shipped AMIR, cheapest 1600MHz kit of all those tested.
    Yes, I read the xbit article, they come to about the same conclusion indeed.

    The Patriots can also be had for $79,99 now at Newegg, could be the OCZ's are equally cheap somewhere (they're $89,99 at Newegg).
    Comment from leeghoofd @ 2009/04/10
    Great work Ram "Torsten" Guy
    Comment from Kougar @ 2009/04/10
    Yes, but the Patriots are CAS 9. OCZ Platinum is CAS 7 (better than anything Corsair offers too).

    Didn't hear it from me: Newegg Promo code EMCLRLV42 for $10 off OCZ3P1600LV6GK ($80). Even less if buying NIB on ebay.
    Comment from Jaco @ 2009/04/11
    good article / review .

    Still reading ... lots of numbers

     

    reply