When it comes to memory performance Corsair has always been fond of having the most coveted sticks available. Given the name “Dominator” the popular Dominator GT sticks were highly prized among overclocking enthusiasts not only for their excellent stock timings, performance and appearance, but for their head room should the user wish to get dirty and push the sticks to new heights.
Corsair screens the ICs for optimal performance and overclocking before they get added to the Dominator lineup according to their website. That promise of overclocking headroom comes with a heavy but effective heat spreader cooling system. Dubbed DHX for Direct Heat Exchange, it uses conductive and convective cooling technologies not only to provide the ICs with a sustainable operating temperature, but also the PCB, something most companies do not address.
New to the Dominator line up today is what is on the test bench this week. Corsairs new Dominator Platinum quad channel* memory kit. Carrying four 4 GB memory sticks at 2133 MHZ of speed, CAS 9 latency and a low 1.5v, these sticks are sure to please even at stock speeds. What review would be sufficient running stock? We will attempt to push the sticks for best speed and timings as well.
*Note all the Platinum kits on Corsair’s website are marketed as “dual-channel” kits as most of the population will be buying them for dual channel setups. Some of the kits consist of 4 sticks however and are XMP 1.3 which is perfect for extreme enthusiasts running Socket 2011.
The Dominator Platinum series offers the renowned great performance of the GT series along with a more industrial, subtle-power appearance of platinum colored highlights, and down washed LED illumination for some added bling. Airflow Pro can be purchased separately and in combination with a Corsair Link (also purchased separately) can monitor activity and temperature of the ICs and adjust cooling dynamically.
The light bars are going to be upgradeable starting in December 2012. The upgrade kits will come with an Allen wrench so fishing around for the right sized hex key in your toolbox will not be necessary. For those that may now just want to remove the light bar for a more subtle setup, the wrench size is 1.5mm or 3/32”.
The Dominator Platinum series comes in a multitude of speeds and configurations, to fit the needs of the enthusiast, aesthetic modder and general control freak. Speeds start at the extremely peppy 1600 MHz Cas 8 in a 2×4 GB orientation, all the way up to the ludicrous 2666 MHz CAS 10 16 GB selection (or CAS 11 32GB). Let’s not forget the moar is moar crowd and give them a 64GB CAS 9 2133 MHz set at only 1.5v.
There are two main schools of thought when it comes to memory upgrades. More is better than faster; Faster is better when you have enough. The Corsair Dominator Platinum Series answers both request for the gamer, tweaker and power enthusiast.
Enough jibber jabber, on to the goods!
