Final Words & Conclusion
The Verdict
Well I have to admit, I've always had a soft-spot for Corsair's Dominator memory. We've been using Dominator kits in pretty much all of our test systems since day one. For me these DIMMS equal optimal performance and stability. This new kit does not disappoint whatsoever. It's without doubt not the cheapest kit around, expect prices of 360/449 USD. Thats 60 or 75USD per Gigabyte.
What this memory does get you for that money is what Corsair always seems to manage, to squeeze in that little extra, I personally like that so much. We got CAS9 memory @ 1866 MHz, yet CAS 8 works fine as well. If you lower your frequency to 1333/1066 you can hit timings at CAS 7 or even 6 just as well.
On the other side of the scope in the high frequency range, overclocking requires higher latencies. Our test results have shown CAS 10 for 2000 MHz, but shortly before finishing up this review, we hit CAS9 stable as well .. we'd just need to pass the 1.65V, which I felt uncomfortable doing with a thousand dollar Core i7 965 processor where the memory controller is built in. Corsair came back to me with this though:
"You should be able to push past 2GHz too (or tweak down the timings a bit), providing youre willing to tweak some voltages. 1.65 1.75V is probably enough for VDIMM, but if you start tweaking up the QPI voltage (which also controls the memory controller voltage, assuming youre using P6T variants) to around 1.55V then you could hit a lot higher. A OCing team at HET were using the 3GB kit and were seeing ~2200MHz C9, and 2000MHz C8 too."
It's that form of quality and flexibility that defines Corsair, and it's exactly what I am very fond of and seek in a manufacturer. The little extra's that creates the x-factor of this product. But sure, there's no way denying it, it comes at a premium price. Also please keep in mind, your overclock is as good as the rest of your eco-system. We used A-class components like the ASUS Rampage II Extreme motherboard and Intel Core i7 965, 1200 Watt PSU. And please do listen to what I am saying here, everything needs to be right.
Price aside, there's no need to make a too long conclusion out of it as it's one of the best kits your money can get you. Next to the exceptional performance you'll achieve from these modules they are also really good quality. The minute you have it in your hand you just know it's all good, sturdy, heavy .. blokes stuff, even covered by a lifer-time warranty.
You probably can save a little money if you opt not to go for the included air cooler:
- TR3X6G1866C9D - kit without Dominator Airflow fan
- TR3X6G1866C9DF - Kit with Dominator Airflow fan
* update at this time only the F version is available on the market.
Three or six Gigabyte ? Good question. It of course depends on your budget and preferences. If you are still on a 32-bit operating environment, you might as well spare the dough and go for a three gigabyte kit. With 64-bit I however would like to see you guys move onward to 6 GB. During gaming some more benefits to be found. And sure, I know ... it's fairly hard to show you the real difference but here and there games can swap massively towards the HDD with three Gigabyte memory configurations, in such situations six Gigabyte is definitely the path to follow (for triple channel memory of course). Future games and applications will be more memory dependant, it's as simple a that.
Be future proof is what I always say.
Speaking of dual and triple channel memory .. don't get bewildered by the Intel marketing spin .. Triple channel memory is not a requirement, it however is a fair recommendation. These X58 / Core i7 motherboards will run fantastic on dual-channel memory as well. But I assume that if you buy an X58 / Core i7 system, you are very performance hungry .. and in exactly that performance segment is where Triple channel memory is making a difference, it will get you an additional speed bump especially in Windows applications. But remember .. you can run dual-channel memory on this configuration fine. I look at it this way: triple channel memory is the difference between a Porsche and a Ferrari.
Alright, let's finalize this review. The Corsair Corsair Dominator DDR3 1866 TR3X6G1866C9DF kit is truly marvelous and to date the most exciting kit we have tested. As such we like to give it our tweakers essential award. There's no chance in hell you would dislike this memory kit.
Hats off to Corsair.
- If you like this article please digg it.
- Leave/read comment on this product
- Sign up to receive a notice when we publish a new article
- Or go back to Guru3D's front page
