Corsair Dominator PC2-10000: Fastest DDR2

Corsair Dominator Twin2x2048-10000C5DF

Memory from Corsair is widely distributed around the world. This makes the Corsair brand the most recognized brand of enthusiast memory. It is easy to find just about anywhere you might be located. Corsair has been manufacturing high-speed memory since 1994. They maintain an extensive line of memory, ranging from their Value Select brand of low-cost memory to their top-end XMS line.

Corsair is well known as an innovator in the high performance memory market. As a result they enjoy a large and loyal customer base. The new PC2-10000 represents a new record in rated memory speed, but it achieves this with technology introduced with the Dominator series. As the flag ship of the Corsair memory line, the XMS2 Dominator brings many unique innovations in the PCB and memory cooling. One of the most unusual Dominator features is the dual-path cooling, which Corsair calls DHX, or Dual Heat Exchange.


Dominator modules use two paths for memory cooling:

1. Conventional heat release through the front of the memory chips into a pair of super efficient heat sinks
   
2. Additional heat dissipation through the back of the chips and through the circuit board through heat fins integral to the PCB.

This dual heatsink design is best understood when looking at a partially assembled Dominator module.


Here you see the extended Dominator circuit board with a conventional heatsink. The inner fins, which cool the board and the back of the chips, are sealed to the top of the Dominator circuit board. The front Dominator heatsinks also have cooling fins at the top. After they are sealed to the memory chips the Dominator module has four sets of cooling fins - two inner fins and two outer cooling fins. Cooling can be further enhanced with a Dominator Airflow fan. This super-efficient fan is designed to attach to the memory clips and float over the Dominator memory modules.


The Dominator modules with the attached Dominator Airflow fan are an imposing site. The fan module uses three 40mm tachometer controlled fans that run at moderate speed to provide adequate airflow but still remain near silent when operating. The Dominator Airflow fan kit comes standard with the Dominator PC2-10000 2GB memory kit, but it is also an optional accessory that will work with any DDR2 or DDR memory kits to provide additional cooling. The attachment method is universal, since the Airflow fan attaches to the memory clips and plugs into the mother board.


Corsair supplies Dominator DDR2-1250 in a box about the size of a package for a video card. The box contains a matched pair of 1GB Dominator DIMMs and a Dominator Airflow fan unit.


The PC2-10000 Dominator DIMMs are built with specially binned Micron D DDR2 memory chips. This is certainly not a surprise since OCZ Flex XLC and all the other recently tested top-of-the-line memory has used the same memory chips.

Corsair Dominator Twin2x2048-10000C5DF Memory Specifications
Number of DIMMs & Banks	2 DS
DIMM Size	1GB
Total Memory	2 GB
Rated Timings	5-5-5-18 at DDR2-1250
Rated Voltage	2.4V

The Corsair Dominator RAM fit all of the DDR2 slots on our test motherboards. While it is thicker than most past DDR2 memory, the dual-path heat exchanger still fits fine in standard DDR2 slots. Dominator DIMMs are taller than most other DIMMs, however, due to the four rows of protruding cooling fins at the top. The Dominator Airflow fan makes the complete setup even taller, but we had no trouble fitting the Dominator 10000 kit in any standard case. Since the Airflow fan occupies the same area as the memory module area, fan space requirements are actually less than a large fan resting on top of the DIMMs. We have had no problem at all using a complete Dominator kit with the large Tuniq 120 Tower air cooling system.