Corsair 6GB DDR3-1866 Dominator GT Memory Review

The Corsair 1866 Dominator GT

Intel’s Core i7 processor series brought with it a wave of change from DDR3 manufacturers. Prior to Core i7 it wasn’t uncommon to see performance DDR3 kits with vDIMM requirements of 2.0v and higher. Core i7 changed that with Intel specifying a maximum of 1.65vDIMM. With the launch of Core i7, there was a short stumble to validate memory kits along with some serious innovations. Roughly 3 months ago we got word of some insane memory chips that were hitting DDR3-1800+ with 1.65vDIMM and lower.

Today, we have Corsair’s 6GB DDR3-1866 Cas 7 Dominator GT modules up for review. These sticks are built around Elpida’s 50nm DDR3 ICs and rated for DDR3-1866 speeds with 7-8-7-20-2T timings – all with 1.65vDIMM. With Core i7 and its triple channel memory controller it already has gobs of bandwidth; however, we’ll see what DDR3-1866C7 offers over other common memory speeds and timings.

To keep everything chill, Corsair has included a new revision of their Dominator Airflow fan. Using larger, slower spinning fans, this revision is a nice improvement over the past version, providing more airflow with less noise. Now, let’s kick things off with a few more pictures and then get into some high speed testing.