Anyone tried the Dominator GT DDR2 8500 sticks?

[Ket]

I say promos based on them apparently needing 2.1v according to what folk say in the corsair forums. Anybodys guess though considering corsair don't even seem to know these sticks exist. Feel sorry for you though In-Fluence, dropping £100 on these sticks Even my 4GB OCZ PC9200 LV Plats only cost £70.

[Don_Dan]

Originally Posted by In-Fluence

The sticks are 10-pass memtest stable at 1128 and need 1.91v to keep stable at these timings. Any less and I start to get small numbers of fails in test 5. I'm wondering if this would actually be a good point to try & tune the ram clock skews. Would anyone concur?
I hope to increase the fsb some more and hope to get around 1150 stable, are there any timings in the above pic that might benefit from being loosened so I could do this?
Seems strange they have 2.1v in the EPP profile, there's no chance they're stable at those volts without some good cooling imo.
1.6v isn't an option on my board btw, 1.8v is the minimum and it seems to scale ok up to ~1.9v but they start to get a little warm from that point, nothing toasty though

Originally Posted by Ket

I say promos based on them apparently needing 2.1v according to what folk say in the corsair forums. Anybodys guess though considering corsair don't even seem to know these sticks exist. Feel sorry for you though In-Fluence, dropping £100 on these sticks Even my 4GB OCZ PC9200 LV Plats only cost £70.

I highlighted some parts for you.
Just because they have 2.1V written in the EPP doesn't mean they actually need it. I'm still convinced this is a mediocre bin of the Elpidas that we saw first in the OCZ Blade series, their characteristics just fit perfectly to what the OP is describing. I've never tested the 1GBit ProMos ICs, but compared to old ICs made by them this just doesn't fit.
Price of course is a ripoff. In this case the premium you pay for the Dominator GT series is in no way justified, while it's fine for the DDR3 GTs in my opinion.

[In-Fluence]

Originally Posted by Don_Dan

Price of course is a ripoff. In this case the premium you pay for the Dominator GT series is in no way justified, while it's fine for the DDR3 GTs in my opinion.

That's exactly how I feel to be honest. I went from ordering 8Gb of blades for £120, then being told after a month that they didn't have any. By that point all decent 4Gb DDRII kits vanished or went for extortionate prices. The final store I went to for a finance deal on only had these or the original dominators, both similarly priced. Considering I could have picked up a pair of 9600 tridents for the same price, I'm quite gutted. I'm considering sending them back on the basis that they've got the wrong voltages advertised on the retailer's website, and no measurements to help determine if it would fit in my case (which with the fan doesn't), and corsairs general lack of support and evasive attitude towards any documentation for them.
My problem is the fact it's on finance and the retailer has no other decent alternatives and I doubt they'd refund me for a debt I haven't finished paying yet! Might be less hassle to just sell them in a popular online auction unless someone here wants to fork out £120 for them

[overclocking101]

Those are Definately Low Voltage ELPIDA chips m8. try running them 5-5-5-18 when I change my lv ocz from 5-5-5-15 to 5-5-5-18 at 1.9v im able to get about 1260mhz worth a shot

[dro]

From the looks of it.......seems like Elpida based ICs
Much like those found on OCZ LV series

Try changing trrd to 4 or 5
And check whats the lowest voltage required

And I suspect your north bridge and GTL values are not sufficient
Try pumping a bit more

[In-Fluence]

I will give the lowering of trrd a try when I'm on my lunch break, thanks for the tip.

The NB GTL is definitely tuned. It's very sensitive on this board and therefore easy to find. I'm about 6 hours prime blend stable now at 466x8/1120MHz so pretty close to getting a good overclock on the CPU and half decent memory speeds. Would be nice if I could move up to the next divider, but doubtful. It doesn't reallt post beyond 1150
After I'm stable I'll try to nudge up the FSB and find the limits, but both the board and memory will limit me unless I can go for some really tight timings at 1:1 ratio or if trrd works wonders

[CryptiK]

These sticks from initial tests certainly do not seem to justify a 'GT' badge. It's as if Corsair is trying to sell these on the reflected glory of the 'real' DDR3 GT's which are phenomenally good. Blades are better, Gskills are better, even the 8800 PI's clock better, my mates set do DDR2-1160.

[-n7-]

Sounds like crappy binned Elpida, i agree.


You really need to try them at a ratio not pushing your board so hard.

Use 3:4 for max RAM testing (lower FSB). Loosen tRD for testing.

Try 5-5-5-18 w/ loose tRFC as mentioned, or even see what happens @ 5-6-5-20 (i got a wee bit more @ 5-6-5 than 5-5-5 w/ my LV OCZ Plats).

[In-Fluence]

Tried all that, with TRFc up to 80 and trrd up to 5, I managed to post with a few more MHz, but it needed 2v and still wasn't anywhere near MT stable. I suppose it overclocks but by no more than 100MHz. I think a pair of tridents or PIs seem like the only viable option if I want to get off the 1:1 ratio at high fsb.

I'm even considering getting hold of another pair of 1gb reapers considering how overpriced and scarce good performance 4gb kits are.

[Don_Dan]

Originally Posted by In-Fluence

Tried all that, with TRFc up to 80 and trrd up to 5, I managed to post with a few more MHz, but it needed 2v and still wasn't anywhere near MT stable. I suppose it overclocks but by no more than 100MHz. I think a pair of tridents or PIs seem like the only viable option if I want to get off the 1:1 ratio at high fsb.

I'm even considering getting hold of another pair of 1gb reapers considering how overpriced and scarce good performance 4gb kits are.

Don't go over 1.90V, this will only make things worse. If loosened timings didn't help you, you might be limited by something else. Your NB is really stressed by running a Q9650 at high FSB plus a 4GB kit at high clocks with a tight PL/tRD. If you want to test the memory, follow n7's advice and take some stress off your board. Otherwise you might blame the memory for problems it doesn't cause.

Can you test your max FSB with another memory kit?

[In-Fluence]

I will try a lower fsb, but I've passed with up to 1233MHz with my 1Gb reapers with various ratios. Had far more success with those which is why I was thinking of getting another pair.
I'll back down to 1.8 and see what's acheivable from there with a lower fsb but ~1.9v is definitely needed to get over 1100MHz at current fsb.
I havent really played with the skews yet either which I've heard certain values can relate to different type of ic. Can anyone confirm this and perhaps offer any advice here?

*edit
Well, call me stupid, but I've just taken the plunge on an 4x2GB of apogee GT 1150's. There's not many reviews about on them, but the timings and voltages look good (at least this manufacturer is willing to acknowledge they exist). If they runs at rated specs, I'll be happy enough and get rid of these corsair POS. Not worth the money at all - steer well clear!

[Don_Dan]

Originally Posted by In-Fluence

*edit
Well, call me stupid, but I've just taken the plunge on an 4x2GB of apogee GT 1150's. There's not many reviews about on them, but the timings and voltages look good (at least this manufacturer is willing to acknowledge they exist). If they runs at rated specs, I'll be happy enough and get rid of these corsair POS. Not worth the money at all - steer well clear!

Good luck with your new kit! 8GB won't make it easier for the board though!

[In-Fluence]

Thanks for the good luck wishes. Just completed a major rebuild, and upon trying out the chaintech memory, I've got a duff stick. RMA will be hopefully be sorted by the end of the week. 2 of the sticks are stable at 1168 and 1.93v, even though they're rated 2.1 so things are looking up. Board seemed fine with 2x1gb reapers as well - looking good so far although I know 8GB will stretch it