Corsair Dominator 9136 Preview.

[Kunaak]

This is just a preview post.
a full review is in the works and will be here on XS soon.
I've seen alot of curiousity about the 9136, so I thought some people might be interested in alittle OC action from it.

first off, the actual Ram.

[Kunaak]

As you can see, the ram has 2 actual layers to the heatspreader.
the heatspreader is epoxied to the ram itself, so no thermal pads.
this makes the ram run cooler, with less to interfere with the disipation of heat from the IC's.

this ram is not the highest end ram from Corsair, that place is reserved for the Dominator 8888, which is rated at cas 4-4-4 at 1111 mhz.
this ram is rated at cas 5-5-5 at 1140 mhz, but is also about $200 cheaper.

the dominator 8888 comes with a cool little ram cooling fan.
the 9136 does not.
so you will need to find a way to cool the ram yourself, if you want active cooling on the ram.

Hardware Used.

Asus P5B Deluxe and P5N32-E SLI.
620 watt Corsair PSU.
X1950 XTXs in Crossfire.
2x 150 gig raptors + 400 gig slave drive.
Creative Xfi.

Initial Impressions.

I had the 8888 for a few days, and the 9136 is pretty much the same as far as initial impressions.
it's a solid piece of hardware and its rather light.

OC's.

on the P5B Deluxe, I got 1180 mhz stable out of it at cas 5-4-4-10 at 2.35 volts.

on the Asus 680i... its a drastically different story.
1300 mhz easy, and can boot up every single time at 1400 mhz... will never make it into windows, but will boot every single time at 1400 mhz.
highest speed I made it into windows... 1360 mhz cas 6-6-5-12.
unstable... but I was impressed.
that was at 2.65 volts.

the Dominator 9136 is meant to be used with the Nvidia 680i Chipset, and is not garaunteed to reach its rated speed on any other chipset, including the Intel 965 and 975 boards.

I used that board initially, to see if the ram would atleast do that speed and it does just fine, and it is stable at 1140 mhz on the P5B Deluxe.
this however, does not mean it is garaunteed to work at those speeds on that board. remember, this ram is meant to be used on the 680i chipset.

[EnJoY]

Nice preview Kunaak. Looks like a great performer, even for non-680i.


Offtopic: Given the large differences in ram oc's on 965/975 vs 680i, I would be extremely interested to see a comparison between 965 at max ram oc and cpu freq and 680i at max ram oc and equal cpu freq and see how much of a difference the extra bandwidth and/or lower latency makes between the two chipsets.

Everyone still says 965 is the chipset to have if your on single card, but I'm starting to question that now that these monster ram oc's are showing up on the 680i. A comparison like the one I've suggestion would give some clarity.

[[XC] gomeler]

Some fine looking sticks, no doubt. I haven't seen Corsair's unique heatspreader up close before, very interesting design.

[Kartoff]

I have Corsair 8500C5D now, but this 9136 RAM make me to think... Maybe i will buy it as soon as possible...

[Vett95wLT4]

Kunaak, how much diffrence between the pc8888 and this one ? is it worth the extra $200, i've been looking for the PC8888 but seems that no one has them in stock, If the diffrence isnt to gr8 i just might give those a try. Or should i just wait for the pc8888 to show up some where?

[Dredd]

Kunaak, how much diffrence between the pc8888 and this one ? is it worth the extra $200, i've been looking for the PC8888 but seems that no one has them in stock, If the diffrence isnt to gr8 i just might give those a try. Or should i just wait for the pc8888 to show up some where?

it's likely that this won't be available anywhere either always "backstock" "pre-order" "auto-notify"

[pentium777]

Kunaak, how much diffrence between the pc8888 and this one ? is it worth the extra $200, i've been looking for the PC8888 but seems that no one has them in stock, If the diffrence isnt to gr8 i just might give those a try. Or should i just wait for the pc8888 to show up some where?

We are an IT / reseller company but don't really build PCs / servers anymore but still have some accounts at Tech Data, Synnex etc. I tried for hours today searching the net and our distributors, the egg shows availability on 8888C4DF as 1/14/2007. Just crazy.

Difference in price wasn't $200 for me today it was $142.00. What swayed me to get 9136 (just confirmed order about 45 min ago) was that I got an in stock alert email and was shocked to see it available. The 6400C3DF was there and the 9136C5D also in stock. As of that time they had 14 sets of 9136C5D and 17 sets of 6400C3DF.

It is probably against forum to mention the place that has them but it is one of Corsair's premier online retailers obviously not the egg place.

[Kunaak]

the PC8888 I had, were just on loan from a friend, and I didnt have them for too long.

the 8888 had no troubles with cas 4 overclocking, while the 9136 seem to do better with cas 5-4-4 overclocking. they do cas 4 just fine, but with more voltage then I care to use daily.
you pay alot more for the 8888, but you get a garuanteed speed with them too at cas 4.

[Vett95wLT4]

dont why we cant say where they are , e1 else does.lol ZZ has w/ free shipping

[Dredd]

why would it be against the rules to tell ppl where to buy good memory?

[pentium777]

why would it be against the rules to tell ppl where to buy good memory?

Forums rules about some advertising or displaying other sites, just didn't want to break any rules as I wasn't positive.

[Dredd]

Forums rules about some advertising or displaying other sites, just didn't want to break any rules as I wasn't positive.

It's only advertising if you're purpiose is to promote another site, but that's my interpretation.

In the General memory forum people were listing retailers for memory. The crucial 10th anniversary comes to mind.

Back on topic...why would these not do cas4 as well as the 8888 part? does that mean that the 8888 part is a better binning?

[pentium777]

It's only advertising if you're purpiose is to promote another site, but that's my interpretation.

In the General memory forum people were listing retailers for memory. The crucial 10th anniversary comes to mind.

Back on topic...why would these not do cas4 as well as the 8888 part? does that mean that the 8888 part is a better binning?

From what I read the 6400C3 is very very rare (according to Corsair Rep in forum) and the 8888C4 is twice as rare as the 6400C3 stuff. He didn't list how difficult the 9136C5D were to bin out though so I'm wondering, however the price of 6400C3 (which seems to clock similar to 8888C4) is only about $10 more than the 9136C5D that is if you subtract the dominator airflow fan which the 6400C3DF comes with and the 9136C5D comes w/o it. It seems to me overall system performance is increased especially 3d gaming by higher ram speeds vs tighter timings

[Dredd]

From what I read the 6400C3 is very very rare (according to Corsair Rep in forum) and the 8888C4 is twice as rare as the 6400C3 stuff. He didn't list how difficult the 9136C5D were to bin out though so I'm wondering, however the price of 6400C3 (which seems to clock similar to 8888C4) is only about $10 more than the 9136C5D that is if you subtract the dominator airflow fan which the 6400C3DF comes with and the 9136C5D comes w/o it. It seems to me overall system performance is increased especially 3d gaming by higher ram speeds vs tighter timings

I have a dominator airflow fan on the way to put on my current memory. It looks like a good cooling solution for people who aren't very handy in fabricating something much like myself.

[DStealth]

the PC8888 I had, were just on loan from a friend, and I didnt have them for too long.

the 8888 had no troubles with cas 4 overclocking, while the 9136 seem to do better with cas 5-4-4 overclocking. they do cas 4 just fine, but with more voltage then I care to use daily.
you pay alot more for the 8888, but you get a garuanteed speed with them too at cas 4.

Can you upload your SPD with Wizzard's SPDtool to see differences between 9136 and normal dominator series, maybe it would clear this mystery with cas4 overclocking

[Kartoff]

Kunaak, if u still have 8888 RAM please upload their SPD also with 9136 if that is not a problem... I want just to compare what are diffrerent with my ram...

[Redbeard]

I have a dominator airflow fan on the way to put on my current memory. It looks like a good cooling solution for people who aren't very handy in fabricating something much like myself.

Thanks for choosing our products. Let me know how you like it or if there are any improvements you think would be nice.

For those wonderng, we recently shipped our 10,000th Dominator module. So those saying that Dominator is vaporware, well, I guess there are 10,000 customers who disagree. Heh.

I will say that the 9136, 8888, and 6400C3 are hard to make. But we're making them daily. Just not as many as the 6400C4 or 8500C5s.

[Kunaak]

when I had the Dominators Fan, I was extremely impressed with it.
it's using a few 40mm... maybe 50mm fans... not too sure.
but it moves a decent amount of air, yet you would really have to stress your ears to really hear them in action, cause they are really quiet.

I always perfer to active cool just about anything I am putting extra voltages too, while I usually have a 120mm fan for my bench PC.
I do have a regular PC as well, that is in a case, and I do have a limited amount of space inside a real case, but I always try to still cool my ram any way I can.
I like the dominator fan for that kinda situation.
so I am looking to get another one.

you dont need to be a noob, for a simple little gadget like a good ram cooler to be useful to you.
I dont consider myself anywhere in the area of a noob, but I still like a good gadget when I see one.

if I had a improvement to make to that ram cooler, it would be to add adjustable fans to it, with 3 settings, low, medium and high.

theres been other ram coolers out in the last year or two, but they all kinda come off as flimsy, or corny. LEDs, and shaped like animals and clear blue, with weak fans and a poor design that cools between the ram, but not the outside as well....

Corsairs Dominator fan, and now OCZ's upcoming fan cooler, both show, when somethings designed well, and not made for a 14 year old kids lan party pc, it will get some real attention from overclockers too.

[palese]

Thanks for choosing our products. Let me know how you like it or if there are any improvements you think would be nice.

For those wonderng, we recently shipped our 10,000th Dominator module. So those saying that Dominator is vaporware, well, I guess there are 10,000 customers who disagree. Heh.

I will say that the 9136, 8888, and 6400C3 are hard to make. But we're making them daily. Just not as many as the 6400C4 or 8500C5s.

I just returned the 8500C5D and ordered the 6400C3DF as this is the ram I have been waiting for ever for.

As for people calling the Dominator vaporware you really can't blame them, and what makes it even worst is when Corsair introduces a new ram part like the 9136 but can not even get the previous ram parts to market.

[Redbeard]

I just returned the 8500C5D and ordered the 6400C3DF as this is the ram I have been waiting for ever for.

As for people calling the Dominator vaporware you really can't blame them, and what makes it even worst is when Corsair introduces a new ram part like the 9136 but can not even get the previous ram parts to market.

I won't be making excuses, we're making this stuff as fast as we can. But to be fair, there's only so much we can do.

For argument's sake, let's say that we identify an IC that can do 1333 MHz at Cas4. Incredible performance.

However, let's say due to manufacturing issues and availability of the IC, we can only make 40 modules a day. So now we have a dilemma.

Do we launch the (FICTIONAL) TWIN2X2048-10667C4DF even though we can only make about 200-300 units a week?

Or do we decide that it's not worth doing it because people can't buy it easily?

We choose the third path, which is to launch it, build as many as possible, and then hunt down every damned IC we can find that will do it.

You should see our RAM screening process, it's very thorough and takes a lot of time, and depending on the lot we get from Micron, the yield of certain high-end parts can be anywhere between 10% and 0%.

We've never, ever put out a press release of a product that we don't have for sale, as far as I know. Any product we've ever announced has been out for sale.

Some of them are hard to find, but that's due to their popularity.

Don't get me wrong, I know it's frustrating, but the parts exist, and they are hitting online retailers constantly.

[pentium777]

I won't be making excuses, we're making this stuff as fast as we can. But to be fair, there's only so much we can do.

For argument's sake, let's say that we identify an IC that can do 1333 MHz at Cas4. Incredible performance.

However, let's say due to manufacturing issues and availability of the IC, we can only make 40 modules a day. So now we have a dilemma.

Do we launch the (FICTIONAL) TWIN2X2048-10667C4DF even though we can only make about 200-300 units a week?

Or do we decide that it's not worth doing it because people can't buy it easily?

We choose the third path, which is to launch it, build as many as possible, and then hunt down every damned IC we can find that will do it.

You should see our RAM screening process, it's very thorough and takes a lot of time, and depending on the lot we get from Micron, the yield of certain high-end parts can be anywhere between 10% and 0%.

We've never, ever put out a press release of a product that we don't have for sale, as far as I know. Any product we've ever announced has been out for sale.

Some of them are hard to find, but that's due to their popularity.

Don't get me wrong, I know it's frustrating, but the parts exist, and they are hitting online retailers constantly.

I do believe these statements because honestly the parts aren't cheap and there is a reason for it, I did my homework and I can't find any other ram manufacturer that is close to having these timings and speeds, not even close. I find it ironic that Crucial (who is owned by Micron or a subsidiary) doesn't even have close to the speed / timings that Corsair has.

The fact that I've never had a bad piece of Corsair ram but a few bad pieces from other people leads me to believe they have a very good screening process.

Facts are what company that stands to make profits on selling merchandise holds out on them (besides gaming consoles for publicity)

I am very excited to receive my 9136C5D tomorrow just in time for the holidays and can't wait to see how it does in my 680i, if indeed it was designed around that chipset I'll be very happy to see DDR2-1200+

[Kunaak]

man, the way some people act, you'd think they could just whip out 1100 mhz ram by the million....

if IC's capable of this speed were common, wouldn't every company have a set of 1100+ Mhz ram out by now?

ram of this kind, takes alot of bin time, alot of testing to find.
no ones got a huge hoard of 1100 mhz ram just sitting around.
to make this speed for ram, takes some time and effort.

if it were easy, every company would have it out by now and it would be cheap, just like 3 years ago, no one had 800 mhz ram, but now, thats old news.

sure, eventually there will be lots of companies out with some new great high speed ram, but for now, this kinda ram isn't exactly made by the million.... so dont get all pissed off if you miss a shipment or two.

[Dredd]

Thanks for choosing our products. Let me know how you like it or if there are any improvements you think would be nice.

For those wonderng, we recently shipped our 10,000th Dominator module. So those saying that Dominator is vaporware, well, I guess there are 10,000 customers who disagree. Heh.

I will say that the 9136, 8888, and 6400C3 are hard to make. But we're making them daily. Just not as many as the 6400C4 or 8500C5s.

Shipped =/= sold

[Dredd]

man, the way some people act, you'd think they could just whip out 1100 mhz ram by the million....

if IC's capable of this speed were common, wouldn't every company have a set of 1100+ Mhz ram out by now?

ram of this kind, takes alot of bin time, alot of testing to find.
no ones got a huge hoard of 1100 mhz ram just sitting around.
to make this speed for ram, takes some time and effort.

if it were easy, every company would have it out by now and it would be cheap, just like 3 years ago, no one had 800 mhz ram, but now, thats old news.

sure, eventually there will be lots of companies out with some new great high speed ram, but for now, this kinda ram isn't exactly made by the million.... so dont get all pissed off if you miss a shipment or two.

I have been monitoring newegg's stock of the 8888 part through auto notiy and I check every day. It's been months since I have seen it there. I am not going to buy it because I can't see spending that much on memory, but the fact that one of the largest online retailers of computer hardware and parts can't get it for that long says something to me.