The Package

We did not have the full retail packaging so unfortunately we cannot comment on how it is laid out or how well it would protect the Dominator or fan that we were sent.

Each of the modules sent to us arrived in a plastic clamshell that did a good job of protecting them from shipping damage.

The Modules

The actual Dominator GT modules are interesting looking. They are bulky and quite weighty for RAM, but all of that is in the name of cooling. The outer shell is ridged and thick to allow for efficient transfer of heat from the actual chips to the sink.

On top of each is a row of short and thick fins. These do a good job of maintaining a stable operating temperature and add a bit of flare with their "Intel" blue coloring.

The Dominator GTs that we received are labeled as 1600MHz and having timings of 8-8-8-24. The operating voltage at 1600MHz is 1.65v These samples are also labeled as Version 3.1 This means that they do not have the Elpida chips that caused so much of a headache before. All of the 3.X series have Micron chips under the spreaders which should give a decent and stable overclock.

According to few sources the 3.1 will not clock as high as the 3.2 (which can reach as high as 1900MHz) so we are expecting around 1800MHz stable once we get them on the bench.

The Cooler

Corsair also included a cooling fan intended to make sure that your RAM keeps cool at high overclocks. This is also a very industrial looking item with large visible bolts, two fans and a blocky design.

There is a down side (well, more than one) to using this cooler, though. The first problem has to do with the way most boards are laid out. If you are using any kind of high performance tower cooler you are not going to be able to place the fan over the RAM properly. Of course, this is true with almost all of the coolers out there including the one from Kingston.

The second is that the Corsair cooler is simply loud. As the fans are small and high speed they make a high pitched sound that can get quite annoying. This is one cooler that would certainly benefit from a fan controller.