World's Fastest DDR 2 Module - and You Can't Have It

XMS2 Dominator is a DDR 2 module produced by Corsair, and it's advertised as being the world's fastest DDR 2 module available. It has Dual-Path Heat Xchange (DHX) Technology, Enhanced Performance Profiles (EPP) Technology, it's available in 2 modules, PC2-8888 C4 and PC2-8500 C5, and has also an optional airflow fan.

The Twin2X2048-8500C5D module has these specs: XMS2-8500 speed, 2048 MB size, 5-5-5-15-2T latency, organized on 2X240DIMM, no fan, has EPP and is SLI Certified.

The Twin2X2048-8888C4DF module has these specs: XMS2-8888 speed, 2048 MB size, 4-4-4-12-2T latency, organized on 2X240DIMM, has a fan, has EPP and is SLI Certified.

The advanced cooling ability of Dual-path Heat Xchange (DHX) heat sinks keeps your memory safe and reliable even as you push it to the limit. Under the name XMS2 DOMINATOR, this DHX technology will be showing up on both Corsair parts designed for extreme overclocking and on memory designed for performance computing and gaming, declared Corsair.

The modules are cooled using two combined methods. Conventional dissipation through the front of the BGA (Ball Grid Array) chips into a pair of efficient sinks and additional dissipation through the back of the BGA devices and through the circuit board. Forced airflow further enhances the performance of the module.

The EPP means that compatible motherboards can access added performance capability and information to simplify overclock for beginners and to give extra controls to experts. This technology was developed by Corsair and nVidia that introduced a new open standard, ensuring platform and component compatibility - the Serial Presence Detect (SPD).

As for now, The Inquirer stated that there are only 100 or so Dominator modules available, because of the difficult process involved in building high-end DDR 2. Most of the memory chips are working at 667 Mhz, and it's not unusual that high-end systems ship with slower memory clock. The Dominator modules are produced after the company tests all of the received Micron chips at 800 Mhz and a CAS 3 latency, which is only achieved by 10% of all chips. After that, the chips are tested at 1111 Mhz, and only 5% will make it through. Further more, the number of memory modules produced is not equal with the number of tested memory chips, as they also have to be paired together to match the clock and latency settings.

So, it seems because of the hard manufacturing process and the demanding tests, there won't be enough modules to go around. If you want to have a high-end system on an AM2 Socket or a 775 one, the advice is simple: AM2 for now, as it's recommended by Corsair, Geil and OCZ, and Intel doesn't have the proper memory controller for the Conroe.