Corsair Now Retailing 128GB UDIMM DDR4 Kits, Starting at $1755
by Ian Cutress on May 15, 2015 8:35 AM EST
Not much exciting happens in the land of DRAM I know – usually the most exciting things occur when we get a standards change, or when capacities increase. Luckily for DRAM manufacturers we got the first taste of consumer grade DDR4 back in 2014, and almost a year later in 2015 we are now seeing capacities double per module from 8GB to 16GB. We reported on one company promoting their 16GB modules, specifically an 8x16GB kit for 128GB, and now it is the turn of Corsair who is guaranteeing US availability as this press release went live direct from the Corsair website.
Corsair is launching three kits as follows:
| Corsair DDR4 128GB Kits | |||||
| Vengeance LPX | 8x16GB = 128GB | DDR4-2400 | 14-16-16-31 | 1.2 V | $1755 |
| Dominatior Platinum | 8x16GB = 128GB | DDR4-2400 | 14-16-16-31 | 1.2 V | $1980 |
| Dominatior Platinum | 8x16GB = 128GB | DDR4-2666 | 15-17-17-35 | 1.2 V | $2120 |
Aside from the price, the timings are naturally quite interesting. JEDEC specifications for DDR4 come in at DDR4-2133 15-15-15, and most of the modules we saw at the release of DDR4 were on those lines, moving up to DDR4-3200 with a slow rise in subtimings. The first two kits from Corsair, the Vengeance LPX and Dominator Platinum, arrive at DDR4-2400 14-16-16, indicating a rise in frequency and a decrease in CAS latency, all while retaining the nominal 1.2 volt specification from JEDEC rather than jumping up to 1.35 volts. Nice.
The other kit in the stack is at DDR4-2666 15-17-17, also at 1.2 volts, which is somewhat in-line with the 8GB module kits we have seen so far. Using our Performance Index rating, as described in our large run-down of DDR4 module performance earlier this year, puts each of the kits as the following:
Vengeance LPX 128GB DDR4-2400 C14 = 2400/14 = 171
Dominator Platinum 128GB DDR4-2400 C14 = 2400/14 = 171
Dominator Platinum 128GB DDR4-2666 C15 = 2666/15 = 177
This is around the Performance Index of the midrange kits for both DDR4 and DDR3, indicating a level of performance in that area.
The pricing on the other hand commands a distinct premium. The Vengeance LPX kit starts at $1755, with the Dominator Platinum 2400 C14 kit moving to $1980. At the top sits the 2666 C15 kit, by virtue of the higher frequency, at $2120. This means per GB:
Vengeance LPX 128GB DDR4-2400 C14 = $1755/128GB = $13.71 per GB
Dominator Platinum 128GB DDR4-2400 C14 = $1980/128GB = $15.47 per GB
Dominator Platinum 128GB DDR4-2666 C15 = $2120/128GB = $16.56 per GB
Compare that to a standard DDR4-2400 8x8GB kit on Newegg retailing at $720, which comes out at $11.25 per GB, or a DDR4-2400 4x8GB kit retailing at $330, giving $10.31, then you are commanding a 30%+ premium in order to get the best unbuffered DRAM density available on X99. Of course, whether you need all that is dependent on your workload.
All kits are available on the Corsair website now, and come with a lifetime warranty.
Source: Corsair
We have about a dozen DDR4 memory kits in-house that have been sat on my desk for far too long. Keep an eye out for some quick reviews of those in due course.
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hughlle - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
One opinion does not make a rule.I have 8gb on my desktop and it's plenty. Why would anyone need 32gb?
See what i'm getting at ;)
Laststop311 - Saturday, May 16, 2015 - link
I use 3x4GB 12GB of ram and i rarely ever see my use above 25%. If I get reckless with things open and just go wild I still can't get it over 60% without being completely absurd.Laststop311 - Saturday, May 16, 2015 - link
sorry i lied they are 3x8GB G skill trident x with the removable heat spreader 2400Mhz Cas 10. Read anandtech's article on ram speeds compared. The combination of 2400mhz speed with CAS latency of 10 outperformed EVERY other speed and latency combination. Even the 3000 mhz+ speed got beat by 2400mhz CAS 10. The higher speeds get higher CAS latencies which ends up hurting them more than the speed makes up for. The best speed/CAS Latency combo based only on configurations that are available stock, no OC or tinkering only stock to stock comparisons is the 2400 Mhz Cas 10 combo, just destroys everything else.milkod2001 - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
even 16GB is plenty for most i believe. 128GB could be used for RAM disks, very specific software which professionals use or it is for Linus to build insane gaming dream machine for advertising purposes :)I presume that with Skylake coming the year ,the prices of DDR4 will settle down to reasonable levels, Currently DDR4 is overpriced for what it offers.
close - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
Any kind of professional work done at "low cost" would need these kits. Buying something like this for a professional workstation is 2 to 3 times more expensive. So if you want to do this kind of work but are a bit cash strapped (if 2k for RAM can be called that), this is a good way.This leaves the Dominator series for people buying bragging rights. The professionals mentioned above would rarely feel the difference between the 2400MHz LPX and the 2666MHz Dominator. Certainly a bit hard to justify the extra $400.
LukaP - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
Because: rendering, VMs, photo/video editing, compute, etc. not everyone who does that has the option of going E5 and ECC (either monetary or otherwise impossible) I myself will get this immediately as it hits europe (or any other 128GB kit) because when i render, ill take all the ram i canyuhong - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
I don't think RDIMMs are that expensive though, and single socket E5 supports them perfectly fine.Laststop311 - Saturday, May 16, 2015 - link
Servers hosting large databases with many concurrent users. Businesses running multiple VM's. Just because a regular mainstream home user has no need for it doesn't make it useless. If you don't need it just don't bother looking at it. It's not hurting you just because it exists. For the most part 4x4GB ddr4 kits for 16GB of ram total is enough ram for probably over 90% of home users and for the other 9.5% 4x8GB kits for 32GB of ram is enough and for the last .5% there are 64GB and 128GB configurations available. So it's good this came out, now there is something to make everyone happy.Laststop311 - Saturday, May 16, 2015 - link
OK as a home user I admit it would be fun having a 112GB ram disk and leave 16GB for system ram. Would be nice to have a little script programmed everytime you restart your pc it automatically creates the 112GB ram disk and then installs your most used applications and games right onto the ram disk. But how much faster could it really be vs one of those new sm951 pci ssd's. It already loads things so fast any improvement would be barely perceivable. For the home user it's a rich mans toy.colinstu - Saturday, May 16, 2015 - link
"640K is more memory than anyone will ever need"