Kingston HyperX 2GB (1024MB x2) PC2-6400 CL4 Kit

Reviewer: Umair "Thyhammerr" Rauf
Date: 2007/02/28
Source: WCCFTech

With the introduction of Core 2 Duo and AM2 processors from Intel and AMD, the demand for DDR2 memory could not have been higher. DDR2 comes in default memory speeds of 533MHz, 667MHz and 800MHz but there are modules with ever higher speeds of up to 1066MHz and above. DDR2 basically brings to the table, better speeds and lower power consumption when compared to previous standard; DDR, and thus lays claim to have revolutionized memory speeds throughout the computer industry.

What we have with us today are Hyper X memory modules from Kingston which will be tested on an AM2 platform. These are DDR800 modules from a company that sells a variety of memory products. Their inventory includes KVR or Kingston Value Ram, as well which offers same speeds but different memory timings. And when compared with KHX or Kingston Hyper X’s memory timings they do tend to fall a little behind.

Note: Keep a watch out for our review of the KVR memory module that we will soon be putting up in the future.

Rated at 1.95V, compared to 2.5V ~ 3.2V in DDR2, the ram claims to run at 4-4-4-12 memory timings at DDR800/400MHz Frequency. With PC6400 written all over it, we’ll benchmark these as thoroughly as possible.

Specifications from Kingston.com:

For more detailed specifications, Click here.

For a pleasant change, the KHX modules that were supplied to us came in a splendid packaging. I very well remember buying Kingston modules that came in an ordinary blue box, heck even the PC2 5400 DDR2 modules bought earlier by me came in a somewhat similar orthodox blue package. But I guess Kingston has now decided to review the visual aesthetics of package designs of its high-end memory products as well.

With a black and red combination, the packaging looks pretty and neat. The jewel case containing the ram module was properly labeled with the model number and various other details about the product. Inside, you’ll find a piece of paper with the instruction manual and warranty details which I guess goes with any Kingston Module retail package. And for those who don not know, this is a retail package.

The Rams:

With Vista looming over our heads, the need for more RAM has increased by many folds. Although Microsoft currently states that the user needs least 512MB of RAM for running Vista, I guess that we are all aware of the ‘catch’. Vista might run at 512MB but given its graphic heavy UI and heavy memory usage it will never operate at its optimum irrespective of what the Microsoft claims. Microsoft has in a bid to cope up with system builders and hardware vendors forcefully leveled down the required hardware specifications including memory requirements that saw the numbers coming down from 1 gig to half a gig. As a reviewer I consider 1GB of memory as a minimum requirement for running Vista, while using 2GBs of memory is recommended and for the optimum performance of the new OS, 4GBs of RAM is the most recommended number.

Do note that Kingston has already introduced one of these 4GB kits in addition to a few other hardware manufacturers. But of course from the pricing point of view these modules might not seem very attractive to a majority of you.

Currently, there are several PC6400 modules in the market from nearly all manufacturers, some even offering two or three modules of the same kind. Even Kingston has on offer a total of 4 NON-ECC DDR2 modules comprising of three HyperX (one EPP SLI Ready) and one Value Ram. Kingston offers a lifetime warranty on these products with warranty covering voltage range up to 2.1V on these DIMMs. Since we mostly ran these products on a rated voltage of 1.95V ~ 2.1V, so no discrepancies there.

Powered by the ELPIDA chips, known for their overclocking ability, the rams scream at stock DDR800 with 4-4-4-12 timings. With blue heat spreaders and a green PCB, the Kingston HyperX might not look as visually appealing as some of the other über tweaked RAM products in the market but it more or less serves its purpose of looking relatively better than most of the other memory sticks.

How ever, there was one oddity that I noticed. That when compared to PC5400 DDR2 modules and the DDR modules that I have used earlier, these modules felt unusually light. The heat spreader on the modules provided to us was lighter as compared to modules of any other manufacturer. This might not in turn affect the performance of the RAM but since it just seemed kind of weird, I shared the information here.

Front view of the sticks bearing a label displaying details of the modules including the voltage it works at.

Overclocking:

You can overclock an AMD system in two ways. One, set the divider to 800MHz, and overclock the external frequency or set the divider to 667MHz or 533MHz and overclock the external frequency. You should keep HTT speed in mind as well and not let it go over 1.1GHz. 1GHz is a controlled and stable speed for HTT and anything above that might not be the best of the choices. In this case, HTT speed was set at 4x of CPU frequency and the divider was changed with CPU Frequency to gain speed margins. We used a AMD 4000+ Windsor for our tests. And the Rams worked at the rated 1.95V with 400MHz frequency at DDR800 without a hitch so there is nothing add here.

AT 4-4-4-12:
At this timing, the maximum overclock on 4x HTT was 2.25GHz. That’s around DDR2-900 or 450MHz Frequency. With the divider set at 667MHz, we were able to achieve speeds around 2.59GHz resulting in DDR2-902 or 451MHz. Basically as I have told you before, no matter what divider you choose, a ram can only go to a certain speed. At 4-4-4-12 its speed seems to be somewhere around 450MHz at 4-4-4-12, but changing the divider results in a better CPU speed. You can tweak the cpu multiplier to get more speed out of your ram, HTT multiplier to cope with the overclock and finally the external frequency to increase both CPU Frequency and ram speed with it.

AT 5-5-5-16:
Usually lowering the timings results in an added overclock speed. So at these timings, of 800MHz, 2.37Ghz was the maximum overclock we could achieve on this board with the Divider set at 800MHz. This is to say DDR2-948 or 474 Frequency while we were getting only 2.65GHz at 667MHz with 10x multiplier that is to say DDR2-924 or 462 frequency while with 8x multiplier and 2.2GHz overclock (276Mhz external frequency), I was able to achieve DDR2-967 or 483.5MHz frequency with these sticks. The processor we had was ended up rebooting at this situation, therefore we lowered the CPU multiplier to see how fast the RAM can go. With that being said, saying that this RAM has some serious overclocking potential, would be an understatement.

So following are available timings with respect to dividers for this memory that we were able to achieve successfully.

At 4-4-4-12:
DDR2-900 / 450MHz (800MHz) = > 225MHz x 10 = 2.25GHz CPU Clock
DDR2-902 / 452MHz (667MHz) => 2.59MHz x 10 = 2.59GHz CPU Clock

At 5-5-5-16:
DDR2-948 / 474MHz (800MHz) = 237MHz x 10 = 2.37GHz CPU Clock
DDR2-968 / 484MHz (667MHz) = 276MHz x 8 = 2.2GHz CPU Clock
DDR2-948 / 462MHz (667MHz) = 265MHz x 10 = 2.65GHz CPU Clock

In short, the maximum overclock this ram was able to withstand was of DDR2-968. If you think this was confusing, wait till you get 12x multipliers in.

Testing:
With different speeds, we took the rams on a test run with our regular benchmark suites. We’ll be using 2.65GHz (or DDR2-948 speeds) for our test and not the 2.2GHz one at 5-5-5-16.

Test Bench: Athlon X2 4000+ Windsor
ASUS M2N32SLI Deluxe (NVIDIA 590 SLI Chipset w/ latest 0906 Bios)
Kingston HyperX 2GB (1GBx2) DDR2 PC6400 Kit
Seagate 400GB 7200.8 Barracuda
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 CPU Cooler
ASUS EN7800GT 256MB GDDR3 TOP
OCZ Modstream 520W PSU

Overall, in all of the benchmarks the module's performance is evident. Their performance coincides with application improvement as well.

Conclusion:
To sum it all up, this Ram overclocks like crazy. But there are other 800 modules by other manufacturers that are different. So what makes this module unique? Well to tell you the truth, I have no idea. According to Kingston, the MSRP for this RAM is $320, which translated into somewhere around Rs. 19,200. But on the internet, you can find it for as low as $220 or Rs. 12200. So I have little idea as to why there’s so much difference of prices in between US’ and Pakistan. For Pakistani users, I don’t see a reason why they should buy this module aside it’s performance and overclockability. Unless of course if you can get this unit from the US or any other place for that matter, it is one of the best deals out there. It’s truly a case of performance / dollar.

With overclockability over their stated clocks and low timings, the modules can yield as much as 25% overclock of CPU in most cases with good timings. From performance and price point (US), these Rams lead the way. Keeping this in mind, we award this product our "WCCF Extreme Overclocking Award".