Kingston HyperX DDR2 Memory Review

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Product: KHX6400D2LLK2/4G, KHX8500D2T1K2/4G
Manufacturer: Kingston
Supplied by: Kingston
Price: 66USD/RM240, 83USD/RM315
Launch Date: NA

DDR3 was announced quite some time ago especially in graphic card arena but majority of the motherboards are still equipped with DDR2 for couple of reasons such cheaper price and mature technology. Hence today we will still introduce you two DDR2 kits from Kingston; Kingston HyperX KHX6400D2LLK2/4G and KHX8500D2T1K2/4G.

Company Profile

Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world's independent memory leader.
Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston® now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and cell phones. In 2007, the company's sales exceeded $4.5 billion.

With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,500 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the "Best Companies to Work for in America" by Fortune magazine, Kingston's tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in its people is essential, and each employee is a vital part of Kingston's success.

Features:

-Power supply : Vdd: 1.8V ± 0.1V, Vddq: 1.8V ± 0.1V
-Double-data-rate architecture; two data transfers per clock cycle
-Bidirectional data strobe(DQS)
-Differential clock inputs (CK and CK)
-DLL aligns DQ and DQS transition with CK transition
-Programmable Read latency 3, 4, 5 (clock)
-Burst Length: 4, 8 (Interleave/nibble sequential)
-Programmable Burst type (sequential & interleave)
-Timing Reference: 667MHz 5-5-5-15 at +1.8V / 800MHz 4-4-4-12 at +1.95V
-Timing Reference: 5-5-5-18 at +1.8V / 5-5-5-15 at +2.2V - 2.3V (KHX8500D2T1K2/4G)
-Edge aligned data output, center aligned data input
-Auto & Self refresh, 7.8us refresh interval (8K/64ms refresh)
-Serial presence detect with EEPROM
-High Performance Heat Spreader
-PCB : Height 1.180" (30.00mm), double sided component

Performance:

-Clock Cycle Time (tCK) CL=5 3ns (min.) or 2.5ns (KHX8500D2T1K2/4G)/ 8ns (max.)
-Row Cycle Time (tRC) 54ns (min.) or 51.5ns (KHX8500D2T1K2/4G)
-Refresh to Active/Refresh Command Time (tRFC) 127.5ns
-Row Active Time (tRAS) 39ns (min.) / 70,000ns (max.)
-Single Power Supply of +1.8V (+/- .1V)
-Power 2.592 W (operating per module) or 1.584 W (KHX8500D2T1K2/4G)
-UL Rating 94 V - 0
-Operating Temperature 0o C to 55o C
-Storage Temperature -55o C to +125o C

Package & Contents

Kingston KHX6400D2LLK2/4G comes with standard Kingston HyperX packaging where it is packed inside a rectangular packaging box with a small window for seeing through the memory. At the back of the packaging box, there is some information regarding Kingston HyperX, the memory kit as well as life time warranty.

Besides the outer cardboard packaging, KHX6400D2LLK2/4G is kept inside a Kingston standard transparent plastic container. A brief user's manual is included which shows the correct and incorrect ways to install the memory with diagram assistant.

For Kingston KHX8500D2T1K2/4G, this memory kit is not longer packed with Kingston ordinary packaging as it is packed inside a big cardboard box with two thick foams. The memory kit is kept inside a sealed ESD bag and the overall packaging looks like OEM packaging; we suspect such packaging is only for media kit as it is not make sense to use a plain giant box for such high end memory kit. Anyway this is not important at all, let us go through further about these Kingston HyperX memory kits

Kingston HyperX 4GB KHX6400D2LLK2/4G

Kingston is the world number one PC memory maker and HyperX is their high end series memory which is ideally for gaming, overclocking with extreme performance. Kingston offers single and dual channel memory modules/kits since some of the entry motherboards only support single channel memory. The available memory capacities are from 512MB to 2GB (800/1066/1150MHz) for single channel modules and 2GB to 4GB (667/800/1066/1150/1200MHz) for dual channel kits. The detail of these information can be found here.

Kingston KHX6400D2LLK2/4G is a 4GB memory kit which consists of two low latency DDR2 800MHz CL4 SDRAM memory modules and it has been validated to run at 800MHz at low latency timing of 4-4-4-12 at 1.95V while 5-5-5-15 timing at 1.8V of 667MHz speed. The memory latency is referred as memory bus clock cycle and hence the lower timing (4-4-4-12) will be faster compare those higher timing (5-5-5-15).

Kingston HyperX was launched quite long time ago and till today; all of these series memories are still comes with the blue heat spreader for better heat dissipation and it is one of the symbols for a high end memory. The aluminum heat spreaders are secured by two clips and the life time warranty will be voided if the heat spreaders has been opened.

Kingston KHX6400D2LLK2/4G is using sixteen 128M x 8-bit DDR2 FBGA components per module and 8 logical banks rather than 4 logical banks that are being used for most of the DDR2 memory modules to reach 2GB memory capacities. As you can see both sides of the memory modules are filled with memory chips with thermal pads; 4 memory chips on each side.

Kingston HyperX 4GB KHX8500D2T1K2/4G

Another Kingston HyperX memory kit that we have today is 4GB KHX8500D2T1K2/4G. Unlike KHX6400D2LLK2/4G, KHX8500D2T1K2/4G is a DDR2 memory kit with 1066MHz speed which is one of the advantages over KHX6400D2LLK2/4G; 800MHz for those are having supported motherboard and processor.

For KHX8500D2T1K2/4G, it has latency timing of 5-5-5-15 at 2.2V - 2.3V; ~ 0.3V extra compare with KHX6400D2LLK2/4G in order to make it run at 1066MHz at such timing. However according to JEDEC standard latency 800Mhz timing of 5-5-5-18 at 1.8V.

There is something unique for KHX8500D2T1K2/4G compares with KHX6400D2LLK2/4G as the heat spreader of KHX8500D2T1K2/4G is much taller and comes with massive of aluminum fins which has greater heat dissipation factor. Such heat spreader is definitely good for this memory kit since it requires high voltage to order to achieve that suggested speed without any stability issue. We believe PC enthusiasts/freaks will love it especially for those are having window side panel.

Unlike KHX6400D2LLK2/4G, KHX8500D2T1K2/4G heat spreader is not using any clip but some adhesive glue to ensure better conductivity between the memory chips and the heat spreaders. KHX8500D2T1K2/4G is also having sixteen 128M x 8-bit DDR FBGA components per module; 2 x 2048MB.

Installation, Testing & Performance

Memory installation is very simple; power off the system, remove the existing memory modules and replace with the new one. For dual channel supported motherboard, please ensure the right slots are populated; same color slots and most of the time will be slots 1-3 and 2-4. For those are having casing space constraint where the memory clip might be blocked by the graphic card hence such additional steps can't be avoided; removing the graphic card before the memory modules can be replaced.

Test Bed

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3
Heatsink: Noctua NH-U9B
Memory: Kingston HyperX DDR2 6400/8500
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card: OEM Nvidia GeForce 9800GT 512MB
PSU: In Win Commander 750W
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Optical Drive: DVD RW HLDS
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Operating System: Microsoft XP Pro SP2
Benchmark Software: HDTech, CrystalDiskMark
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

Here are the CPU-Z details of KHX6400D2LLK2/4G and default timing is 5-5-5-18 2T; tRAS is set to 18 rather than 15 according to its spec. Anyway it can be changed at BIOS setting or you may ignore it as it will not have much performance impact.

For KHX8500D2T1K2/4G, the CPU-Z detail is totally same as the KHX6400D2LLK2/4G at default; 800MHz and it seems our sample unit here was made in year 2008 week 33. Anyway new or old stock doesn't matter as long as it performs so let us go through the performance comparison between these two Kingston HyperX memory kits.

Here are some of the memory performance benchmarks and comparing the performance between KHX6400D2LLK2/4G and KHX8500D2T1K2/4G, both of them are quite similar at 800MHz; leading by KHX8500D2T1K2/4G. For KHX8500D2T1K2/4G, we just tested it with 800MHz speed which is more than enough to run it 1-1 with our processor E8300 and the performance at 1066MHz will have around additional 5% better than 800MHz in most of the benchmarking tools. So far we have tested both of these memory kits for a week with 24/7 operation and we didn't encounter any stability issue yet and we wish we won't see it as Kingston products always comes with high quality especially for their high end products; HyperX.

Now let us talk a bit about its overclocking for both of these Kingston HyperX memory kits and they should be able to achieve better overclocking compare those value memory kits. For the left CPU-Z, this is the maximum overclocking that we have achieved for KHX6400D2LLK2/4G; from 800MHz till 1092MHz which already more than 1066MHz by just using the original memory voltage. The overclocking of this KHX6400D2LLK2/4G is definitely impressive and if the user owns any memory cooler than maintaining such speed or even tighten timing shouldn't not be a big problem. For the KHX8500D2T1K2/4G, the overclocking isn't that great compare with KHX6400D2LLK2/4G since its is being sold as 1066MHz memory kit but we still managed to get 1104MHz with stock memory voltage which is not bad as well; pump in more memory voltage will able to get more tighten timing.

Conclusion

Overall both of the Kingston HyperX memory kits; KHX6400D2LLK2/4G, KHX8500D2T1K2/4G are having decent performance at least above average compare with value memory. Besides that both of these memory kits come with heat spreaders for better heat dissipation especially KHX8500D2T1K2/4G where it comes with massive of aluminum fins to ensure its stability and reliability. If you are looking for a decent and quality DDR2 then you may consider either one of these kits especially KHX6400D2LLK2/4G as it has very good overclocking potential or go for KHX8500D2T1K2/4G if it is affordable since it is good for upgrading in the future. The price gap between both of these HyperX kits and value kits are quite minimal especially KHX6400D2LLK2/4G compare with DDR3; it cost around 200USD for a 4GB DDR3 kits.

Pros:

* Value especially for (KHX6400D2LLK2/4G)
* Decent performance
* Extreme good for overclocking (KHX6400D2LLK2/4G)
* Charming & great heat spreaders (KHX8500D2T1K2/4G)

Cons:

* None

Thanks to Kingston for providing this sample for us to review.

For KHX6400D2LLK2/4G