Kingston HyperX PC3500 DDR RAM

Company: Kingston Technology
Product: 512MB PC3500 DDR RAM
Street Price: ~$225 USD
Date Reviewed: December 6, 2002
Reviewed By: Joey C. aka Chong345
Overall Rating: (9/10)

Test Setup & Benchmarks (Cont):

Next, we tried to use timings like the ones that Kingston rated the memory to do. Since our motherboard does not allow for these timings, we had to get it as close as we could so 2-7-3-3 was used for the rest of the testing process. The HyperX memory was able to run 433 MHz DDR using 2.5V which is great. That is what it is supposed to do. The absolute highest the memory would go with these timings and 2.8V was 456 MHz, which is a little lower than what we have seen compared to other PC3500 modules, but the difference would not be noticeable at all by the user except in benchmarks. Using any more voltage did not help in overclocking and even using CAS 2.5 did not help. Even though the highest top end speed is not very great, what the memory can do with tight timings is not bad at all. All the benchmark scores are right in line so the memory is performing exactly as it is supposed to when compared to the other Sandra scores.

SiSoft Sandra 2003 Memory Benchmark
333 MHz 2.5V 2-5-2-2	400 MHz 2.8V 2-6-2-2
416 MHz 2.8V 2-6-2-2	426 MHz 2.95V 2-6-2-2
433 MHz 2.5V 2-7-3-3	456 MHz 2.8V 2-7-3-3

Conclusions :

Overall, the memory performs very well. It comes with a lifetime warranty, which is great, and Kingston has toll free tech support. Kingston has once again produced a memory module that is very stable and overclocks fairly well, not to shabby for a new line of memory. The timings that this particular module was able to run are impressive and we experienced no problems while testing this memory. We even took it up over 3V at one time and it still booted into windows just fine though we do not recommend using that much voltage on a daily basis. For gamers this memory is very good since it allows for some very fast speeds. Keep in mind though that not all systems will be able to run the speeds this memory is rated at due to other variables such as the CPU, motherboard, etc. The only things are not good about the memory are the rated timings. We do not have ANY testing machines to use these timings. They are rather strange and there are other modules rated at better timings but this particular module did just as well as other we have seen.

Pros:
  Stable
  Lifetime Warranty
  Tight Timings at high speeds

Cons:
  Rated timings are not available on many motherboards

Average User: 9.5/10
Hardcore Gamer: 9.5/10
Extreme Overclocker: 8/10

Overall Rating: 9/10

Back To The Home Page