Kingston HyperX PC4000 512MB Dual Channel Kit

Company: Kingston
Product: HyperX PC4000 512MB Dual Channel Kit
Street Price: $185 USD
Date Reviewed: September 13, 2003
Reviewed By: Joey Chao

Test Setup:

For our testing we use an Intel 2.4C processor. The reason for this is that it has a low multiplier. The lower multiplier helps to achieve much higher FSB's since we will also be overclocking the CPU.  For our testing procedure, we used MemTest86 to check for stability and SiSoft Sandra 2003 for our benchmarks. Also if we say stable, it means that the memory was stable through endless loops of MemTest86. If the memory could not run through MemTest86 without giving errors, we did not even bother to boot into windows and run the benchmarks.

Benchmarks & Overclocking:

First we started out at 250FSB with memory running synchronously with SPD timings putting the HyperX modules at 500MHz DDR. Interestingly, the system would not boot. Double checking the settings it appears that the IC7 would not read the SPD values correctly. Instead of showing 3-4-4-8 the BIOS showed 3-3-3-8. Setting the timings manually corrected the issue. At the rated 2.6V, the system ran flawlessly through Memtest86 overnight. Adjusting the system to 255, the memory was not stable through Memtest86, no matter what voltage was used (all the way to 3.2V).

The highest stable speed we were able to obtain with the 3-4-4-8 timings was 506MHz DDR. Notice that Sandra reports the DDR speed as 508 because the real time FSB was 253.9MHz. To get this speed stable, we had to use 2.65V.

We tested some other timings but anything other than the SPD values would not run at 500MHz, regardless of what voltage was applied.