Kingston HyperX 3x 2GB DDR-2250 short test
Hello, faithful readers! Don't worry, we're not dead, just busy half of the time and grabbing some summer sun during the other half :)
I just had an opportunity to test a Kingston triple channel DDR-2250 memory kit and I decided to put together a short review. I didn't feel like putting a only a teaser here, but if you'd like to give us some clicks you can also read the same on teampclab.pl.
Rated frequency is very high for a triple channel kit, the kit is clearly targeted at Gulftowns since 45nm Core i7 won't consistently reach that frequency, and certainly not on air.
Kit comes in a big box containing three modules, HyperX fan and some boring leaflets:
http://www.teampclab.pl/wyniki/kingston_3ch2250/box.jpg
(click pics to enlarge)
Fan looks exactly like on older HyperX kits; heatspreaders are also unchanged, but they are attached very firmly and make contact with all chips (as opposed to flimsy heatspreaders on first revision of Elpida Hyper Kingstons):
http://www.teampclab.pl/wyniki/kings...0/contents.jpg
Here's the label for all you detail lovers:
http://www.teampclab.pl/wyniki/kings...2250/label.jpg
Crowd favourite, a chip shot:
http://www.teampclab.pl/wyniki/kings...2250/chips.jpg
And everything mounted on my test platform:
http://www.teampclab.pl/wyniki/kings...50/mounted.jpg
SPD has two XMP profiles programmed: one for DDR-2000 at 1,7 V uncore voltage, another for DDR-2250 at 1,35 V uncore. It's clear that the rated speed is only achievable with Gulftowns, but it's nice to see Kingston include a backup profile for Bloomfields as well. More details about XMP profiles can be seen here.
Testing platform:
Core i7-980X Q4EG "press ES"
ASUS Rampage III Extreme (thanks ASUS!)
HIS Radeon HD5770
Enermax Revolution 85+ 850W
First I tried max clock at stock timings and stock voltage:
DDR-2404 9-11-9-27 1,65 V
http://www.teampclab.pl/wyniki/kings...volts_1202.jpg
Next up was CL9 testing on increased voltage. I reached the same frequency for 9-11-9 and 8-11-8 timings, which means I'm either at an IMC or tRCD limit:
DDR-2416 8-11-8-27 1,72 V
http://www.teampclab.pl/wyniki/kings...stockvolts.jpg
Next I tried to lower the primary timings to 7-9-7:
DDR-2022 7-9-7-24 1,65 V
http://www.teampclab.pl/wyniki/kings...volts_1011.jpg
I was a bit surprised because that's where the fun ended - the kit wouldn't run 6-8-6 above 1800 MHz, and I didn't bother testing lower, as there's already a lot of memory that will run any imaginable timings under DDR-1800. Also it doesn't scale with voltage almost at all - i was able to reproduce that DDR-2416 8-11-8 result at stock voltage.
Overall this kit is a very nice product - it certainly makes a good impression: very high stock frequency, effective cooling solution well programmed SPD. But for extreme overclocking, where low timings matter as much as high frequency, there are better kits, even Powerchip IC based. Stay tuned for another Kingston OC memory test in a few weeks :)
