Kingston 2GB HyperX PC2-6400

Author(s): Greg King

Are you on the lookout for a good 2GB kit that won't break the bank? Kingstons HyperX PC2-6400 fits that bill. It uses stock 4-4-4-12 timings at low voltages and even has some solid overclocking ability.

Introduction

As a leader in the global memory market, Kingston Technology has been in the game for almost 20 years. Focusing on products ranging from flash cards to system RAM, they are the world’s largest independent producer of DRAM and with offerings to the PC community consisting of memory for printers, servers, PDAs and gamers; they certainly have a strong stable of products. Founded in California in 1987, Kingston started with one product and has grown into the position that they are in today.

With more and more companies diversifying their product lineups, Kingston has remained committed to providing gamers with high quality system memory. As a site primarily aimed towards gamers and enthusiasts, Techgage has reviewed a considerable amount of system memory. In fact, we have reviewed more RAM than any other single type of hardware. Back in September, we took a look at Kingston’s HyperX PC2-8000 and in that review, Rob loved how the RAM performed. On the bench today, we have Kingston’s PC2-6400 2GB kit (KHX6400D2LLK2/2G) and with any luck, we can get similar performance out of these as Rob did out of the PC2-8000 kit he looked at in September.

Kingston has done a nice job in packaging the HyperX modules. The black backing with a clear top has a professional look to it but is rather simple in design. Running across the middle of the package is a large sticker that not only keeps the package closed, but also displays all of the important information that the end user might want to know. This editor can appreciate a simple, easy to open package and Kingston delivers in that regard.

Once opened, we can see the blue heat spreaders and green PCB. Not unlike all memory, there is a specs sticker on the side of the heat spreader that gives the users basic information about the modules such as model numbers and voltage. Aside from the evaluation sticker on the top of the front side of the heat spreader, these sticks are exactly the same thing anyone can go out and pick up from their favorite computer shop or online site.

Taking a closer look at the sticker, we see the incredibly long model number KHX6400D2LLK2/2G. To the best of my ability, I am pretty confident that it equates to something like Kingston Hyper-X, PC2-6400 and that the kit is a 2 GB set. The sticker also tells us that the stock voltage for these modules is 2.0 volts.

The back of the sticks looks very similar to the front but also include the aggressive looking Hyper-X logo, flanked by the Kingston and DDR2 logos.

Before we get into the testing results of these sticks, we would like to share a bit of information about the modules that Kingston was kind enough to pass along to us. Under the heat spreaders, Kingston choose to use the standard reference designed PCBs and the chips are manufactured by Elpida. This information might not concern too many people but it is something that we did want to pass along to you since most Elpida are not praised for their overclocking ability. We chose not to remove the heat spreaders because of the FBGA chips nasty reputation of coming off of the sticks rather easily.

With the modules themselves examined, we move onto the testing methodology and results.