Kingston KHX6400D2LLK2/2G

First let's have a look at the PC6400 Kingston sent to our test lab:


front of the PC6400 moduies

The modules have a very basic design, with classic heat spreaders held in place by two clips, which press them firmly onto the memory chips. Kingston so far has forsaken the urge for new heat spreader designs, spearheaded by Corsair , OCZ and now even by Team Group (with the help of Thermalright). Going the classic heat spreader way is not necessarily a bad thing : the debate whether heat spreaders are there "just for show", or whether they indeed provide superior performance, has never really been decided. Just check out our review of the Thermalright HR-07 ram cooler and you'll see what I mean.

Of course, the good thing of a heat spreader for any manufacturer is that they provide a way to get their message across, and to make some differentiation between different products from different memory firms, and between the different line-ups of one and the same manufacturer. In this case, the modules are equipped of course with Kingston's unique "KHX" or HyperX heat spreaders. These are a very classy blue design heat spreader with the Kingston branding next to the specifications sticker on the front, and the HyperX logo on the back.


back of the modules with HyperX branding

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Let's have a look at the specifications of the PC6400 modules :

800MHz DDR2

4-4-4-12 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS)

240pin DIMM

Operating voltage : 2.0 Volts

JEDEC programming : 667Mhz (PC5300), 5-5-5-18 @ 1.8V

Memory size : 2x 1024Mb

Parity : Unbuffered

Non ECC

Lifetime Warranty

As you can see, we are talking about an 800Mhz module with a cas latency of 4. Kingston (and some other manufacturers) tends to call these parts "low latency", and although the latencies are not that high, low latency would mean a cas 3 part to me. The memory chips on these sticks supposedly come from Elpida, who deliver many of the mid range memory chips for PC5300 an PC6400 ram.

You can find all these and some more specs of the PC6400 modules on Kingston's Technical Sheet (.pdf).


Kingston KHX8500D2K2/2G

Let's have a look at the PC8500 modules now:



As you can see, they are identical to the other HyperX memory modules. The only visual difference are the stickers that are applied to the front of the modules, the real difference is under the hood of course.

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Let's have a look at the specifications of the PC8500 modules too:

1066MHz DDR2

5-5-5-15 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS)

240pin DIMM

Operating voltage : 2.2 Volts

JEDEC programming : 800Mhz (PC6400), 5-5-5-15 @ 1.8V

Memory size : 2x 1024Mb

Parity : Unbuffered

Non ECC

These chips are clearly on another performance level. These are Kingston's top of the line DDR2 modules, except for the very recently released PC9200 and 9600 modules. These modules sport the very best of the DDR2 chips, which are manufactured by Micron.

Once more, the Technical Sheet (.pdf) for the PC8500C5 modules can be found on Kingston's website.


the PC8500 and PC6400 memory pairs


Left to right (click to open) : Close-ups of the memory modules

More than time now to see what they're really made of >>>