Kingmax Hardcore PC-4000 Memory

Overclocking:

As always we must overclock and push new technology to the edge and find the breaking points. Lately Legit Reviews has been going for stability and quality of our overclocks rather than showing a single benchmark and showing off unstable results. To get things stable at these speeds extra cooling on the northbridge to help keep the chipset cool while overclocking our system. Since the Kingmax 256mb modules that we are testing are single banked and using the BGA form factor we were not expecting high hopes when it came to overclocking. We were actually quit surprised to find that these modules were able to run up to 520MHz before throwing memory errors when we ran the RST Pro2. This max was found with the most relaxed timings possible; 3-4-4-8, 1T.

We also wanted to see how tight we could get the timings at the rated frequency and were quit happy to find them to be rock solid at; 2.5-3-3-7, 1T. It should be noted that we had to increase the voltage on the memory up to 2.75V for it to be stable at these tighter timings. For those who are interested to see what we could manage for 400MHz we were able to achieve timings 2-3-2-5, 1T at DDR400 (when RAS to CAS was set at 2 the system would not post). For memory at this price point we were very happy to see it running with 100% stability at CL2.5! It’s obvious by the previous charts how timings impact memory bandwidth and as always more is better.

Below is a screen shots of our timings and frequency settings for our highest stable overclock.

Conclusions:

Nathan Kirsch’s Thoughts:

I am pleasantly surprised by how these modules tested out! I found that they dissipate heat better than the TSOP memory at the same speed, making them ideal for users looking for modules that wont create an oven in their case. These are actually the coolest running IC’s that I have seen at DDR500! Running under full load the IC’s were mildly warm, and that is without the use of a heat spreader!

Since these modules are only single sided modules I can’t recommend them for the extreme overclocker who demands the fastest possible product without concern for the cost. On the other hand the Kingmax DDR500 hardcore modules did do well at a variety of timings. We were able to run our memory at 2-3-2-5, 1T at DDR400 and then at 2.5-7-3-3 at DDR500. These are actually better timings than most modules available today!

I’d recommend Kingmax DDR500 to any of our readers that are looking into building a compact system. By this I mean the SFF (Small Form Factor) and HTPC (Home Theater PC) computers that are becoming more popular with each passing day. The low temperatures and low profile of Kingmax Tiny-BGA modules make them suited perfect for these applications!

Lastly, the MSRP on these one of these 256mb modules is ~$75 USD, which is roughly $15-$20 cheaper than other name brand PC-4000 modules in the North American market. This makes the price versus performance ratio very competitive and at the top of the list for HTPC and SFF users.

Legit Bottom Line:

With highly competitive prices the Kingmax DDR500 Hardcore series memory line is hard to pass up for SFF and HTPC users! These modules produce low amounts of heat, while running at aggressive timings at various frequencies.

If this memory does not suit your needs check to see if Kingmax has any that do!