Kingston HyperX 2GB PC2-6400 C4 Memory Review

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

In November of 2005 I reviewed Kingston’s original PC2-6400 memory kit versus six other kits of memory and found it leaving me wanting more from the kit. The engineers at Kingston have obviously been working on improving their performance numbers and found a winning combination. The move from Infineon to Elpida IC’s have allowed Kingston to reduce memory timings and improve the overclockability of these modules. The difference between CL5 and CL4 was obvious during our benchmarking and in DOOM 3 testing it was clear that having a CAS Latency of 4 was a major advantage. As we stated in the introduction C4 timings seem like the way to go without breaking the piggy bank trying to afford C3 memory.

When it comes to pricing we found the standard Low Latency 2GB kit (Part #KHX6400D2LLK2/2G) over at Newegg for $297.99 after the $25.00 Mail-In Rebate. The standard HyperX PC2-6400 part with CL5 memory timings will set you back $261.62, which means the Low Latency modules carry a $36 price premium. After looking at the gaming performance and overclocking results we would be more than willing to pay the extra $36 and get the faster screened Elpida IC’s that can run CL4 timings. If you’re going to spend upwards of $300 on performance memory you might as well splurge and spend the extra cash. You’ll be happy in the long run when you find out the memory you purchased can do more than what the label says. If you don’t want to spend $300 on memory then take a look at the 1GB kit, which will set you back a little less with a smaller $165.50 price tag and the same timings.

Kudos to Kingston for changing up the IC’s on their PC2-6400 memory series and coming out with a CL4 part for the enthusiast market. With AMD already making the move to DDR2 and Intel’s Conroe based processors coming out PC2-6400 memory is going to be the sweet spot of the market and CL4 is clearly the way to go when it comes to price versus performance. If you want it to work the first time and run out of the box forget generic memory and take a look at the modules by Kingston Technologies. They didn’t get to be the largest memory company in the World for no reason!

The Legit Bottom Line: Kingston’s HyperX PC2-6400 Low Latency memory kits take Kingston’s impressive HyperX line to the next level with CL4 timings at 800MHz to power the latest enthusiast platforms.