Kingston HyperX 4GB 2400MHz CL9 DDR3 Memory Review

Conclusion

Let’s set some basic variables for this conclusion. Chances are if you are buying these sticks are you looking to do some overclocking. After all, they do require overclocking in order to hit their specified frequency. Since you are looking to do some overclocking, chances are you will want to dial in your memory. This presents a huge problem with the Kingston HyperX 2400C9s. Normally, dialing in your memory involves cranking down the primary and secondary timings. Since these sticks only scale with loose timings you can see the dilemma.

So, where are these sticks going to be useful then? Predominately you’ll be looking at Lynnfield based processors like the Core i5 750, Core i7 860 and 870, and the upcoming Core i7 875x. I explicitly mention these as I had a horrible time running these sticks at any appreciable speeds with my Core i5 670 due to the terrible memory controller implemented in Clarkdale CPUs. So, since we’ve established what you can run these sticks in, what can you really do with them? Normally memory is the last thing you dial in on a system, typically tightening up the timings. Since you can’t do that with these sticks, you will want to make sure you are running high enough baseclock to keep these sticks in the DDR3-2400 to DDR3-2500 range. I say this because of the lack of voltage scaling and the bad trade off between tightening timings and dropping frequency with these sticks. Stick with DDR3-2400+ and 9-11-9, going with anything lower puts you in Elpida Hyper range which will run much tighter CAS and TRCD at the same frequencies.

If you are going for DDR3 frequency records these might be the sticks that do the trick. Since I was asked to not do anything silly with the sticks I didn’t give this a shot, but perhaps dropping them to -30 Celsius or lower might yield some interesting results. Considering how they already do DDR3-2500 on air, DDR3-3000 and higher wouldn’t be too surprising with the CPU and memory sub-zero. If you enjoy running your system at insane speeds 24/7 these are also the correct sticks to have. I honestly was a bit shocked watching the system run Super Pi 32M at DDR3-2500 over and over again. In conclusion, these sticks have a limited amount of actual usability but within that realm they are likely to be top dog. You will find them on the market in the weeks to come for around $450 MSRP.

Legit Bottom Line: Need DDR3-2400 with acceptable voltages? Kingston has a kit for that with their DDR3-2400C9 HyperX modules.