Kingston HyperX Beast 2x4GB DDR3-2133MHz Review

Brand: Kingston
Model: HyperX Beast
RRP: -£70 (At time of review)

Kingston Technology, formed in 1987, have built up a solid reputation in the storage industry, whether it be with RAM or SSD’s. They are a brand synonymous with oozing quality and providing high performance products to their end users and they cater to people with budgetary needs as well as the high-end enthusiasts. Due to these characteristics they have built up a very solid user base, and are now producing more products and different types of solutions than they ever have.

Today I will be taking a look at the HyperX Beast 2133MHz kit, not the highest specification kit from Kingston, but with the standard of memory starting to move towards 2133MHz and 2400MHz from 1600MHz as it becomes more affordable, this should be a up there with the other kits we have tested. The timings for this kit are 11-12-11-30 which runs at 1.65 Volts, Timings could be tighter but then there are a few other 2133MHz kits on the market with CAS11 timings, so we will let Kingston off. With this being a Beast kit, and it using relatively high voltage to achieve its speed and timings; will this be a lightning fast kit with over clocking potential, or another kit that refuses to do anything other than stock? Lets get testing and find out.

• JEDEC standard 1.5V (1.425V ~ 1.575V) Power Supply

• VDDQ = 1.5V (1.425V ~ 1.575V)

• 667MHz fCK for 1333Mb/sec/pin

• 8 independent internal bank

• Programmable CAS Latency: 9, 8, 7, 6

• Posted CAS

• Programmable Additive Latency: 0, CL – 2, or CL – 1 clock

• Programmable CAS Write Latency(CWL) = 7 (DDR3-1333)

• 8-bit pre-fetch

• Burst Length: 8 (Interleave without any limit, sequential with

starting address “000” only), 4 with tCCD = 4 which does not

allow seamless read or write [either on the fly using A12 or

MRS”]

• Bi-directional Differential Data Strobe

• Internal(self) calibration : Internal self calibration through ZQ

pin (RZQ : 240 ohm ± 1%)

• On Die Termination using ODT pin

• Average Refresh Period 7.8us at lower than TCASE 85°C,

3.9us at 85°C < TCASE < 95°C

• Asynchronous Reset

• PCB : Height 1.827” (46.41mm) w/ heatsink, double sided

component

The packaging, what can I say? It is a very typical style of packing the RAM which we see from a variety of manufacturers. That is not to say that it does not do the job of getting the RAM from the factory to your doorstep, it does that perfectly, but it does go to show how tough RAM is and that it doesn’t need any fancy packing to make it look good. There are Manufacturers who send their RAM out in fancy boxes, but Kingston are aware that their consumer base is one built on their reputation for quality and performance, so with that being said their packaging doesn’t need to do that job for them, and they can make savings.

In regards to the packaging, Its a two part plastic shell which is moulded to the contours of the RAM to hold it in place nicely during transit to prevent any damage. It has a Red banded label across the middle of it which displays the model of the RAM as well as some product information and the serial numbers of the kit. Aesthetically it wont grab your attention when its on the shelf, but as stated above it relies on other qualities to draw in buyers, so it serves its purpose well.

First impressions of this RAM are good. Nice styled black heat sink which is teamed up with an equally attractive black PCB and of course, the HyperX branding, which will keep a lot of enthusiasts and system builders happy. On a personal note, I like the heat sink design of the Beast, I know it isn’t going to be to everyone’s liking, but I have seen much worse that Kingston’s offering. The RAM is tall, with the combined unit measuring at 46mm, you may run into some issues with some tower coolers, mine just managed to fit under my BeQuiet! cooler. Even though RAM generally isn’t a feature in a lot of builds, this kit would go well in any system. Flipping over the module shows us more of the HyperX branding and it also gives us a label which contains the model numbers and the serial number(s) of your kit.

With a kit that was primarily aimed at the high performance and enthusiast markets, has Kingston managed to pull off a great looking kit with killer performance? Time to finish off this review with my particular thoughts and feelings on this kit.

My expectations for this kit were mixed. It bares the HyperX branding, which to me, means high performance and quality along with baring some over clocking potential. However, the stock speeds and voltages of this kit had be a little pessimistic that this kit could be pushed much further than it had been already, and I’m glad to see that I was proven wrong. The kit overall managed to reach 2800MHz, which was way beyond what I had expected, but this did come at a price of slower benchmarks results on all three of the tests we ran. They were not down by much on the results at 2133MHz, only by about 300 points, but that was enough to show that there were possibly stability issues there and that the ICs had reached their limits. That being said I was able to get the timing to remain stable at 13-14-13-34 on the 2400MHz and I feel that I could have got it down to CAS 11, but I would not want to put too much more voltage through the i7 we used whilst still on air. That is not to take away from getting it up to 2400MHz with practically no tweaking at all. It was just a case of selecting the speed on the BIOS and done, not a bad return for 10 seconds work.

I feel that there is nothing that lets this kit down, if I was to be really picky, it would be that the kit is not a massive overclocker in regards to seeing a performance increase at 2800MHz, but I feel that for the price of the kit you would be asking a lot for the kit to show performance gains when you are pushing it as hard as that. Also, the height of the RAM may cause a problem with some air coolers, but on my BeQuiet! Cooler, it was tight but still fitted in there. It is something you would have to pass your own judgement on if you were to use this kit with a tower cooler.

In regards to awards, because I feel that this product is well priced to the performance that we attained from it, the overall design of the RAM as well as the good looking heat sink design, teamed up with the sleek black PCB, and the fact that unless I am really picky, I cannot really pick any faults with the kit, along with a brilliant warranty and superb reliability, it would have been awarded the Performance Award but seeing as it is such a well rounded product ill give it our top award, the Editors Choice Award.

Many thanks to Kingston for providing us with a sample.