[section_title title=”Introduction & Closer Look”]
Introduction & Closer Look
Brand: HyperX
Model: Predator 16GB (4x4GB) 2133MHz CL13 DDR4 Memory
Price: £182.64 (At time of review)
DDR1, DDR2, DDR3 and….Yes, we are now in the age of the DDR4 memory module and isn’t it a glorious one? Well, that is if you have a large wedge of money to spend on the latest Intel X99 chipset, codenamed Haswell-E (socket LGA 2011v3). So far there isn’t really any talk of AMD using DDR4 memory, in fact, it has been a while since they had any “new” releases other than refreshes but today isn’t about that, it is about DDR4 memory and, in particular, from a specific company with quite a confusing persona of late…
The question I’m of course asking myself is this brand named Kingston or HyperX? Well HyperX might be a division of Kingston on paper but they really want to set themselves apart from the rest of the company; HyperX is essentially the “high-performance” part of the company and is the world’s largest independent memory manufacturer. 2002 brought in their first kit of DDR1 and without re-visiting memory lane, today we have the latest and greatest in current DRAM technology, DDR4. Oh and the answer to my question was of course HyperX!
Today on the Play3r X99 test bench is the HyperX Predator 16GB (4x4GB) 2133MHz CL13 DDR4 memory kit and it makes for a very interesting review because in reality, 2133MHz is the bottom end of the performance scale. With that being said, the Predator does have a mean looking aesthetic with a large heat sink design; although this might not appeal to some, you could say that given the nature of the X99 platform, most will be using water cooling or at least an AIO cooler for that extra cooling grunt.
There was no fancy packaging present with this particular sample; just a brown box with 2 x frustration-free blister packs containing what looks to be some HyperX DDR4 memory, how convenient as that was what I was hoping for! Wouldn’t be much of a review without it right?
So as you can see, this particular kit features 4 x DRAM modules which make up a 16GB quad channel which is designed for today’s current Intel X99 platform; socket 2011-3 for those wondering or not too sure. These particular HyperX Predator DDR4 modules have rated XMP 2.0 speeds of 2133MHz with CL13 timings; on paper, this doesn’t sound like a very high spec but the timings are as tight as they can be so its apples and oranges here.
The heat sinks featured on the HyperX Predator DDR4 kit feature an all-black design with a pretty sweet looking contrast throughout the module itself; these are a finger print magnet in all honesty but given that they aren’t designed to be handled the same way as a case, I can forgive and forget this! In saying that, they do look touchable with their striking aggressive, but overly large heat sinks and if you intended to use these with a large tower air cooler, think again; you have no chance of fitting these monsters under ANY heat sink.
To demonstrate the two tone black effect, the large X which signifies the HyperX brand across the heat sink has a very reflective surface; if you are a LED enthusiast and love your bling, direct LED or any light for that matter will give this kind of effect which although it looks stylish, adds a different dimension to this kit. Believe it or not, it is black as you can see the top module doesn’t catch the light and remains black; I like it personally, but aesthetics is a matter of personal taste.
So aside from the rather low specs, the large monstrous heatsinks and the super aggressive design, let’s take a look at the official specifications and then see how these bad boys overclock; Predator or chump? Let’s see…
