By: Aaron Lai
August 8, 2014
If you ask me about the word fury, a few things come to mind. First is Colonel Nicholas Joseph Fury, better known as Nick Fury, the former director of the Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division, or S.H.I.E.L.D. for short. Of course, most of you probably just think he is still the director, but in fact this is not so, and I will let Marvel tell you the actual details of what happened. Anyways, when I think of Nick Fury, I see a controlled and prepared person. Unlike his last name, he does not seem to lash out; but rather keeps it in check. In fact, in the Original Sin Vol. 1 #5, he describes himself as an “invisible monster who keeps the other monsters at bay”. Nick Fury does not generally show much for his super powers in the Marvel movies, but he definitely has powers, such as being immortal, as well as having mastered the art of Tae Kwon Do and Jiu-Jitsu. He is quite a bit more brains than brawn, but he still has the ability to pack a good punch. Conversely, the other thing I think of is the literal meaning of fury, a wild or violent anger. Rather than the comic book character, it is a great descriptor for intensity, a storm, or an outrage. In essence, we can see Nick Fury and the meaning of fury is at opposite ends. While one is able to hold together, the other is completely out of control. And that brings me to the Kingston HyperX Fury. When Kingston first announced this DDR3 RAM line, aimed at budget users, I could only imagine how they even came up with a name like “fury” to describe their product. Is this an unruly product Kingston provided for us users, or is it a bit more manageable? Read on to find out!
As with the Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 32GB I reviewed two weeks ago, today’s review unit arrived from the Californian offices of Kingston, more specifically in Fountain Valley. Just as a random fact, Fountain Valley is less than an hour drive away from Chino, California, which is home to quite a few competitors' headquarters. Once again, Kingston also used the standard FedEx Large Pak to deliver our RAM unit, and it arrived in one piece. As the pouch is not very rigid, scratches are very few in number and severity, and the entire package is not ripped in any place. In the past, FedEx has always done a great job in delivering products on time and without too much damage to our APH Networks Calgary location, and luckily this is no different. Ripping open the tab, I can get more into the package itself. Inside the Large Pak is another brown corrugated box with brown packing paper, and both do a great job to conceal and protect the Kingston HyperX Fury DDR3-1866 2x8GB dual channel memory kit.
Finally unwrapping and throwing aside all the packing material, we can see the OEM-like packaging Kingston often uses for computer parts. Of course, this is also the same retail packaging you would find at any computer store. I have to say for once, I finally see a Kingston product without the horrendous blister packing, but rather a clear plastic shell and cover. While this is not the fanciest of packaging I have seen, it definitely is functional. All the important information can also be found on the front sticker, which wraps around the entire package to seal it in. The other nice thing about the packaging is that you can see the product clearly on both sides. As you can see in the photo above, the two modules making up the Kingston HyperX Fury DDR3-1866 2x8GB are placed horizontally next to each other for viewing's sake. You can probably tell by now, but our review unit of the Kingston HyperX Fury HX318C10FK2/16 2x8GB DDR3 is blue, but there are a total of four colors to choose from at press time, including red, white, and black. As I have a blue motherboard in the Gigabyte Z87X-D3H, I only thought a blue RAM kit would make sense.
Before we move any further into the HyperX Fury DDR3 RAM, let’s take a look at the product description of this memory kit, as obtained from the manufacturer’s website:
PnP JEDEC TIMING PARAMETERS:
- DDR3-1866 CL10-11-10 @1.5V
SPECIFICATIONS
- CL(IDD): 10 cycles
- Row Cycle Time (tRCmin): 44.75ns (min.)
- Refresh to Active/Refresh Command Time (tRFCmin): 260ns (min.)
- Row Active Time (tRASmin): 32.125ns (min.)
- UL Rating: 94 V - 0
- Operating Temperature: 0oC to 85oC
- Storage Temperature: -55oC to +100oC
A screenshot of the SPD tab in CPU-Z with Kingston’s HyperX Fury HX318C10FK2/16 2x8GB installed. The timings table reads the standard JEDEC specifications programmed into the memory. You will also notice the lack of XMP data, because Kingston has not included Intel’s XMP technology in this unit. This is a bit confusing at the time, especially since most RAM have XMP enabled. Using the latest BIOS revision, our Gigabyte Z87X-D3H motherboard used for testing has no issues detecting and working with the Kingston RAM right out of the box, thanks to the stock JEDEC programming. I guess it really was a plug-and-play experience even without XMP. At press time, the Kingston’s HyperX Fury HX318C10FK2/16 2x8GB retails for approximately $170 USD.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Installation, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 CPU
4. Benchmark: AIDA64 FPU
5. Benchmark: AIDA64 Memory
6. Benchmark: PCMark 8
7. Benchmark: 3DMark
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 8.0
9. Benchmark: SuperPI 1M, Cinebench R15
10. Overclocking and Conclusion
