Page 2 - A Closer Look, Installation, Test System
Kingston's HyperX PnP KHX16S9P1K2/16 2x8GB RAM uses a low profile, grey/silver-colored aluminum heatspreader. It is quite literally a miniature version of its desktop counterparts, and I found that quite interesting to look at first glance. This is the exact same design as the Kingston HyperX PnP KHX1600C9S3P1K2/8G 2x4GB I have reviewed last year. Aluminum is lightweight, and serves as a decent heat conductor. On a major retailer's website, I have read some complaints from consumers about the latest revision of this product no longer have the heatsinks for "better compatibility" -- what the heck? I would like to say the usage of heatspreaders in laptop memory is purely a marketing gimmick; while they do undeniably serve a purpose in dissipating heat, no SODIMM at 1.5V can generate enough heat to actually make use of this -- considering you can't even overclock your laptop in the first place. That said, I am a sucker for cool looking RAM, and so are a lot of people. If this is indeed the case, I think Kingston is going down the wrong route with the HyperX PnP DDR3-1600 16GB in my opinion.
Back to what we have, the heatspreader design of the Kingston HyperX modules is symmetrical. This makes sense, because memory ICs reside on both sides of the PCB. Besides functional purposes, it also improves the look. Kingston's logo and HyperX branding can be found on the western edge; while a stylized, beveled and textured 'X' can be found extending from the eastern edge to the western edge, as shown in our image above. An organized matrix of ventilation holes can be found at the top. Meanwhile, a specification label is applied on one side of each module. It lists the brand (Kingston), kit name (KHX16S9P1K2/16), voltage (1.5V), and assembly location (China). Occupying the rest of the space is not the usual stuff like frequency and capacity, however. Instead, we can see a whole lot of seemingly random characters and numbers, in which I would assume at least one of them corresponds to its serial number.
Each 8GB module of the Kingston HyperX PnP KHX16S9P1K2/16 2x8GB kit features a standard green PCB with a total of eight 1024MB integrated chips on both sides -- four on each side of the board -- for maximum capacity. Kingston's modules are programmed to run at 1.5V, 800MHz actual clock (DDR3-1600/PC3-12800) with 9-9-9-27 latencies. These are pretty standard specifications for laptop memory operating at this speed, as discussed earlier.
If you've never installed laptop memory before, it is quite a simple job. For those who are experienced, you will understand that every laptop is designed differently, therefore the procedure for memory installation may also vary from a thirty second job to... well, a five minute job at most. My previous Lenovo ThinkPad T400's memory modules were located underneath the palm rest; requiring the removal of four screws at the bottom of the laptop. This is probably as hard as it gets. Meanwhile, the Lenovo ThinkPad T420 I am using for testing today has one memory behind a cover at the bottom; with the second module located underneath the keyboard. This simple procedure required only two screws to be removed in total, and it takes no more than two minutes. The rest of the procedure involves unlatching the clips and removing the old SODIMMS, and installation is simply done by sliding the new RAM into their slot until it locks. The extra thickness contributed by the HyperX heatspreaders did not cause any problems during installation, so as uneventful as it is, let's fire up some benchmarks.
For our benchmarks, our test system is configured as follows:
Laptop Model: Lenovo ThinkPad T420 (BIOS Revision 1.22)
CPU: Intel Core i5-2520M (Sandy Bridge 2.50GHz, Turbo Boost 3.00GHz, 3MB L3, 1333MHz FSB)
Chipset: Intel QM67
Display: 14" AUO LED backlit LCD @ 1600x900
Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 4200M 1GB with Optimus
Storage: Patriot Pyro SE 240GB
Wireless: Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1
Compared Hardware:
- Kingston HyperX PnP KHX16S9P1K2/16 2x8GB (DDR3-1600) @ 9-9-9-27
- G.Skill F3-10666CL9D-8GBSQ 2x4GB (DDR3-1333) @ 9-9-9-24
- G.Skill F3-8500CL7D-8GBSQ 2x4GB (DDR3-1066) @ 7-7-7-20
- Kingston HyperX PnP KHX1600C9S3P1K2/8G 2x4GB (DDR3-1600) @ 9-9-9-27
All tests were ran with the NVIDIA Quadro NVS 4200M 1GB dedicated graphics card active, and the laptop's power scheme set to "High Performance" to obtain the most accurate benchmark scores.
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 7
7. Benchmark: 3DMark 11
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 7.0
9. Benchmark: SuperPI 1M, Cinebench R11.5
10. Conclusion
