Memory is one of the most integral part of our computers but it is also comes as a complicated buying decisions gamers will almost always have. With DDR4’s impending arrival already within reach, it also doesn’t help that the prices of DDR3 has went skywards in the past few months. Add to this conundrum the densely populated market of products with numerous gimmicks and countless specifications.
Competing in this highly diverse is tough and you gotta hand it to companies for spawning countless attempts at trying to appeal to the enthusiast crowd. Kingston has been a staple in our review lab for many years and they have continuously shown support to enthusiasts and gamers alike with their HyperX products line. A year ago we took a look at the latest member of the HyperX family and reviewed the HyperX Beast DDR3-1866 and concluded that the Beast takes Kingston’s rather bluish product line to a new direction. Paying closer attention, we mentioned Kingston’s unwavering choice of PCB color and made them know about it. A couple of months later, Kingston bangs to PR gong with their HyperX refresh featuring BLACK PCBs.
Today we get the chance to see the HyperX Beast Black PCB edition in action and we’ll take a look at this denser modules featuring 8GB per stick. Read on!
- Dual channel available
- Quad channel available
- Capacities 8GBรขโฌโ64GB (with 8GB, 16GB and 64GB kits)
- Speeds of up to 2400MHz
- 1.5V & 1.65 V operating voltages enable stable overclocking
- Compatible with Intel XMP auto-overclocking function
- Designed to work with P55, H67, P67, Z68, H61 (AG), X79 and Z77 Intel chipsets; as well as A75, A87, A88, A89, A78 and E35 (Fusion) AMD chipsets
- Carefully selected premium chips for maximum performance and overclockability
- Vicious black heatspreader with matching black PCB
- 100-percent factory tested
Since Haswell came in, our memory section hasn’t quite been updated as it should be and even though we’re using a whole new platform for our reviews we have not been able to establish a comparative table for RAM. That said, we’ll focus on raw data for this review and as usual we will keep the commentaries to a minimum so you can take the information for your own conclusion.
Test Setup:
Processor: Intel Core i7 4770K
Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z87X-OC
Memory: Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB DDR3-2400 (2x8GB)
Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 2x120GB RAID0
PSU: Seasonic X-760W
Cooling: Custom loop
Case: Dimastech EasyXL
Monitor: LG E2350V
VGA:รย ZOTAC GeForce GTX770 AMP! Edition
Like what we’ve done with many Kingston modules in the past, we overclock the modules past their highest rated specification. In this case, the HyperX Beast is rated for DDR3-2400 11-13-13-30 at 1.65v. Whilst we like to push our system way past specification, we do not do so for our reviews and we try our best to stick to the most practical voltage we can use and in the case of memory modules, is 1.65v. Bumping up the BCLK to 104Mhz we got the clocks to a stable DDR3-2496 speeds.
11-13-13-30 is a bit loose for our taste so we tried tightening down the voltages. 10-12-12-27 was bootable but not benchmark stable, trying our luck by upping the voltage was out of the picture although we can confirm we’ve gotten tighter timings with higher clocks at around 1.8v, no verification screenshot though.
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The last time we reviewed the Kingston HyperX Beast, everything was pretty much in its favor. DRAM prices were still in their all-time low and Haswell’s impending release made upgraders quick to pull the trigger on high-specification parts. Today is an entirely new world for the memory market and those building new systems are cautious of which parts to get.
The Kingston HyperX Beast DDR3-2400 16GB Dual-Channel kit is in a tough spot as most upgraders are prepping for DDR4 but regardless they are not the market for the HyperX Beast. The HyperX Beast stands in the middle of things in the enthusiast world. It can overclock and its stupid-fast out of the box. With the DIMMs going up to 8GB per stick, you’re also using less power for 16GB by only using two modules.
With modern systems focusing on power efficiency we here at B2G will be going towards this direction. Hand to hand with the already fast specs of modern offerings, we have reached the point where we gain more with less.
The Kingston HyperX Beast DDR3-2400 16GB Dual-Channel kit packs a solid amount of RAM with excellent performance. It perfectly nails that aggressive gamer style with its styling and provides a good amount of overclocking for pushing your system which is what overclockers want.
The Kingston HyperX Beast is backed by a lifetime warranty. We award the Kingston HyperX Beast our B2G Editor’s Choice Award.
