Improve your laptop’s performance with Kingston HyperX SO-DIMMs
June 12 Carl Nelson
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It’s about time someone thought of this! If you have a laptop, try this; run a quick CPU-Z scan, and see what speed your memory is running at. Very likely, you are running some very basic memory modules, with a high CAS latency setting. My laptop for instance, is a Fujitsu Biblo MG based on Intel’s Santa Rosa Centrino platform (GM965 chipset) and Core 2 Duo T7100. The memory bus runs at 667 MHz, and at that speed, the based SO-DIMM modules that came with the system are running at CL5.
As everyone knows, being able to run memory at lower latency settings can improve performance quite a bit in many scenarios.
In response to this, Kingston has just announced some HyperX SO-DIMM modules, that run at up to 800 MHz (for Montevina Centrino 2 based laptops). They are available in 2GB and 4GB kits, and the specs are as follows:
KHX6400S2LLK2/2G
2GB 800MHz Low-Latency DDR2 (CL5-5-5-18 @ 1.8v) SO-DIMMs, kit of 2 $ 88.00
KHX6400S2LLK2/4G
4GB 800MHz Low-Latency DDR2 (CL5-5-5-18 @ 1.8v) SO-DIMMs, kit of 2 $ 138.00
The CL settings shown above apply when they are running at 800 MHz. If you have a laptop like mine, where the memory runs at 667 MHz, the modules would run at CL4. At 533 MHz, they run at CL3. Note that if you have a Santa Rosa platform (GM965 or P965), installing 4GB of memory will cause the memory bus to run at 533 MHz. Keep that in mind, considering that you would only benefit from about 3 of those 4 GB if you are running a 32 bit OS.
I hope to get a kit in for review, to see exactly how this would benefit someone with a 2007 generation laptop. If you’re running a Centrino 2, you will benefit even more, since you are likely running at DDR2-800 with CL6 timings. These modules are of course backed by Kingston’s lifetime warranty.
Filed under: Mobile Computing
Tags: laptops, memory, New Products
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