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Review: Corsair vs. Kingston Intel Core i7 LGA1156 memory round-up

by Tarinder Sandhu on 9 December 2009, 09:31 3.75

Tags: Kingston, Corsair

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qau3o

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Kingston 4GB DDR3-2,133 CL8

Want a bit more oomph for your RAM? Kingston's fastest DDR3 is rated at 2,133MHz and is designed specifically for the Lynnfield LGA1156 platform - that's Core i5 750 and Core i7 860/870 in retail parlance. All other Kingston kits top out at 2,000MHz.

There are two varieties of this kit. The reviewed KHX2133C8D3T1K2_4GX is the crème de la crème, operating with 8-8-8 timings at 1.65V. The second kit is much the same yet increases latencies to 9-9-9.

The HyperX heatsinks are larger on this model, and we first saw them with the DDR3-2,000MHz kit for Core i7 LGA1366 chips.

Most kits enable you to double-up the capacity by having a pack with 8GB. Trouble is, as this is cutting-edge memory for Kingston there is no four-module pack available. You could purchase two of these kits and try to run 8GB at sky-high speeds, but we'd urge against it for stability reasons.

Big heatspreadser. Fast memory. Outlandish price. Not quite, but the 4GB set will set you back around £170, which is almost double that of the 4GB DDR3-1,600's.

 Designed to be used by the enthusiast who wants every last bit of performance out of the system and doesn't mind paying for the privilege, there are only a handful of kits that are faster.