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Today we are going to take a quick look at Kingstons HyperX DDR-3 1866Mhz CL11 204Pin SODIMM Memory Kit and give a quick thanks to David Leong of Kingston Technology for providing the sample for our notebook upgrade.
We recently purchased a Samsung Series 9 laptop and wondered how feasible a memory upgrade would be as the standard of 4GB simply didn’t cut it for our needs.
INTRODUCTION
We should let you know right off that the memory supplied was a bit of an experiment to check its compatibility in the new Samsung Series 9 laptop. David stated immediately that there wouldn’t be any issues and it would be the easiest upgrade that we could made to a system. Our decision to put together this ‘quick look’ comes from both our experience with this package as well as several people who have asked our opinion in the upgrade specific to the Samsung Series 9 laptop.
This picture is the Series 9 laptop with the back removed and new Kingston HyperX 2 x 4GB memory installed. We have to state right off that new Samsung policy dictates that any removal of the back plate whatsoever voids the warranty. This now includes hard drive and memory replacement.
The HyperX memory kit is product number KHX1866C11S3P1K2/8G and contains two 512M x 64-bit (4GB) DDR3-1866 CL11 SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM) memory modules, based on sixteen 256M x 8-bit DDR3 FBGA components per module. The kit is Plug and Play and this is fully supported only if your bios also supports PnP.
INSTALLATION AND PERFORMANCE
Installation of the HyperX memory on our Series 9 consisted of turning the unit off, removing the back panel, removing Samsungs stock 4GB memory module and clipping in the new HyperX modules. That was it. Once the system was rebooted, the RAM was immediately recognized and we did a quick Windows Experience Index (WEI) benchmark right away to ensure all was in order. Watching the memory score of WEI jump from 5.9 to 7.3 was a sight for sore eyes and immediately we knew that this installation was a great idea. Running a quick Winsat Mem test gives us a memory performance score of 12513.62MB/s. The Data Sheet for this kit can be found here.
Here is a quick look at Passmark in comparing one 4GB module of each. Although there are only marginal differences, all but one go to the HyperX.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As much as I hate to admit it, I am a SSD guy and many would probably tell me to leave the memory reviews to the experts, of which I am obviously not. Having stated that, I am smart enough to know a good thing when I see it and the Kingston HyperX PnP DDR-3 1866 Memory upgrade is just that. Switching the memory was childs play, the performance increase was obvious in both WEI and Passmark, and the only thing we are left with is the question of value.
A quick check of Newegg brings in a price of $148.99 which tells me that I haven’t purchased memory in a while because prices seem to have dropped significantly considering that this is 8GB of 1866 Mhz high performance memory. The only question left seems to be whether I would have made this upgrade without the help of Kingston? Absolutely!
How would Samsung know if you’d removed the back cover or not? Is there anything that would indicate it had been removed?
I imagine if you sent it in for repairs and you din’t put the original RAM back in.
Additional question – does this higher performance RAM affect battery life?
will this work with any core i7 laptop?