Kingston Hyper X Lovo Review – Low Calorie Chips

Memory market has seen some tremendous uplift in high performance kit with multi-channel adoption and blistering speed. However most of the market is still dominated by value segment boasting of 1333/1600 Mhz speed in Dual channel configuration. Indian market in general is flooded with such kits and is available for measly price tag mainly dominated by Corsair, manufacturers like Kingston etc. have been pushing their diverse product stack in indian market to cope up and offer a wider array of choice for end user. Today we lay our hands on low power HyperX 8Gb kit from Kingston.


With ever growing energy consumption and greenhouse effect there has been an alarming situation. Human intervention and reliance on IT and computers have only worsened the scenario. However big hardware manufacturers are always looking and working to tackle the ever increasing energy scenario by churning out more efficient chips that conserve the energy without the expense of performance. Kingston has paved the way for high performance low energy memory by launching LoVo series kit.
These kits work at an extremely low voltage while performing on par with full breathen counterpart. Leveraging low power consumption without sacrificing performance coupled with genuine market price, kits like LoVo is a dream come true for HTPC builders and low power pcs.


2ffoo.jpg



About the Company - Kingston is an America based private firm who excels in the production and research of flash memory based products. The largest producer of system memory, Kingston holds the crow for churning out plethora of innovative products to cater varied audience.


Packing and Specification


The kit comes in a unique cardboard box with nice design depicting green nature of the kit. Like the previous Kingston modules that we tested, Lovo series comes with small leaflet that provides all the necessary information about the kit. Other than that the bundle was plain and simple just like you would expect from a memory kit. The only gripe is the outer packing material which isn’t very sturdy and might get damaged if not properly packed.


lKCLH.jpg



Inside, the ram comes packed in a sturdy plastic case which covers the ram from outer shock and damage. The kit looks downright sexy, with very few ram kits available in green. The LoVo series has a striking look to it providing cool look to the setup. The heat spreader is genuine and not very tall like the HyperX series that we tested but that is accepted given the measly voltage the ram require to operate.

n2DVC.jpg



Specification


  • Capacity — 4GB & 8GB
  • Frequency speed up to 1600MHz
  • 1.35V (Low) operating voltage ideal for HTPC, eco-geek and other power-conscious customers
  • Intel XMP low voltage settings easily enabled in just a few clicks
  • DDR3 only
  • Reduced heat generates lower ambient noise for quiet computing or home theater

The kit run at 1600Mhz with latencies clocked at 9 however the biggest differentiating factor is the operating voltages which makes the kit so special. The kit runs at 1.35V for the 1600Mhz and 1.25V if you are running at 1333Mhz, the cas latency remains unchanged irrespective of the speed.


System Setup and Testing Methodologies


The memory were tested in the AMD Llano A8 3850 setup, since AMD Llano is the only platform that supports higher dual channel configuration out of the box, we put the kits in the AMD based system. Rest of the system configuration and setup is mentioned below-

Processors:
  • AMD A8 3850

Motherboard:
  • ASRock A75 Extreme 6

Graphics Card
  • ATI 6550D (Llano IGP) + Asus 6670 ( Dual Graphics )
Memory:

  • 2x4096Mb 1600 Mhz CL9 Kingston HyperX LoVo
  • 2x2048Mb 1600 MHz CL9 Corsair XMS3
  • 2x2048Mb 1866 Mhz CL9 Kinston HyperX

Power Supply:
  • Corsair VX450
Monitor:
  • Samsung S2233SW
Operating System:
  • Windows 7 64bit
Software Benchmark:

  • Aida64
  • SuperPi
  • Wprime32
  • Sisoft Sandra



Benchmarks


Getting the ram up and running wasn't really a tough task, the kit performed exceptionally well and even outpace higher performance HyperX and similar spec model from Corsair


Aida64 Memory Benchmarks - We used the Read/ Write and Copy benching options available within AIDA64 tests suite.



vBYi0.png




Aida64 Memory Latency -



o7tiC.png




SiSoft Sandra Memory Bandwidth - Sisoft Sandra is another comprehensive benching suite offering plethora of tests. We used the memory bandwidth benchmark to test the bandwidth offered by the kits at our disposal.



XyQWh.png




SuperPI 1M - Super Pi 1M is a benchmarking solution for calculating PI instruction for 1million times. We put these kits in a very pliable benchmarking test.



meNHi.png




Wprime32- Another memory intensive benchmarking solution



Dw0OT.png



The results are pretty good for teh kit and it managed to sneak ahead of the HyperX TI and Corsair value offering. We tested the kit again and again to check if there is some problem with the test and bench-marking suite but to our surprise the kit came out on top every time we tested it.


Overclocking - Due to some hardware issues at our end we were not able to conduct overclocking tests on this kit, rest assured once we get things up and running we will update the benchmarks with overclocking results and potential of this kit. According to kingston this kit can atleast do 2000mhz, so if take their word, this kit can do wonders at that speed specially when achieved at low voltage bumps.

So stay tuned for overclocking results in near future.

Conclusion

Value and low performance/power kits hasn't gained much of a traction among'st enthusiast because of less headroom and performance it offers. Kingston HyperX LoVo has changed our mindset about energy efficient kits, we were amazed with the kind of performance headroom it comes with. Not only it outperforms its higher sibling and other value kits in the market, this low power kit managed to achieve better results staying within its constrained thermal envelope.

dTW2G.jpg


With LoVo, Kingston has really up the ante and produced a fine memory kit thats available for eco friendly users. Retailing for aroud 2800 INR these kits brings a lot to the table and conserver energy too, providing a perfect blend of performance and power Kingston HyperX lovo serves a must have feature for low power HTPC, download rigs and even mainstream enthusiast rig.

Outpacing similar and highly priced kits in the market LoVo sure is a sweet spot for an end user. So if you are in the market for fresh brewed kits for your HTPC/mainstream rigs keep LoVo at the top of your lists.

Pros-



  • Great Performance
  • Lower Operating Voltage
  • Runs cool
  • XMP support.

Cons -

  • None in particular.

FbBLF.png
hrMFA.png


Note - A special thanks to Kingston, ASRock for providing the samples.
 
Capacity — 4GB & 8GB

was wondering, if they at all come in 4gb capacities?

8gb is overkill for a low power HTPC in 90% of cases
 
Back
Top