Kingston HyperX Fan Review
The reason for any end user wanting such a product as the HyperX Fan is based on three simple factors.
- Keeping your memory modules cooler
- Lengthening the life of your memory
- Possibly increasing your overclocking headroom
That said, the enthusiasts among us will vouch for all three. However, the results of my testing will satisfy any category of end user. Before I get to them though, let me cover the test system, equipment and conditions.
Test System
The test system is as follows:
| CPU: | Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 @ 2.53GHz (266×9.5) |
| CPU Cooler: | Cooler Master Hyper TX3 |
| Motherboard: | ASUS P5N-T Deluxe 780i SLI |
| Hard Disk: | Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160GB |
| Memory: | G.SKILL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-800 PQ* |
| Video Card: | Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB (reference clocks: 750/900) |
| Display: | 18.5” Acer X183H |
| Power Supply: | Cooler Master UCP (Ultimate Circuit Protection) 1100W |
| Chassis: | CM Storm HAF 922 |
Equipment
All I really need for my testing was my trusty digital multimeter fitted with a temperature probe. The probe was used to collect the temperature data throughout the testing.
Conditions
All testing was done during normal daytime conditions. The ambient temperature was a nice, warm 28°C throughout the test period.
Methodology
The temperatures were recorded manually by noting the highest (peak) temperature reached during the test run. The tests themselves are as follows:
- Idle – Idle tests were done at the desktop with no programs running and the lowest temperature noted after 10 minutes of inactivity.
- Synthetic – The Synthetic test consisted of running the Cache and Memory Benchmark from SiSoftware Sandra 2011 Engineer Edition.
- Real – The Real World test consisted of running the Crysis GPU benchmark in DX10, Very High, 8x AA at 1366×768 resolution.
Having both synthetic and real world tests included gives a more realistic look at how the cooler will actually perform across the various tasks that the average user would undertake.
Tests were conducted in three stages and they are as follows:
- Stock – Stock settings were taken as 800MHz with 1.85V.
- Overclocked – Overclocked settings were taken as 1000MHz with 2.05V.
- Max OC – Maximum Overclock settings were taken as 1080MHz with 2.25V.
Seeing as though only an increase in voltage really affects changes in RAM temperature, these settings were enough to show obvious increases from one stage to the next.
Temperature readings were gathered by securing the temperature probe to the heat spreader of one of the memory modules, using a piece of tape.
Limitations
The only limitation in this test setup came from the memory itself. The memory modules used are rated to run at 800MHz. Without the cooler, the highest really stable clock increment was 1000MHz. They were unable to attain 1066MHz, after topping out at 1040MHz stable.
The HyperX Fan had a say in the matter as you will see after the jump.
Although it’s cheap I still think that RAM cooling is mostly useless. One could get a good-cooled PC and he would be still fine…most of the times.
If you’re gonna push the system for all you can get out of it, heat in inescapable. Cooling your components is also a great way to lengthen the life of your hardware.