Kingmax "Hardcore Series" DDR-466 and DDR-500 Memory

Conclusion

Kingmax had one of the best modules a few years back in the SDRAM days. Kingmax PC150 was the absolute best module money could buy. Since then we haven't seen anything that stands out like it did. Kingmax have now started to focus some of their attention to the enthusiast community.

Both sets of memory modules performed very well except under 3D Mark where they had a few problems. Although at 500MHz, we didn't have any trouble running anything else and apart from the 3DMark series the system was 100% stable.

Kingmax has let us know that there pricing is very aggressive and they intend to compete in this market with full force right against the likes of Corsair and OCZ.

TinyBGA is a fantastic design - specifically the operating temperatures. In a SFF (Small Form Factor) situation this is excellent, we have experienced performance issues with many other memory modules when cramped in a small area - even memory modules with heat spreaders gave us hassles. Kingmax is able to run 100% stable in all SFF PCs without skipping a heartbeat.

Kingmax has released an overall very solid module that we think more and more people will notice in the coming weeks as both DDR-466 and DDR-500 versions hit shop stores around the world. We have absolutely no problem recommending these modules to anyone interested in hitting 1GHz or above Front Side Bus on the Pentium 4 platform.

- Pros

TinyBGA

Does what it claims

466 is a very nice overclocker

Perfect companion for SFF computers

Low Profile - Perfect for those super slim systems

Compatible with Athlon 64 and Dual Channel systems

- Cons

2.8V needed to run at these speeds (Like most other high performance memory)

No color chips...yet

Combined Rating - 9.5 out of 10 and TweakTown's "MUST HAVE" Editor's Choice Award