Kingmax Hardcore Series

N.E.R.D_BOI · Mar 11, 2004

Not sure if this has been posted here before but was just reading a review from Anandtech bout these new tiny BGA mem modules. Anyways i was pretty amazed about how good these things are.. especially the DDR500 Hardcore series. They rated at 3-4-4-8 2.6V.

But at 2.5v it can do
DDR400 at 2-2-2-5
DDR433 at 2-2-3-6
DDR500 at 2.5-3-3-7.

Pretty amazing if you ask me.. Usually PC4000 chips are able to reach their high speeds at the expense of high latencies. And even at DDR400 speeds most wont reach these sort of timings but these Kingmax hardcore series seem to be able to handle it with ease at 2.5v

Anyways here's the link
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.html?i=1990&p=1

So anyone happen to get their hands on these modules? I'd like to hear some first hand experiences with these.

Ec]-[oMaN · Mar 11, 2004

Again this was from a review site giving the best of their ram most likely. Many people in my area have tried kingmax before and will never use them again

Albuquerque · Mar 11, 2004

Now wait a minute...

I've used Kingmax, and while I wasn't overly impressed, I certainly would not go far as to say "I'd never use it again". My 256mb Kingmax el-cheapo chip worked at it's rated speed fine (400DDR), and worked a little faster with some voltage (425DDR). It wasn't horrible, it just wasn't fancy by any means.

For what I paid, I'd buy another stick if I just wanted some cheap easy ram to throw in a generic box.

mrspec3 · Mar 11, 2004

I won't use kingmax again. They may come around (or have already) but for the time being I've found another company that is going to get all my ram money

*cough OCZ cough*

Steve

Albuquerque · Mar 11, 2004

Yeah, but OCZ is considerably more expensive than Kingmax. And it wasn't that I tried a recent stick, I'm talking a year ago. It was fine then, and it's still working fine now at DDR417 in a different rig that I sold.

JDizzle · Mar 11, 2004

mrspec3 said:
I won't use kingmax again. They may come around (or have already) but for the time being I've found another company that is going to get all my ram money *cough OCZ cough*

Steve

Why OCZ? What do you have?

Albuquerque · Mar 11, 2004

As far as all MY ram money, it's currently going to Komusa (see sig

)

N.E.R.D_BOI · Mar 11, 2004

Did any of you guys actually read the review?

here are some quotes:

However, the transition to DDR was not as smooth as Kingmax had hoped. The company suffered from large variations in the performance of their tiny BGA memory, with some modules setting new performance records and others falling far short in the performance arena........ Kingmax is back in the Computer Enthusiast picture again. Instead of extending memory speeds to DDR466 and DDR500 with standard "me-too" TSOP memory, Kingmax has gone back to their trademark BGA memory to bring their "Hardcore Series" memory to market. With the promise of a very small size, cool operation, and breakthrough performance, we were anxious to take the new Kingmax Hardcore for a spin.

With 99% of the computer memory market using TSOP......BGA does not use pins for attachment. Instead, connections are made with small balls of solder on the PCB. .....so another advantage is the really tiny size that can be achieved with BGA memory. This design should also improve heat dissipation...Kingmax does not even provide heatspreaders with this DDR500 and DDR466 memory. Almost every other memory manufacturer tells us that heatspreaders are needed......While you may have only seen BGA on video cards in today's market, you will be seeing more of this technology with the upcoming DDR2 modules.....For all of the reasons mentioned above, BGA is the package of choice for DDR2,

The point is this ram is using a different form of technology from the others. Like quoted above, the transistion to BGA at first did not go smoothly at first, but now Kingmax have decided to go back and this time it looks very promising. It looks also to be the future for RAM modules especially DDR2.

Anyways echoman, you are right it is a review and the best could've been handed over for review but thats why i asked if anyone had any as i would prefer first hand experience. But i know I will be giving this RAM a shot for my next system!

mrspec3 · Mar 12, 2004

JDizzle said:
Why OCZ? What do you have?

Why OCZ is simple. Best ram and the best support. If you ever have a problem with their ram they fix it.......and fast

I have myself
2x256 pc3500EL
2x512 pc3500EL
2x256 pc3700EL gold
2x256 pc3200 platinum limited edition

Don't think I'm saying other companies don't make great ram as well.......I've just chosen OCZ

Steve

wannaoc · Mar 12, 2004

Well if I can find some of the DDR500 I'll give it a go.

This could be great for laptops and things like handhelds that need smaller components as they get faster.

Albuquerque · Mar 12, 2004

My first Kingmax chip wasn't good and needed an RMA; it was taken immediately and I had a new chip within two days via UPS along with a pre-addressed shipping label to ship my other one back.

Cake.

If they're into making high-perf memory, I wouldn't be against trying some out. I just happen to not need any right now

AudiMan · Mar 13, 2004

I bought a few KingMax RAM sticks back in the day when the KT333 chipsets just came out and 200 FSB was something to be proud of. I got my PC-2700's (166 FSB) to run at 219 FSB, 2.5-3-3 I believe.

It did better than my Corsair PC-3000C2

I'd buy them again and according to those timings, they look pretty versatile!

hkp0lice · Mar 13, 2004

KingMax, ughh.... I hate their BGA chips, i bought some DDR300 sticks from em before, couldn't even do memtest stable @ stock voltages and timings. Bumping up the voltage beyond 2.7v or so actually made it worse.

I don't get why these chips hate voltage yet BGA chips on video cards love it, at least to a certain degree.

Kingmax Hardcore Series

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N.E.R.D_BOI

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