HyperX Savage 8GB DDR3 2400 RAM Review

We have here for review a single DIMM of the latest memory from HyperX - a name which has been slowly but surely dropping the Kingston branding to stand on its own for a while now (for instance, check out our HyperX Cloud II Headset review), but no stranger to the game.

Packaging wise, the memory comes in a clear plastic casing, aimed at showing one thing and one thing only - those beautiful metallic red heatsinks. HyperX advertise these as “asymmetrical heat spreaders” though to what end the asymmetric aspect of it effects beyond aesthetic pleasantries is anyone’s guess. Underneath, the RAM is on a black printed circuit board, for those of us whose components have to match up perfectly to the rest of the system.

Taking it out of the packet, we have the RAM itself, a short Warranty and Installation Guide and a “Powered by HyperX” sticker to adorn your case with. Not much - granted, but then, there’s not much more you can expect from a stick of RAM.

Having dealt with RAM in the past that has passive cooling similar to this, the concern was that this wouldn’t fit neatly into the motherboard. Having popped it into the test rig like Cinderella’s glass slipper, it became apparent that the spacing of these DIMMs wouldn’t be an issue, even when multiple are installed. Measuring 80mm side-to-side, and being only 30mm taller than a DIMM without a heatsink any installation worries were culled immediately.

The single 8GB stick had replaced an unbranded DIMM and we set out a couple of “Average Joe” type benchmarks, that is, instead of looking at endless rows of numbers with little variance, we looked at the outcome from playing a couple of games, working through some usual desktop tasks and then a shutdown and restart. We can take from this a slightly better ‘real-world’ example of what to expect from the RAM.

While most things completed ever so slightly quicker with the HyperX Savage RAM, the results weren’t so life-changing that you’d probably notice on a day to day basis. The gaming tests were nigh on identical, but the desktop tasks did look and feel more snappy to complete. That said, improvements were small - how that adds up over time depends on the day to day tasks you complete.