Verdict: Reasonably fast but stupidly priced

Kingston produces PC2-8500 memory that's rated to run at up to 1,066MHz, but it isn't available as a 2GB kit, which means that this PC2-8000 kit is the best Kingston currently has to offer.

The Kingston HyperX KHX8000D2K2/2G is rated as PC2-8000 and guaranteed to run at up to 1GHz at 2.2V at slow 5 - 5 - 5 - 15 latency timings. These are fairly typical timings for PC2-8000 RAM, although G.Skill, Patriot and Team Group produce PC2-8000 and PC2-8500 kits with substantially lower timings.

Due to the limited memory divider options in our two test PCs, we had to benchmark the KHX8000D2K2/2G at 889MHz in our Core 2 test rig, and 800MHz in our Athlon 64 test rig. In this configuration, the KHX8000D2K2/2G performed reasonably well in our Core 2 system, although it was decidedly middle-of-the-road in our Athlon 64 test rig, thanks to the slow latency timings.

The KHX8000D2K2/2G would run at its guaranteed speed of 1GHz in both test PCs once we increased their FSBs but, disappointingly, we were unable to overclock the KHX8000D2K2/2G, even with the voltage increased to 2.45V.

Kingston has always charged a premium for its HyperX kits but, at £374, the KHX8000D2K2/2G is ludicrously overpriced, especially considering that it won't overclock.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

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