The box the kit arrived in is nothing spectacular, in fact one might go so far as saying that it is just a plain cardboard box and quite rightly so. Despite this, the box is strong enough to withstand anything but deliberate, intentional damage. Opening the box up we find that each kit is packaged in the standard Kingston plastic memory module holder. These packets are in turn prevented from slipping around in the box by mean of thick bubble packing material.

 

 

The kit itself arrives in two separate packs of 6GB. Each kit is exactly the same to ensure compatibility but could quite easily be used as a 6GB kit, in fact finding a price for a single 6GB kit was much easier than finding a price for the full 12GB. The packets are held together by the means of a security seal which displays the product identification number and the product type, in the case CL9. Sadly, there were no other markings to inform the user the SPD settings of the kit other than this kit runs at the CAS9 setting.

 

 

The modules themselves are very basic and as they are aimed primarily at the system builder. Enthusiasts looking for fancy copper heatsinks or coloured PCB's will be left disappointed with the Kingston Value range that's for sure but then this kit is not aimed at that market. This is a budget kit, plain and simple and cost outweighs aesthetics as it is doubt full such a kit would appeal to those looking to show off their hardware in a case with cold cathodes and a plexiglass window.

 

 

Each module has a small sticker attached informing the end user of the recommended voltage to run the sticks at, in the Kingston Values case, this is 1.5v. Again, no hint of the actual timings this kit runs at is displayed and apart from the product code, no bandwidth indication is displayed either.The integrated chips used on this kit are Elpida BABG-DJ-E's which are budget IC's that Elpida themselves use for their own range of system builder kits. How far these kits overclock is a bit of a mystery among the overclocking forums so I guess that is something I will have to put to the test later in the review. One thing is for sure though, these IC's are not what one would call high end.  The possibilities, compared to IC's such as Elpida MNH-E Hyper chips used in Kingstons own Hyper-X modules, will obviously be diminished but then you are getting a 12GB kit for 3GB Hyper-X money.

 

 

There is not a great deal more to examine with regard to the packaging and presentation I'm afraid. Being that this kit is aimed towards the system builder and budget builder, costs have obviously been cut from the packaging of the product which normally I would severely criticise a company for doing but on this occasion, in view of the above, Kingston can be forgiven as long as the price is indeed kept to a minimum.

 

Let's take a look at the test setup I will be using to put this kit through it's paces today...