Rodzilla2233, have you confirmed in your bios your Hyper X is performing at 1600 vs. 1333? I have read elsewhere that Hyper X memory is like Corsair Vengeance and is shipped clocked to 1333 (which cannot be changed by the XPS 8500 system/BIOS).
However, I have found several "value" mem cards that supposedly work:
www.newegg.com/.../Product.aspx
I have this set on order and hope to confirm it functions at 1600.... Based on much research, I plan to utilize the existing OEM 2 x 4GB cards in one pair of slots and then 2 x 8GB in the other pair of slots for a total of 24GB. Both sets are 11-11-11 latency (11CL), which causes a 1% - 2% performance disadvantage vs. "performance" 9CL (that seems to have this 1333 vs. 1600 issue anyway)... not enough for me to worry about. I was originally obsessed with trying to get 32GB RAM but after further research, I really think I will have a tough time trying to stress 24GB RAM... and if I do, I'll pull the trigger on another set of 8GB cards down the road.
Key point: just because your RAM says 1600 and is recognized by the system, does not mean that is how it performs in an XPS 8500 system, in fact very few RAM styles actually fill the need.
