Is Kingston HyperX any good?

Far as I can see, the Corsair Dom and Kingston HyperX have the same latency. Might be some older CL=9 stuff out there, but it's not showing at NewEgg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145224

I show both with identical ratings of 8-8-8-24 and 1.65V

The Corsair Dominator is certainly "more expensive" RAM than the Kingston but doesn't mean better quality.

Corsair also has an even better version of that series in terms of low CL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145253

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However, if you look at the Fry's site....
Looks like they do have Corsair on special, but it's not the Dominator but the XMS model. This is $139.99 and has a $15 rebate -- and it's got a worse/higher CL
http://www.frys.com/product/5820723

They also have the Dominator - but there's not enough info to tell what it is - $198.99
http://www.frys.com/product/5839543

And here's what you got:
http://www.frys.com/product/5994664

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So, might be possible that the Corsair you were looking at for $139 was not Dominator. In which case, the salesman did you a favor. However, if there was an ad misprint and they were really selling their Dominator for $139 w/CL=7, then you should have gotten it.

That ad won't work for me, comes out blank.

What city?

Anyway, I'd go back and look at the modules.

If they're this one:
TR3X6G1600C7D
Jump on it cause it's CL=7

If it's this one:
TR3X6G1600C8D
It's up to you, has the same specs as the Kingston - but it's "more expensive" RAM.

I think you made a great trade! And I think Fry's didn't mean to put the Dominator at that sale price, so employees were encouraged to point folks at the cheaper RAM.

Goes to show you it's good to be prepared. Guess you didn't run into the same salesman and ask him why when two products have identical specs, he would say one is faster?

Remember to set your motherboard's DRAM voltage to 1.65 after installing it, then reboot and see what it displays on POST. Might have to manually set the speed, depends on how it sees the RAM. Use CPUz at www.cpuid.com to compare the SPD data to how the memory is set. And you can experiment with the XMP settings!

Got some of the coolest heat spreaders out there too

Enjoy and glad to help.

Well, you should likely set the normal stuff. The voltage and the speed. Don't mess with any type of overclocking - no timing changes, etc... The stuff that comes off of Auto / SPD should be fine. And make sure the right amount is showing.

If your board supports XMP I wouldn't touch it before installing your OS.

And, first time you enter the BIOS, set it to Optimized Defaults or similar. Then review items you want to set, like the Date and Time! lol... and the RAM.