Page All: Viewing All Pages
Page 1
Intro:
I've always been keen to recommend Crucial in the past when people wanted RAM with a lifetime warranty that works as expected. Not until a few years ago did Crucial start offering their Ballistix overclocking RAM. Fast forward to the new DDR3 days of today and we find a new Ballistix PC3-16000 kit that offers speeds of 2000MHz! You'll be pressed to find a board that can even handle this speed, I know I didn't have one.
Packaging:
Crucial has been using the same brown box for years. Why change something that works well?
The modules themselves are wrapped in ESD wrap and separated from each other by dividers so they will survive a trip through any shipping company... unless a forklift smashes it.
The standard light specifications are given on the static wrap. Yes, these are CL9 modules.
Modules:
As is standard with the Ballistix line, you get the gold and black look. The heatspreaders are gold with silver trim and the PCB is black. With the newer modules, the heatspreaders are very well bonded to the RAM and it takes a blow torch to remove them. That's something I don't suggest doing.
With a rated stock speed of DDR3-2000 (PC3-16000), you'll be pressed to find a system that can even handle the stock speed of these modules. Talk about future proofing your hardware purchase. Like all Crucial modules made today, these have SPD values that default to a lower safe speed and voltage when just starting up. Interestingly, these modules contain EPP for use with Nvidia chipsets which is a change from the previous PC3-12800 kit which used XMP. Latencies for 2000MHz are 9-9-9-28 with a command rate of 2T running at 1.9V. DDR3 modules seem to handle high voltage well since the standard voltage is 1.5V. You do get a lifetime warranty, though.
These modules are lead free as most parts are today. Green is good. Remember my thoughts on technologies such as EPP and XMP. If you are lazy, go for it. I like to tweak my system by hand instead of relying on what it wants to do.
The heatspreader is well bonded to the modules and it looks like these are single sided modules.
A first for Crucial is the placement of the latencies on the modules itself. You can clearly see the needed information. 9-9-9-28 at 1.9V running at 2000MHz. I'm glad Crucial is finally placing this information as previous modules lacked.
Intro:
I've always been keen to recommend Crucial in the past when people wanted RAM with a lifetime warranty that works as expected. Not until a few years ago did Crucial start offering their Ballistix overclocking RAM. Fast forward to the new DDR3 days of today and we find a new Ballistix PC3-16000 kit that offers speeds of 2000MHz! You'll be pressed to find a board that can even handle this speed, I know I didn't have one.
Packaging:
Crucial has been using the same brown box for years. Why change something that works well?
The modules themselves are wrapped in ESD wrap and separated from each other by dividers so they will survive a trip through any shipping company... unless a forklift smashes it.
The standard light specifications are given on the static wrap. Yes, these are CL9 modules.
Modules:
As is standard with the Ballistix line, you get the gold and black look. The heatspreaders are gold with silver trim and the PCB is black. With the newer modules, the heatspreaders are very well bonded to the RAM and it takes a blow torch to remove them. That's something I don't suggest doing.
With a rated stock speed of DDR3-2000 (PC3-16000), you'll be pressed to find a system that can even handle the stock speed of these modules. Talk about future proofing your hardware purchase. Like all Crucial modules made today, these have SPD values that default to a lower safe speed and voltage when just starting up. Interestingly, these modules contain EPP for use with Nvidia chipsets which is a change from the previous PC3-12800 kit which used XMP. Latencies for 2000MHz are 9-9-9-28 with a command rate of 2T running at 1.9V. DDR3 modules seem to handle high voltage well since the standard voltage is 1.5V. You do get a lifetime warranty, though.
These modules are lead free as most parts are today. Green is good. Remember my thoughts on technologies such as EPP and XMP. If you are lazy, go for it. I like to tweak my system by hand instead of relying on what it wants to do.
The heatspreader is well bonded to the modules and it looks like these are single sided modules.
A first for Crucial is the placement of the latencies on the modules itself. You can clearly see the needed information. 9-9-9-28 at 1.9V running at 2000MHz. I'm glad Crucial is finally placing this information as previous modules lacked.
Page 2
Stability:
Let me reiterate how ASE Labs determines stability. I shall do this for every RAM review that is done. At ASE Labs, RAM is only stable if it passes Memtest86+ and a plethora of memory intensive applications for a few hours like mprime and doing continuous compiling of specific programs. Just because the memory POSTs and runs doesn't mean that it is stable. Linux users may find memory errors by having errors in compiling (very common) to errors in tar as well as segfaults. Windows users can expect program faults and BSODs. Memory stability is very important. When we say that a specific specification of RAM is stable, we mean it!
Unfortunately, this RAM is rated so fast that my systems could not handle the raw speed of 2000MHz. My Asus P5E3 Deluxe refused to boot with a CPU that is known to run at a very high speed above 1960MHz FSB. I'm sorry to say that Crucial has made a part that completely beats the pants off my test system and it looks like I'll need to update it to an X48 board soon to keep up! The modules were completely stable at 1960MHz with the rated timings and voltage. I dropped it back to 1900MHz for further testing with a different CPU. I have no doubt that the modules would handle 2000MHz with ease if my board could handle it.
Overclocking:
What overclocking? I couldn't even get my test system to run at the rated speed of these modules! You'll have a good time trying to get the "stock" speed of this part. Remember that you are working against the overclocked CPU and the insanely overclocked FSB. Most CPUs can handle it, but the board is a different matter. That being said, I try lowering the latencies at 1900MHz. I went to 8-8-8-28 at 1.9V and couldn't go any lower without stability problems. I'll probably have a follow up article about how bandwidth and latency really effect performance on an Intel platform.
Testing:
I have no other RAM that would be worth testing this against and since I can't get the modules running at the rated speed due to it being so fast, I'll forgo this section and just use this as the baseline for future tests. Needless to say, if you get these in a system that can handle the speed, you won't be disappointed. I know I wasn't to even achieve 1960MHz.
Conclusion:
Sit down for this one. The 2GB kit costs a whopping $620 at the time of this review (but Crucial says $500) and you really have to ask yourself if it is worth it. Yes, you'll get better than bleeding edge performance. Yes, everyone will be envious of you for having these. For half the price you can get a Ballistix kit that is slower and will probably be fast enough. Are these modules insanely fast? Hell yes. Are they worth it? Not yet.
I'd like to thank Kelly at Crucial for making this review possible.
Stability:
Let me reiterate how ASE Labs determines stability. I shall do this for every RAM review that is done. At ASE Labs, RAM is only stable if it passes Memtest86+ and a plethora of memory intensive applications for a few hours like mprime and doing continuous compiling of specific programs. Just because the memory POSTs and runs doesn't mean that it is stable. Linux users may find memory errors by having errors in compiling (very common) to errors in tar as well as segfaults. Windows users can expect program faults and BSODs. Memory stability is very important. When we say that a specific specification of RAM is stable, we mean it!
Unfortunately, this RAM is rated so fast that my systems could not handle the raw speed of 2000MHz. My Asus P5E3 Deluxe refused to boot with a CPU that is known to run at a very high speed above 1960MHz FSB. I'm sorry to say that Crucial has made a part that completely beats the pants off my test system and it looks like I'll need to update it to an X48 board soon to keep up! The modules were completely stable at 1960MHz with the rated timings and voltage. I dropped it back to 1900MHz for further testing with a different CPU. I have no doubt that the modules would handle 2000MHz with ease if my board could handle it.
Overclocking:
What overclocking? I couldn't even get my test system to run at the rated speed of these modules! You'll have a good time trying to get the "stock" speed of this part. Remember that you are working against the overclocked CPU and the insanely overclocked FSB. Most CPUs can handle it, but the board is a different matter. That being said, I try lowering the latencies at 1900MHz. I went to 8-8-8-28 at 1.9V and couldn't go any lower without stability problems. I'll probably have a follow up article about how bandwidth and latency really effect performance on an Intel platform.
Testing:
I have no other RAM that would be worth testing this against and since I can't get the modules running at the rated speed due to it being so fast, I'll forgo this section and just use this as the baseline for future tests. Needless to say, if you get these in a system that can handle the speed, you won't be disappointed. I know I wasn't to even achieve 1960MHz.
Conclusion:
Sit down for this one. The 2GB kit costs a whopping $620 at the time of this review (but Crucial says $500) and you really have to ask yourself if it is worth it. Yes, you'll get better than bleeding edge performance. Yes, everyone will be envious of you for having these. For half the price you can get a Ballistix kit that is slower and will probably be fast enough. Are these modules insanely fast? Hell yes. Are they worth it? Not yet.
I'd like to thank Kelly at Crucial for making this review possible.