FAST 2GB DDR Kits - Part 2

Crucial Ballistix CLIII5N.32 PN56278

As the retail sales arm of Micron, the huge memory chip manufacturer, Crucial has managed to impress us many times with their high-end Ballistix memory line. The Ballistix name is almost always means high performance, but it also normally represents good value in the memory market.

There is nothing in the appearance of Ballistix memory that would tell you anything about what is behind the orange-colored heatspreaders. All Ballistix memory looks the same and only the stickers on the heatspreaders tell you a little about which Ballistix you have in your hand. Crucial makes Ballistix in 256MB, 512MB, and these 1GB DIMMs. Ballistix DDR is based on Micron chips, which in this case is a very good thing. The Micron memory chips exhibit outstanding performance and overclocking capabilities, and lately, they have only been available through Crucial. This is quite a change from the days when high-performance Micron chips were available from many enthusiast memory makers.

Specifications

The Crucial Ballistix 2GB kit is rated at DDR500 at the somewhat conservative ratings of 3-3-3-8. We actually found that the DIMMs would run at much better timings at DDR500. We could run the DDR500 speed at 2.5-2-2-7 at 2.8V, which is the best performance that we have ever seen at DDR500 with 1GB DIMMs.

Crucial Ballistix CLIII5N.32 PN56278 Memory Specifications
Number of DIMMs & Banks	2 DS
DIMM Size Total Memory	1GB 2GB
Rated Timings	3-3-3-8 at DDR500
Rated Voltage	Standard (2.6V) Voltage
SPD	3-3-3-8

Voltage is rated at standard or 2.6V.

Test Results

Crucial Ballistix CLIII5N.32 (DDR500) - 2x1GB Double-Bank
CPU Ratio at 2.4GHz	Memory Speed	Memory Timings & Voltage	Quake3 fps	Sandra UNBuffered	Sandra Standard Buffered	Super PI 2M places (time in sec)	Wolfenstein - Radar - Enemy Territory fps
12x200	400DDR	2-2-2-7 2.6V	545.2	INT 2601 FLT 2724	INT 6082 FLT 6029	82	118.9
11x218	436DDR	2.5-2-2-7 2.6V	545.0	INT 2724 FLT 2824	INT 6449 FLT 6386	81	118.8
10x240	480DDR	2.5-2-2-7 2.7V	556.9	INT 2857 FLT 3033	INT 6736 FLT 6656	80	120.6
9x267	533DDR	3-3-3-7 2.7V	553.8	INT 2991 FLT 3171	INT 6971 FLT 6871	80	120.3
8x300	600DDR	3-4-4-8 2.8V	561.2	INT 3186 FLT 3335	INT 7173 FLT 7078	80	121.5
9x305 (2.75GHz)	Highest Mem Speed DDR 610	3-4-4-8 2.8V	618.6	INT 3420 FLT 3574	INT 8000 FLT 7901	71	135.1

To be considered stable for test purposes, Quake3 benchmark, UT2003 Demo, Super PI, Aquamark 3, and Comanche 4 had to complete without incident. Any of these, and in particular Super PI, will crash a less-than stable memory configuration.

Crucial Ballistix has been available for several months and the performance characteristics are pretty well known. We achieved incredible results with our Crucial Ballistix, but our results should be considered among the best that you can achieve with these 1GB DIMMs. Where we were able to run at 2-2-2 timings at stock voltage, we more commonly see results at DDR400 of 2-3-2. This is not to take anything away from the Ballistix 2GB kit, as it is definitely an incredible performer at the more normal results that we see in Forums.

One word of caution: some users have been killing their Crucial Ballistix 2GB kits. It appears that the culprit is high memory voltages. We did a survey of a number of Forums and found that, in most cases, the memory was dying at voltages of 2.85V and higher. Our advice, which we also followed in benchmarking for this review, is to keep voltages below 2.85V with the 2GB Crucial Ballistix kits.

The other end of the spectrum was also outstanding for Ballistix. We reached a stable DDR610 overclock at 2.8V with the 2GB kit. This is the highest overclock achieved with any of the nine 2GB kits tested in this review. Our only real reservation with Ballistix is the spotty availability that has characterized this product since launch. This "on again, off again" availability is usually an indication that yields may not be as good as a manufacturer would like. We don't know the real reasons why 2GB Ballistix doesn't stay in stock, but you should be aware of the supply problems before deciding on this 2GB kit.