=<em>F-A-S-T</em>= DDR Memory: 2-2-2 Roars on the Scene
by Wesley Fink on August 5, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Crucial Ballistix PC3200
Crucial recently introduced their Ballistix line of memory, a name they will use for memory aimed at the Enthusiast market. This is Crucial's first foray into this specialty market, and their first offerings are these DDR400 2-2-2 and DDR2 667. Ballistix is intended to compete with the best from Corsair, OCZ and other Enthusiast memory manufacturers. Kingston, another memory giant, has a similar Enthusiast line, which they call HyperX. Crucial supplies Ballistix PC3200 in both 256MB and 512MB DIMMs. While we had both DIMMs for testing, we used the 512MB DIMMs for comparison testing.Test DIMMs were a pair of Crucial Ballistix PC3200 512MB modules.
Crucial uses distinctive orange-gold Ballistix aluminum heatspreaders with black lettering. Some will love the stand-out color of Ballistix modules, while others will hate them. Let's just say that they stand out from the crowd. At first, we assumed that the Ballistix were also using Samsung chips, but after testing, we realized from the performance data that these were likely a different memory chip. Crucial told us that their new Ballistix 3200 was based on Micron chips, and not the Samsung chips that others in this roundup are using.
We confirmed that Crucial is indeed using a new Micron "G" die chip for Ballistix 3200. This is the first time that we have seen this die in a production memory, but we have seen the "C" die version of this same memory chip in the excellent OCZ 3500EB and 3700EB. Since EB has also shown excellent performance and timings to over DDR500, it is no real surprise to see Crucial using a later version of the same chip in their Ballistix 3200.
Crucial Ballistix PC3200 Specifications
| Crucial Ballistix PC3200 Memory Specifications | |
| Number of DIMMs & Banks | 2 DS |
| DIMM Size Total Memory |
512 MB 1 GB |
| Rated Timings | 2-2-2 at DDR400 |
| SPD (Auto) Timings | 2-2-2-8 |
| Rated Voltage | 2.8V |
As seen with the other very high speed DDR400 in this roundup, Crucial rates the Ballistix at a very high 2.8V. 2.8V is higher than the 2.5V to 2.6V that is standard for memory on most motherboards, but it should be available on most of the high-end boards that would likely be used with this memory. You should check your specifications to make sure that you can support the voltage needs of the new PC3200 modules. We should also mention that we had no problem whatsoever at DDR400 with 2-2-2 memory timings and a stock 2.5V memory voltage, so this may or may not be an important issue with your Ballistix PC3200.
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Hasse - Friday, November 26, 2004 - link
Hi!I'm rather confused when I check my bios for all the abreviations.. TRC, TRAS.... it would be nice to know what to set them all to, I've got the Asus A8V Deluxe board.. and probably ain't the same bios view or settings that msi or others have. I've tried to overclock but the dang thing just hangs and creates not so funny looking bios boot images... Anyway thanx for a nice review. I've made my choice on memory based on it...
adamofwales - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - link
Quite easily, I must say,this is the BEST article about memory I have ever read.
Well done.
googles - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
i cant find a crucial ballistix pc3200 @ 2-2-2-5 timings.according to their website,
http://www.crucial.com/ballistix/store/listmodule....
BL6464Z402 DDR PC3200 • 2-3-2-6 • Non-parity • DDR400 • 2.8V • 64Meg x 64
they only have a ddr400 ballistix @ 2-3-2-6, is this the ram that AT evaluated?
somekid617 - Thursday, September 23, 2004 - link
i got the ocz 3200 rev.2 and its great!somekid617 - Thursday, September 23, 2004 - link
mbor - Thursday, August 26, 2004 - link
#323Suns, 2-2-2-5 doesn't mean it takes 5 cycles every 4th fetch. The paramenters are:
CAS Latency-RAS to CAS Delay-RAS Precharge-Cycle Time (Tras).
The names actually vary depending on the source. I quote the names used in CPU-Z, as I think they're well establisheed. You should easily find the description of each of these in online references.
fritz64 - Monday, August 16, 2004 - link
babyelfPlease let us know your Optimum latency, memory speed and Voltage setting. I should receive mine today.
babyelf - Saturday, August 14, 2004 - link
Got my 3200 ballistix.. ran 2.65 at DDR410 at 2-2-2-11 and primed blend for 15 hoursnow running DDR420 at 2-2-2-11 at 2.7V
i'll try to go more later after i burn in at this speed
fritz64 - Friday, August 13, 2004 - link
#37 and #38I just ordered my 512MB x2 Crucial ballistix memory for my A64 3500+. I'm hoping to get 2-2-2-10@2.75V for at least 220MHz on Abit AV8 socket 939. I will let you guys know what I have later once I get my hands on those sticks. This will be an acid test for the information that we receive on Anandtech.
Fleabit - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
Wasn't so happy with my 2 * 512MB Ballistix either. couldn't get them to run dual channel stable at DDR 400 at 2-2-2-8 on an NF7-S v2.0 using the rated voltage.Memtested each of the dimms individually, at 2-2-2-8 @2.8v they max'd at 212 and 205.
At least crucial have a good RMA service :)
Has anyone had good experiences?