Today we are looking at Crucial's new Ballistix PC6400 low latency 2 x 1GB 4-4-4-12 memory modules (800MHz equivalent - 400MHz double data rate) and putting them through their paces.
With the release of AM2 and a slow move of emphasis by motherboard manufacturers towards the new AMD Socket, DDR2 is the memory of choice for both AMD and Intel platforms. This is also true because DDR2 allows for higher data transfer rates than the previous DDR modules, and every memory module manufacturer is introducing PC6400 and faster modules. With their new Ballistix PC6400 1GB modules Crucial is supporting 4-4-4-12 timing, which is lower than the more conventional 5-5-5-12 or 5-5-5-15 timing used for most 1GB modules. More and more enthusiast and serious users are opting for 2GB systems now that some games especially appear to be requiring that much RAM just to run smoothly. Keeping in mind that it is harder to get larger size memory modules to be stable with lower timings, its no wonder that Crucial and other companies are so eager to release high capacity 1GB sticks with timings that would appeal to enthusiasts and gamers.
In recent PC6400 and PC 5000 DDR2 reviews we found overclocking headroom to be excellent. For this review we decided to approach the memory in 2 fashions: take a look at the performance of the stock setup with the excellent timings, and then seeing how far we could really push the memory. Previously we've already reviewed the 2x512MB kit of the same PC2-6400 memory, and found it to be a solid set of memory with very limited overclocking overhead, but this time around we had a much more satisfying success that you might want to check out ;).
So do these Crucial PC6400 modules meet their specifications? Can we exceed the manufacturer's specifications and by how much? Read on and find out...
About the Ballistix PC2-6400
You can refer to our previous
review of the 2x512MB kit for information about what Ballistix memory is all about, and some basic specs. The memory comes with Aluminum heatspreaders painted "Gold" (to us it looks more like a coppery orange). Nothing really special to report here except that we wish that Crucial would do more than just label the batch number on the memory modules. Other high-end manufacturers have taken to labelling their RAM with full details including timings, capacity, and memory model, but this information is glaringly absent on the Ballistix sticks. As reviewers this causes problems for us since we have so many modules at the lab, but even our readers are bound to forget what's in their systems after a period of time and knowing what is what makes a big difference for enthusiasts rebuilding systems or moving components around.
Test Setup
Software used during testing consisted of the following:
- Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2
- NVIDIA ForceWare 84.21 drivers
- RightMark Memory Analyzer
- SiSoft Sandra
- WinRAR
- Doom 3
Hardware:
We are presenting you with a FULL set of overclocked benchmarks - our test systems were all stable at the settings shown with air cooling. Please note that chart labels incorporate a lot of information about the test configuration. The first line shows the socket type and the model of the processor. Since all the processors shown are dual core devices, we did not specify that on the charts.
The second line shows the "FSB/HT clock rate" x "CPU multiplier" followed by the effective DDR memory speed.
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