The Basics:
The first thing I noticed about these Ballistix modules is that they are sporting a sleek new heatspreader design. I have seen similar heatspreaders on new products from other brands as well, so this must be the hot (or cool) new thing. Instead of a stamped piece of aluminum held on by clips, what we have here are flat strips of aluminum held on by the thermal tape only.
The images above show both sides of the modules provided, and it can be seen that they are pretty much the same. Both have a Crucial logo, a Ballistix DDR3 logo, and a white sticker. While the stickers are different on either side, neither provides any information that would be immediately useful to the end user. Usually you get information on capacity, frequency, or power requirements, but not here.
The next image provides an end view of one module in order to (attempt to) show the interface between the heatspreader and the memory chips. While many heatspreaders leave at least portions of some chips exposed, here we have all chips 100% covered. While some may argue over the necessity of heatspreaders, they obviously can't be effective if they aren't making solid contact, so this new design from Crucial definitely scores some points for not only looking good, but for fitting properly!
Configuration:
The
Crucial Ballistix 2GB PC3-12800 DDR3 Dual Channel Memory Kit was installed in a system with the following components for this review:
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Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Dual Core processor
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ASUS P5KC P35 ATX motherboard
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Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB hard drive
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PC Power and Cooling 750 Quad Silencer power supply
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Cooler Master iTower 930 ATX
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Windows Vista Home Premium
In order to insure compatibility, these modules are programmed with a default SPD of 1066MHz, and timings of 7-7-7-20 at 1.5V. This allows any user to at least be able to boot up the first time before making any necessary changes in order to achieve the much higher rated speed.
When the test system was booted up with these modules for the first time I checked the BIOS to confirm the settings and then let it load into Windows. The screenshots below were taken from
CPU-Z Version 1.41, with the system booted at this 'slower' memory speed. The below left screen shows the "Memory" tab which confirms the speed of 533 MHz (1066MHz DDR3) and timings of 7-7-7-20.
The above right screenshot shows the SPD tab, which shows that in addition to the default SPD value of 1066MHz (JEDEC #2), they have also programmed values for 1218MHz (JEDEC #3) and the target speed of 1600MHz (XMP-1600). I am not sure what the fourth value is, as a XMP profile of 62MHz probably won't interest anyone! The previous DDR3 kit reviewed at Bigbruin.com, a
2GB kit of PC3-11000 from Kingston, was also rated for 1066MHz for compatibility purposes, but that kit did not include any other profiles for CPU-Z to identify. I definitely prefer the Crucial approach to this, if for nothing other than informational purposes.
With the system up and running at the memory's default speed, a few benchmarks and a 30 minute session of
OCCT were executed before getting serious about climbing to 1600MHz and putting this memory through its paces.
