Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB DDR3 Memory Kit Review
The DRAM business is a very competitive one. Here nearly all of the manufacturers compete on two ends of the spectrum. One is to provide the best value for the consumer. The second is to provide the best performance and to make a name for yourself with the enthusiast crowd. Crucial, in addition to taking the aforementioned two routes, has also taken a third approach. In this third approach, Crucial pairs decent performance with the “bling” factor. The memory kit that we are reviewing today happens to be the only one on the market that features LEDs that light up randomly when the RAM is in operation. This produces a very nice effect of dancing LEDs and will give you the “WOW” factor at LAN parties.
Today we are testing the 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 kit from Crucial. DDR3 of late has become the de facto standard for any enthusiast configuring a new system. This has been helped by Intel and AMD both producing DDR3 supporting microprocessors for over a year now. Intel’s Core i3, i5, and i7 and AMD’s Phenom II CPUs have increased the demand for DDR3 memory. This has driven the cost of DDR3 memory down to almost DDR2 price levels, from their once astronomical prices. Advancements in DDR3 memory technology has also allowed enthusiasts to reach very high speeds, such as 2500 MHz. Manufacturers are responding by releasing modules that are rated to run at that speed and memory kits ranging from 1800 MHz to 2500 MHz can increasingly be found in the market these days. The memory kit that we are reviewing today is rated to run at 1600 MHz at 8-8-8-24 @ 1.65V. So these modules can be used for Intel’s Core i CPUs as well as AMD Phenom II CPUs.
About Crucial
Crucial is the consumer memory brand for Micron Technology. Based in Boise, Idaho, USA, Micron has grown into one of the best DRAM manufacturers in the world. They sell their memory chips to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) which are then branded by the OEMs and sold to consumers. Most of the highest clocking memory ICs used in memory sticks are made by Micron. In 1996 Micron decided to form Crucial Technology, to sell their own memory modules directly to the consumer.
Closer Look
Let’s take a look the modules then.
The modules look really pretty in the sealed packaging. A note of the specs of the memory is made on the front cover. The back cover details all the available colors. One thing I didn’t like about the packaging is that you have to cut the packaging with scissors to remove the modules. This means that the packaging is not reusable. I would have liked these modules shipped like the last Crucial memory I reviewed here with reusable packaging. A minor quirk, nothing earth shattering.
Moving on the modules themselves, the shiny glow of red provides a serene experience, at least to me. The user is reminded of the bling factor even when the kit is off, by the light shining off the chrome outline and the different highlights of red on the heatspreaders.
A simple affair and Crucial Ballistix Tracers do not go together. The extruded Ballistix tracer logo on the heatspreaders looks nice. A red PCB rounds up the perfect combination of colors. This is a feature that is carried over to the other colors as well. Black modules come with a black PCB, and so do the other colors. Both the sides of the modules are same except for a sticker on one side confirming the timings on these modules and indicating that they are lead free.
Here’s the light show the sticks put out when in operation.
Let’s take a look at what kind of performance these modules can put out.
Test Setup and Specifications
- AMD Athlon II X2 250 CPU
- MSI 785GM-E51 AM3 motherboard
- Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3 PC3-12800 BL2KIT25664TR1608 4GB (2x2GB)
- Patriot TorqX M28 256GB SSD
- Xigmatek Dark Knight S1283 Heatsink
- Windows 7 x64 Ultimate
Here are the RAM SPDs CPU-Z screenshot
Benchmarks Used
PCMark Vantage
If you are familiar with Futuremark, famous for their 3DMark range of gaming benchmark, then you should know that PCMark is also designed by them. But the difference ends there. Although 3DMark is a synthetic 3D benchmark, PCMark is a benchmark based on real world scenarios. It runs real world tests to test each component in your system. These include CPU, memory, storage and video card. The combined result is reported as a PCMark Score. In our benchmarking in this review, I only run the Memory tests.
Everest 5.30
Everest is another well-known benchmarking software in the enthusiast world. Here we used the various memory tests available from the Everest suite.
SANDRA 2010 SP1
SANDRA, short for the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant is an information & diagnostic utility. It provides a lot of information about every hardware and software component in your PC. It also provides various benchmarks. Here we used the memory bandwidth test and reported the aggregate memory bandwidth.
LameXP Audio Encoding
LameXP is highly multi-threaded audio encoding application. The way multi-threading works is that this software assigns each track to be encoded to an individual core. As an example, say you are encoding 4 tracks and have a quad core processor. Instead of waiting for first track to complete encoding to start the encoding of the second track, this software will instead assign each track to a core. LameXP is a graphical front-end for the LAME MP3, Ogg Vorbis and Nero AAC audio encoders. Supported input types are Wave, MP3, MP2, OGG/Vorbis, FLAC, MP4/AAC, AC3, DTS, WavPack, Musepack, TTA, Speex, Monkey’s Audio, Shorten, ALAC and WMA. It also reads M3U, PLS and ASX playlists as well as Cuesheets.
For this test, I used 30 WAV files obtained from my collection of Gladiator and The Villagesoundtrack CDs and converted them to mp3 using the LAME encoder with maximum quality/q0 settings.
Half Life 2 Lost Coast
We used the in-built benchmark utility for our gaming tests. The following settings were used:
Overclocking
Every enthusiast knows, stock and recommended specs are only for the common folk. Pushing beyond these rated settings is where the fun is at. Overclocking is not an exact science. It varies greatly as it is influenced by a number of factors. Some of these factors can be controlled by the overclocker, some not. For example, memory chips designed from the same wafer can vary in the maximum speeds they can run at. This is how the manufacturer may rate the maximum stable speed that the chip can run at. Therefore, the maximum overclock that these chips reach may not be representative of other memory sticks in this range of products.
To overclock I first tested by setting the RAM at speeds of 1066 MHz, 1333 MHz and 1600 MHz while CPU and NB were at stock frequencies. On the last one, bus was overclocked to reach the maximum RAM overclock. As a result CPU and NorthBridge were also overclocked.
I was able to overclock the memory to a maximum overclock of 1688 MHz. This is not a very large increase, but large enough to allow some leg room for your CPU overclock because when you try to overclock your CPU to its maximum limit you will probably lower the memory divider, and it is unlikely that you will need more than 1688 MHz from the memory sticks. The memory was running at a voltage of 1.75V. I tried to raise the votlage but wasn’t able to go over 1688 MHz. That may also be attributed to the fact that I am not using the most overclocking friendly motherboard.
Underclocking
While overclocking is important, I also wanted to see how tight I could run the timings on these modules at various speeds to reduce the latency. Therefore, the timings shown in the results are the lowest that these modules could achieve at the shown speed. I was amazed by how tight this kit could run at 1066 MHz. At this speed, I could tighten the timings to 5-5-5-15 and run the kit comfortably at 1066 MHz. These timings are the speeds that most high end DDR2 kits used to run at until recently. Now that DDR3 memory can run at similar timings provides a testament to the fact that memory technology has significantly advanced since DDR2 days. Most DDR2 kits these days can do 1066 Mhz at CL5 timings. But with this DDR3 kit, you can not only do that but you can go all the way up to 1688 MHz as we have seen in the overclocking section.
The modules also impressed me by running at 1333 MHz at just 6-6-5-15 timings. Most kits in the market are rated at 9-9-9-24 timings with the lowest being 7-7-7-24 at this speed. I was also pleasantly surprised that I could lower the timings at the rated speed of 1600 MHz to 8-8-7-21 which are lower than those advertised (8-8-8-24).
Results
Conclusion
I am impressed with this memory. The fact that you can run this kit at the speed of high end DDR2 kits of yesteryear with the same timings (1066 MHz @ 5-5-5-15) is impressive. Even more impressive is that I was able to run this kit at quite low timings at the rated speed for this kit (1600 MHz @ 8-8-7-21. Rated at 1600 MHz @ 8-8-8-24). Add to that the dancing LEDs, and you get an exceptional performer and the satisfaction of having your money well spent. When it came to overclocking, I was only able to get an 88 MHz overclock. I would have liked more, but I think the lower timings made up for it by reducing the latency.
At the time of the writing of this article, the lowest priced 4GB 1600 MHz CL8 DDR3 kit on Newegg is $115, while this Crucial kit sells for $132. A price premium of $17 is not bad and is to be expected considering that this is the only kit on the market to feature dancing LEDs.
Pros –
- Best appearance in class with the LEDs. Great for showing off at LAN Parties.
- Tight performance! Runs at much lower timings that those advertised.
Cons –
- Only 88 MHz overclock on my review sample
This has become one of my favorite kits for flashiness and for low latency performance. I’m off to show off those dancing LEDs to others. Before I leave, I would like to give this kit ABT Editor’s Choice and Innovation award to Crucial for being the only manufacturer for taking show-off capability to a new level.
