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Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500


Date
: 05/25/07 – 06:03:59 AM

Author
:

Category
: Memory

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
Crucial Technology (Micron Technology, Inc.)

Price:
$204.99USD (Newegg.com) / $274.99CND (NCIX.com)

Things sure have changed from a few months ago when memory prices were as astronomically high as the speeds. Now the frequencies that DDR2 memory is running at have finally surpassed the cost involved to own such memory. DDR2 prices have recently dipped and look to hold the low trend for a while apparently. This is nothing but good news to all those enthusiasts out there looking for some high-quality memory from the likes of Crucial and their wonderful Ballistix line of performance memory.

Back in January of this year I introduced you, the OverclockersOnline.net reader, to Micron Technology and the subsidiary Crucial brand. Crucial was a collective of people hand-picked from the Micron Technology business group that were to head up the retail sales division of the US based memory manufacturing giant and call it Crucial Technology. Crucial would be responsible to bridge that gap between manufacturer and retailer. For more than 10 years now, Crucial has continued to bridge the rapids and keep consumers feet dry with excellent tech support, un-paralleled customer service, and top quality SDRAM products that continue to amaze us all in the industry…like the PC2-8500 Crucial Ballistix Tracers that we will be looking at today.

It is not a big secret that Crucial (Micron Technology) are the only real memory manufacturer that is capable of producing ultra high-end memory ICs for DDR2 SDRAM that operate at the insane frequencies we see these days. If all DDR2 memory modules running above DDR1000 are based on Micron ICs…why shouldn't Micron have their own DDR1066 part? They do now and I for one couldn't be happier to see such a speed bin from Crucial in the Ballistix Tracer line of memory. These new PC2-8500 modules run an impressive DDR1066 at 5-5-5 timings with only 2.2v. They come in either Tracer or non-Tracer variations and I will have the joy of looking at a set of the sleek looking 2GB kit of Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500 modules.

Page 2 : Package & Contents

There has been a buzz in the air from the moment this package showed up from Crucial Technology. Perhaps the cable box has coincidentally timed its new buzzing just right but whatever it is, the buzz is annoying and I need to hunt it out…stop buzzing!

Alright, minor emergency adverted but the buzzing has been stopped and I can continue. I always like to see Crucial on the shipping invoice because their package is just perfect. For those that have never seen a Crucial package, enjoy. For those more than familiar such as myself, you know exactly what we are going to see here. First off, yes, Crucial ships their memory in a cardboard box and not a plastic blister pack and that is only half of it.

The interior of the package is also quite unique in the fact that Crucial manages to avoid the use of any packing material aside from cardboard. The antistatic bags hold the modules in place on one axis while the scissored cardboard cut-out keeps the modules upright.

With the sticks pulled from the package, you get a better idea of just how Crucial accomplishes this setup. You may think there is potential for problems with this package but until you actually receive a package from Crucial, it is hard to explain.

The last of the photos shows the entire package contents in a couple anti-static bags keeping the memory protected and a small leaflet that shows installation instructions and provides basic information about the memory and its handling.

Our first look at the Ballistix Tracers outside of the anti-static package provides a great of view of a really sharp looking heatspreader. The heatspreader is the same as the non-Tracer Ballistix module except that the interior section is black and the logo obviously displays "Tracer".

The heatspreader itself is simply two pieces interlocked at the top and adhered to the ICs on the modules. The heatspreader is solid aluminum and is just the standard size so installation issues appear to be non-existent. In this photo, you can clearly see that the PCB is a very dark color and is actually advertised as black but comes off as an extremely dark brown. These are the same Levin PCBs that I saw on the Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300 that I reviewed a while ago.

The close up of the machined edge shows a bit of the marks left behind. The close-up also provides insight into how the heatspreaders attach to the ICs. Crucial appears to still be using the thicker thermal adhesive tape to adhere the ICs to heatspreaders.

This was my first time with a set of Tracers and I was almost half-expecting to see LEDs as part of the heatspreader and not the PCB itself. I was obviously wrong as all the LEDs are on the modules PCB. This will leave me free to remove the heatspreaders I guess and see what is underneath.

Before pulling the heatspreaders, we take one last look at the different LEDs that are on these modules. On the right side of the above image, the activity LEDs line up in two rows. These LEDs will demonstrate memory activity with flashing various colors. On the left, the underside of the PCB is exposed and you can see an LED in that corner. These LEDs are spread evenly along the outer edge and will glow blue for a similar effect to cars ground-effect lights.

The heatspreaders took a little more heat and effort than usual to release free from the ICs that they are stuck to. The thermal interface between the heatspreader and the IC appeared to be the thick spongy type material all manufacturers used up until the last year or less but I was wrong. If you look closely, you can see some sort of fibers sticking out from behind the sponge like material. Clearly Crucial has adjusted their thermal material as I haven't seen anything like this before. Perhaps some evolution in how memory ICs transfer heat to the heatspreader is a good thing in the industry.

Page 3 : Specifications

The Ballistix line of memory is clearly not your normal run of the mill memory stick as evident from the photos we just looked at. The black heatspreaders hovering over a black PCB really sets off the visual appeal of the Ballistix Tracers. I am partial to the dark orange heatspreaders of the non-tracer modules but these black Tracers sticks are really growing on me. Here is a brief quote from the Crucial web site outlining their thoughts on the Ballistix Tracer line of memory.

These PC2-8500 modules are the highest rated modules that Crucial has put their name on. By the time I got my hands on my kit, the forums were already a buzz about the modules. It is not often that you get to talk about both the manufacturer of the module and the ICs using the same name but in this case, we can. Micron Technology is the leader in high-frequency DDRII memory and has a near strangle hold on the DDR1000 and up packages offered by manufacturers like OCZ, Corsair, Mushkin and all the rest. Micron ICs are used on pretty much every high-frequency DDRII 1GB or 512MB part out there. The Crucial Ballistix Tracers, are likely going to be no different.

Before popping the heatspreaders off to get a look at the ICs used and a better idea of how the tracers lights are arranged underneath, I noticed in the typical spot the use of the Levin PCB marked
70201P
. The Levin PCB used on my PC2-5300 Ballistix memory was marked
63201P
.

Crucial has gone to the trouble of attempting to hide the markings on the ICs with the Ballistix branding but you can just barely make out the ICs on the inset photo…D9GMH. I fully expected to see the D9GMH ICs, the -18F in the bottom right hand corner of the IC also denotes that we are dealing with 1.87ns ICs which in turn equate to PC2-8500 (1000 / 1.875ns = 533MHz = DDR1066 = PC2-8500). Here are the specifications for the Micron D9GMH ICs that are used in this kit of memory.

Other than the few LEDs at the top and along the bottom of the PCBs, and the Exilinx IC right in the middle of the module for the LED control, these modules are pretty much the same as any other memory is under their aluminum heatspreaders.

Page 4 : Installation

Predictably, installation of Ballistix memory whether it is Tracers or not, is very simple and straight-forward. The size of the standard heatspreaders pose no issues on any platform and shouldn't effect the fitment of any other cooling peripherals.

I begin with some photos of installation to back up my claims, I start with the Abit AB9 QuadGT motherboard that I happen to have laying around. This motherboard has a fair bit of space around the memory modules but like we saw a couple pages back, it doesn't matter as there is no added width or height to these Ballistix Tracers which makes them a treat to work with.

Both sticks are clipped in and all but ready for action. I have also installed my Thermalright Ultra-120 and you can see that these sticks clearly sit below even the CPU fan with plenty of room to go. The last couple of memory modules I have had were larger with tall heatspreaders, it is nice to be working with standard sized sticks again.

I then decided I would try to get fancy with some photos of the lights on and off. Clearly the blue LEDs near the base of the Ballistix Tracer modules match perfectly with the blue LEDs that surround the Abit QuadGT motherboard on the backside of the PCB. Adding a set of these sticks really sets off a system if youre looking for something of that nature. If my Antec Nine Hundred wasn't housing my main workstation, I would have installed this setup just to show what a couple blue LED case fans and a PSU with a blue LED light will do for a setup.

The photo shoot then continued down an artistic path as I installed the Crucial Ballistix Tracers into the testing motherboard, the Asus P5B-Dlx. I actually just had to crop a lot of that photo and that gave it a little bit of a grainy look so I immediately thought of a black and white photo and realized you don't see black & white photos in computer hardware reviews…now you do.

The rows of LEDs along the top exposed section of the heatspreader will now be the star of the show again. Those LEDs along with the lower blue LEDs definitely make these modules stand out, even when the motherboard doesn't have a compliment of LEDs as well.

Here is a photo of the system running again with a fair amount of ambient light. I like how it has captured the red, orange, and yellow LEDs on the sticker of the fan leaving the blue LEDs to litter the surrounding area of the memory. With memory like this, I could take photos all day long but at some point I just have to stop.

Page 5 : Overclocking

Memory doesn't usually impress me before we get to this section but the Crucial Ballistix Tracers are just great looking and the LEDs are almost cool. That coming from a guy who doesn't like LEDs or flashing lights normally and prefers performance over looks. I took a couple photos for you with the Abit QuadGT just to give you an idea of what kind of LED action memory and a motherboard can make happen but the P5B-Dlx I use for benching memory is far superior so all the real fun will happen on it. Here is the standard list of hardware used on the test machine:

Stability testing consists of a number of programs including the following list.

• Dual 32M runs of Super Pi Mod 1.5 (ran at the same time)
• 2 hours of dual Prime95 using Orthos Beta on blend mode
• 1 hour of dual MemTest in Windows using 750MB/instance
• Multiple loops of each 3DMark 01 / 03 / 05 / 06

  This list is a very solid test of memory stability and I have found it to prove to be a very accurate way to test memory overclocks. I rely on it for all of my builds and testing.

  

  As always, I start off the overclocking section with some form of clocking at CL3. I have gone back to the tried and true combo of 3-3-3, 4-4-4, and 5-5-5.

  
  3-3-3-8 2T
  
  

  

  The clocking at 3-3-3 went well enough I guess. I was able to get DDR800 completely stable at 2.32v which is decent enough. The last few kits of memory I had that were tagged for DDR1000+ didn't like running tighter latencies that much, this kit didn't mind it at all. Once I finished up the 3-3-3 clocking I had to do some testing at 3-4-3 so I would know what I could run for the benchmarks and was pleasantly surprised to see such a large jump from 3-3-3 to 3-4-3, here is what I was able to stabilize at the top end…3-4-3-8 DDR890 2.32v – Dual 32M SPi Stable.

  DDR800 3-3-3-8 2T @ 2.32v

  

  
  4-4-4-8 2T
  
  

  

  You keen P5B-Dlx users will notice in the screenshot below that I am running on the 4:5 divider and thinking that I was probably overclocking on that divider the whole time at 4-4-4, or any timing set for that matter, but I actually just clock 4-4-4 and 5-5-5 on the 2:3 divider and then drop the CPU multi to 8X when the memory goes really high. I simply did the screenshot to show here that it is very stable at this speed on this divider and a lightning quick little setup. The benchmarks will have these completely stable clocks pushed a little bit further in the benchmarking section for more performance numbers.

  DDR1000 4-4-4-8 2T @ 2.22v

  

  
  5-5-5-X 2T
  
  

  

  This memory really came to life at 5-5-5 and out of the box surpassed what I was expecting from it. At the ultra low voltage of 2.02v, this memory was easily capable of running 575MHz or DDR1150. That is over 40MHz faster than the rated speed at tighter timings and less voltage. Going over DDR1200 I found that the modules liked a higher tRAS so I increased that and continued on all the way up to DDR1270 at 2.33v before the memory topped out. This has not been my highest clocking memory but at the voltage I ran these modules at, they are certainly one of the better kits with a broader range of timings they liked. My hunt for a 600MHz 4-4-4 kit of memory continues I guess but these Ballistix will sure be a blast at 3-4-3 in my P5B-Dlx.

  DDR1200 5-5-5-18 2T @ 2.13v

  

  
  Page 6 : Benchmarks
  

  The diverse timing capabilities of this memory really let me stretch my legs and do some benching over 3.6GHz. The first two sets of settings that I benched at in the chart below are simply with the memory set to AUTO timings in the P5B-Dlx. The memory ran remarkably well the AUTO timings so the average person should be able to clock this memory quite well without having to touch timings.

  

  The bottom three sets of timings are all at the same CPU Frequency of just over 3.65GHz. I haven't been able to do a comparison in a memory review of the performance of memory with the CPU frequency over 3.6GHz, today I get to. It should be interesting to see how the memory timings and speeds affect performance at this high of a CPU frequency.

  SiSoft Sandra 07 SP1 – Memory Bandwidth

  

  Lavalys Everest Ultimate 07 v4.00 – Memory Bandwidth

  

  Both of the Everest and Sandra bandwidth results look about as they should for this system at these frequencies. Keep in mind that the system was always booted at 400FSB and then I increased the system speed in Windows with ClockGen as to stay on the tighter strap of the motherboard for increased performance.

  Lavalys Everest Ultimate 07 v4.00 – Memory Latency

  

  In my last memory review I noticed a drop in latency for the DDR8XX 3-4-3 results and the same thing occurred today. Looking into it more, I realized it was simply the fact that the 4:5 divider for the P5B-Dlx is the best performing memory divider if you can run your system in that sweet spot. It is not that the 3-4-3 result is off, it is the 4-4-4 result that is simply too low because of the better performance on this memory divider.

  FutureMark PCMark 05 & 3DMark 01 SE

  
  

  That slightly better performance in the latency test is all fine and dandy but when that translates into real world performance, it doesn't add up to a whole lot according to 3DMark 01 and PCMark 05. Yes the middle of the 3654MHz results is a bit better clock per clock, but the difference is marginal if any in reality.

  SuperPi Mod v/1.5 – 1M

  

  SuperPi Mod v/1.5 – 8M

  

  SuperPi Mod v/1.5 – 32M

  

  The SuperPi times all read exactly how they should with the best performance going to the higher frequency memory, but with very slim differences. SuperPi isn't a very good overall system benchmark but it is great for testing how the memory is affecting performance as it heavily relies on the memory sub-system for performance.

  Gaming Benchmarks – Half-Life 2 / UT 2004

  

  When it came time to benchmarks games, I decided to drop my FarCry testing because the results always showed the same thing for the most part. That leaves us with just Half-Life 2 and UT04 results. Like every other benchmark today, we see that there is a small difference amongst the last three results with higher memory speed but the gains become marginal between the 4-4-4 and 5-5-5 results. Personally, this memory looks to be the perfect kit to run with this CPU at 400*9 = 3.60GHz with the memory at DDR1000 4-4-4-8 on the 4:5 divider. That is really the ideal setup for the P5B-Dlx on air and is very quick with nice low voltage requirements.

  
  Page 7 : Conclusion
  

  Life is good…you have a sexy black jacket on with polished aluminum trim, more lights than the next guy, and you overclock like a monster. I guess life is good if youre a memory module and survived a couple weeks with me. In the end, 2.3v is all any Micron D9XXX based modules should ever be ran at for extended periods, this kit has far surpassed many kits at various timings with that voltage kept in mind.

  

  Basically the Tracer version of this memory is for those users that have a few lights already or want to start their build around a very attractive kit of memory. The non-Tracer version is not a lot cheaper and identical in all but the obvious ways so if you are looking for a little flair to a spot on the motherboard seldom lit up, I have to suggest a selection from the Ballistix Tracer line.

  Esthetics and appearance aside, these modules are pretty solid…okay, so they are extremely satisfying. You are basically getting the fastest binned memory from the manufacturer who makes the most important component in any other kit of memory rated at the same speed or higher. I am a bench marker and out-right performance is all that impresses me with memory. The 3-4-3 overclocking of this memory has me very impressed and I have had some good kits at those timings. the bonus with this kit is that it clocks at 5-5-5 as well as some of the PC2-9200 modules out there. Of course, overclocking is all luck of the draw and I didn't receive the best set based on a number of forum results. I also didn't receive the worst and for the price you can get them at from Newegg.com right now from, it is hard not to recommend the Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2x1GB PC2-8500 for any immediate builds or upgrades. I wish I knew if memory was going to stay at these prices.

  Advantages

  Great versatility overclocking at various timing sets
  The best memory you can buy from Crucial for a reason
  Tracer modules light up your life, especially the blue "ground-effect" LEDs
  Availability in Canada through NCIX!!! Thank-you Crucial for listening to my crys

  Disadvantages

  Like any memory, overclocking is never guaranteed
  Still Levin PCBs and the standard 2.3v DDR2 limit is definitely in effect
  Price is very likely to fluctuate…but while it is around $205USD, get it while you can

  Overclockers Online would like to thank Crucial Technology for the review opportunity.