Crucial Ballistix 4GB DDR3-1866 BL2KIT25664FN1869
Feb 16th, 2011 | By JaredInstalling RAM memory is a simple process however with the Ballistix memory you just have to worry about clearance of the CPU heatsink due to the tall heatspreaders. For example in my situation I had to move the fan to the other side of the CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ when installed in the MSI P55-GD65.
Another great feature of the Ballistix BL2KIT25664FN1869 kit is built in temperature sensors. Once you have the sticks installed all you need to do is install a small application available from Crucial’s website called the Ballistix MOD utility. This little program allows you to monitor and log the temperature of the modules, give you SPD information, as well as setup temperature alarms and events.
While the Ballistix BL2KIT25664FN1869 is rated at 933MHz (DDR3-1866) it is not out of the question to try and squeeze whatever you can beyond the rated specifications. That is what I set out to do early with this kit. The first step of my overclocking was to increase the frequency, without changing the timing, until the system became unstable. I defined stability as successfully passing a loop of 3DMark Vantage, multiple runs of SuperPI 1M as well as at least 3 hours of Prime95. Of course the system also had to pass a week of regular PC usage (including all of the testing benchmarks) at that frequency for at least a week to make sure there were no abnormal restarts or program errors. The Ballistix BL2KIT25664FN1869 reached 1000 MHz, up from 933 MHz.
The second overclocking test I did was to see how tight of timing I could reach using the BL2KIT25664FN1869 at stock speeds before the system became unstable. The same rules apply, no voltage changes and stability has the same definition as above. I pushed the timing down to 8-9-8-23 from 9-9-9-24. I was really hoping for a bit more but anything is good since it doesn’t cost you anything.
