Crucial 10th Anniversary PC-5300 Memory Evaluation

Product: Crucial 10th Anniversary PC5300
Author: Paul Mercer
Category: Enthusiast/Overclocker
Date: October 2006
Product cost: MSRP US $339.99 / ?204.44 / ?304.31
Manufacturer: Crucial
Spelling and Grammatical Editor: Sean Kalinich
 

Introduction:

Crucial are a large company known mainly for their excellent memory products, they?ve been in the business for quite a while now… 10 years to be exact.
To commemorate the occasion they have released a limited edition low-latency memory module.

Quoting from the Crucial website:
?In recognition of Crucial’s 10th anniversary, the company has released a special commemorative version of our DDR2 PC2-5300 module. This limited-edition 240-pin DIMM is premium Crucial memory encased in a blue and silver aluminium heat spreader featuring the 10th anniversary logo.?

The memory is rated at DDR2-667 3-3-3-12 using 2.2V. With low latencies like this, you can usually expect something good.

Lets see how it performs under testing.

{mospagebreak title= Packaging and Features}

The Crucial 10th Anniversary memory arrived in familiar Crucial packaging. An inconspicuous plain brown cardboard box with nothing but a bright blue label to tell me that the contents were something from Crucial.

?Can you guess what it is yet??</Rolf>

Opening the box, the memory is held in place by a cardboard separator, with the sticks individually packaged in their own little antistatic packets. Printed on the side of each pack are the modules specs.

Cutting open the packets with a pair of scissors, I was eager to get these sticks out and have a proper look at them.

Ain?t they purdy?
     

The heatspreaders are an attractive metallic blue with a silver surround and the Crucial 10th Anniversary logo centred on each side. There are no stickers on the heatspreaders to spoil the looks. The edges have been finished in such a way that fingerprints become slightly less of a worry.

 

Looking closely at the edge of the PCB, it appears to be the same dark board as is used on the Ballistix line of sticks.

?    Part Number: TY2KIT12864AA663
?    Module Size: 2GB kit (1GBx2)
?    Package: Tenth Anniversary 240-pin DIMM
?    Feature: DDR2 PC2-5300
?    Configuration: 128Meg x 64
?    DIMM Type: UNBUFFERED
?    Error Checking: NON-ECC
?    Speed: DDR2-667
?    Voltage: 2.2V
?    Memory Timings: 3-3-3-12
?    Specs: DDR2 PC2-5300 ? 3-3-3-12 ? UNBUFFERED ? NON-ECC ? DDR2-667 ? 2.2V ? 128Meg x 64

{mospagebreak title=Performance}

Test System
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Cooled By Tuniq Tower 120
Asus P5B Deluxe Wi-Fi/AP BIOS: 0711
2GB Crucial 10th Anniversary PC-5300 (2x1024MB)
XFX 7900GT
1x Hitachi Deskstar 80GB 7200RPM SATA2 Hard Drive
Generic DVD Rom Drive
Tagan 580W EasyCon PSU.
Windows XP Professional and Windows XP x64

As always, Windows was fully updated and no tweaks applied. A number of software applications were installed onto the system and drives defragged before any testing started.
Software installed included the following:
Avast Antivirus
Microsoft Office 2003
Diskeeper 10.0
Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0
CyberLink Power DVD

This kit ran at the specified speed and timings with only 1.9V.

Sandra Memory Bandwidth:

Windows XP x86	Windows XP x64

PCMark 05:

Windows XP x86	Windows XP x64

 

Divx Encoding:

Windows XP x86	Windows XP x64
133354 frames Done! Total encoding time: 00:34:24	133354 frames Done! Total encoding time: 00:34:18

 

FEAR:

Super Pi Mod 1.5:

Windows XP x86

Windows XP x64

Core 1	Core 2	Core 1	Core 2
23m 28.422s	23m 32.671s	22m 51.797s	22m 52.063s

During testing I noticed a strange issue with the Asus P5B Deluxe and found confirmation on XtremeSystems forums. There is a problem with running the tRCD (or RAS to CAS Delay) set to 3, when doing so it results in much slower performance and can be shown by comparing the previous Super PI time with a run when the timings are set to 3-4-3-12.

Windows XP x86 – DDR2-667 3-4-3-12

Core 1	Core 2
22m 22.062s	22m 25.328s

I hope Asus can fix this in a future BIOS update.

{mospagebreak title=Overclocking}

A maximum of 2.45V was used to testing the overclock capability of the Crucial 10th anniversary kit. Maximums were found and then benchmarks were run at the tightest latencies possible at DDR800, 888 and 1067.
I chose these speeds so that the processor speed would not play a part in any improvements shown.

Eventually, the following Memtest stable levels were reached:

DDR2-800 4-4-3-4 @ 2.30V
DDR2-888 4-4-3-8 @ 2.35V
DDR2-1067 5-5-4-8 @ 2.30V

Higher voltages did not seem to help at all, and will cause errors if too much is applied.
It was possible to run benchmarks at DDR2-800 3-3-3-8, but these settings failed Memtest within a few minutes. Even with timings relaxed to 3-4-4-12, I couldn?t get an error free run using HCI Memtest for more than 30 minutes.

Sandra Memory Bandwidth:

	Windows XP x86	Windows XP x64
DDR2-800 4-4-3-4
DDR2-888 4-4-3-8
DDR2-1067 5-5-4-8

PCMark 05:

	Windows XP x86	Windows XP x64
DDR2-800 4-4-3-4
DDR2-888 4-4-3-8
DDR2-1067 5-5-4-8

 

Divx Encoding:

	Windows XP x86	Windows XP x64
DDR2-800 4-4-3-4	133354 frames Done! Total encoding time: 00:33:26	133354 frames Done! Total encoding time: 00:33:17
DDR2-888 4-4-3-8	133354 frames Done! Total encoding time: 00:32:56	133354 frames Done! Total encoding time: 00:32:43
DDR2-1067 5-5-4-8	133354 frames Done! Total encoding time: 00:32:45	133354 frames Done! Total encoding time: 00:32:35

 

FEAR:

Windows XP x86	Windows XP x64

                                            Windows XP x86                                          Windows XP x64

	Core 1	Core 2	Core 1	Core 2
DDR2-800 4-4-3-4	21m 36.750s	21m 35.015s	20m 42.547s	20m 50.625s
DDR2-888 4-4-3-8	21m 11.219s	21m 09.234s	20m 25.578s	20m 32.110s
DDR2-1067 5-5-4-8	21m 20.313s	21m 18.328s	20m 11.187s	20m 10.047s

Maximum Overclock
A final test was performed at the kits maximum frequency while keeping the 5-5-5-15 timings and maintaining complete stability. For this test, overclocking the CPU was unavoidable. DDR2-1150 was the final speed reached at a voltage of 2.45V, while the CPU was at 2880MHz.

While running at this speed and voltage a small, low speed 80mm fan was placed over the memory to assist in cooling as the modules started to get quite warm above 2.3V.

Sandra Memory Bandwidth:

Windows XP x86	Windows XP x64

PCMark 05:

Windows XP x86	Windows XP x64

 

Divx Encoding:

Windows XP x86	Windows XP x64
133354 frames Done! Total encoding time: 00:30:23	133354 frames Done! Total encoding time: 00:30:15

 

FEAR:

 

Super Pi Mod 1.5:

Windows XP x86

Windows XP x64

Core 1	Core 2	Core 1	Core 2
20m 08.016s	20m 05.937s	18m 49.188s	18m 43.188s

As I mentioned, it?s important to me that the speeds shown are stable because I see misleading benchmarks around the web all the time. Each memory setting was tested to be a minimum of 6 hours HCI Memtest stable. The Final maximum speed of DDR2-1150 5-5-5-15 2.45V was tested using HCI Memtest for over 12 hours and found zero errors.

{mospagebreak title=Price and Warranty}

 

The Price of the Crucial 10th Anniversary is very competitive, it may not be the cheapest memory available but it?s certainly cheaper than buying a PC8500 kit.
Looking at the Crucial website these kits are the same price as the Ballistix PC5300 kits with the same timings and are quite possibly the same product with new spreaders attached.

After a quick search on the web, I found these selling at Newegg for $229.99, which in my opinion is a bargain.

As per usual, Crucial sells high-quality products backed by a limited lifetime
warranty (1 year warranty on graphics cards) and a 30-day money-back
compatibility guarantee.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}

These kits are great value. When Crucial said ?This limited-edition 240-pin DIMM is premium Crucial memory? they weren?t kidding, this kit performed as advertised and then some..
With the recent spike in interest (and price) for performance DDR2, it?s good to know that there are some reasonably priced kits that can still overclock with the best of them. The amount of headroom, together with lifetime support from Crucial makes the 10th Anniversary memory certainly worth considering spending your pennies on.
The range of overclocking is great; with over a 70% increase over stock speeds, this kit flew through the tests and definitely earned our BOTP award.

Pros:

• Good Price
• Nice new heatspreaders
• Lots of overclocking headroom
• Flexible timings
• Lifetime warranty

Cons:

• ummm…

 

Scores
Packaging: 4.25 out of 5
Design and Features: 4.5 out of 5
Performance and Overclocking: 4.75 out of 5
Price/Warranty: 4.75 out of 5

Final Score: 18.25 out of 20

We would like to say Congratulations to Crucial on their 10th anniversary and thank them for our review sample.