Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 DDR2

Straight off the press of our last Crucial memory review, we’ve got another one. Today we’re looking at Crucial’s top of the line performance memory, the DDR2 PC2-8500, rated at a massive 1067MHz.

This is uber fast memory designed for the most heavily over-clocked systems. We put it through it’s paces to see how it performs. 

{mospagebreak title= Packaging and looks}

Review: Crucial Ballistix 2GB PC2-8500 memory
Reviewer: Jon “Bob The Junkie” Aubrey
Reviewed on: 8th June2007
Product cost: $289.99 (€251.44, £171.50)
Product provided by: Crucial UK (http://www.crucial.com/uk)
Edited by: Jason Hambly
 

Packaging and looks (4.5 / 5.0):

As with all Crucial memory, the Ballistix PC2-8500 came packaged in Crucial’s generic cardboard box, complete with blue sticker to keep it sealed (which we promptly ripped to bits before the photo session to see what the memory looked like). Inside the box are two memory modules individually packaged in static proof bags, separated by a cardboard divider. This is not the prettiest packaging in the world to look at, but the box itself is fairly sturdy so should withstand a few knocks in shipping. Our only gripe with it is that you have no idea what is inside the box until you open it, so you can’t tell at a glance if you’ve bought the right modules or not. The flip side of this though is that Crucial can keep costs down by using the same packaging for all of their modules, thus saving the end user (you or me) a few extra pennies where it counts.

Each memory module in the box comes wrapped in it’s own static proof bag. On one side of this bag is a printed set of specifications for the module, and a warning that they are static sensitive. Nothing is printed on the other side of the bag, and as the bag itself is semi-transparent, you can see what the module is going to look like before you take it out.

The memory modules themselves are encased in gold coloured heatspreaders with the Ballistix logo on each side. Unlike their Tracer brethren, the Ballistix line of memory does not have flashing LEDs built into the memory, but that’s not to say that these modules don’t look good, and certainly wouldn’t look out of place in a gaming rig.

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Specifications:
 

    * Module Type: DDR2
    * Module Size: 2GB kit (2 x 1GB)
    * Package: 240-pin DIMM
    * Speed: DDR2 PC2-8500 1066MHz
    * Memory Timings: 5-5-5-15
    * Specifications: Non-ECC, Unbuffered, 2.2V, 128MB x 64

{mospagebreak title=Over-clocking} 

Over-clocking (4.4 / 5.0):

As these modules are rated at faster speeds than most processors can currently handle, our over-clocking tests on this memory consisted of two parts.

The first part was to see how fast we could push the modules, without them getting finger-burning hot.

The second part was to see how low we could get the memory timings, using stock voltage.

Over-clocking:

Initally we had some problems over-clocking these modules as our test motherboard just couldn’t cope with the speeds that these modules could be pushed to. In order to get a decent over-clock we had to ramp the MCH voltage all the way to it’s maxium of 1.7v before the modules started failing.

We managed to push the PC2-8500 to 555MHz (1110MHz DDR) on 5 – 5 – 5 – 15 timings without any problems, but after that we started seeing random lock-ups and memtest86 errors.

To solve this we tried upping the voltage to 2.3v but the memory became ‘finger burning’ hot and we started getting more errors, most likely due to heat issues.  If you want to push these modules past 2.2v  you’ll need decent active cooling on them.

Lowering timings:

The SPD rating on the memory says that at 400MHz, the memory can be ran at CAS 4 – 4 -4 – 12 timings. At 533MHz, it can be ran at CAS 5 – 5 – 5 – 15 timings.

But what about at stock 266MHz speeds?

To test this, we dropped the timings down to the lowest they would go on our test motherboard, and attempted to boot the system. If it booted, we ran memtest86 for 3 hours to see if it was stable. If it was, we then ran the tests for a further ten hours. If it wasn’t, we upped the timings slightly and tried again.

The lowest timings we could get at 266MHz speeds without any problems were CAS 3 – 3 – 3 – 12. Of course the modules might be able to run at slightly faster timings than this, we’ve heard of people running these modules as low as 3 – 3 – 3 – 8 timings, but there are only so many variations of the timings we can try for stability in the amount of time we have to test these modules.

 

{mospagebreak title=Performance} Performance (4.5 / 5.0):

 

Test System:

Intel E6300 processor running at 1.86GHz / 2.48GHz / 2.59GHz Intel ‘Bad Axe 2’ motherboard
Crucial 2GB PC8500 Ballistix memory (3-3-3-12 / 5-5-5-15)
Leadtek NVIDIA 7800GTX 256MB graphics card
Maxtor SATA 80GB 7200RPM hard drive
Enermax ELT500AWT power supply
 

Microsoft Vista Ultimate edition x64
CPU-Z – version 1.39
SiSoftware Sandra XI – version 2007.4.11.22 x64
ScienceMark – version 2.0 build 171102
Lavalys Everest – version 4.00.976
Memtach – version 0.39 Alpha

Results from running the memory at 3-3-3-12 timings at 266MHz are shown in the left hand pictures.

Results from running the memory at 5-5-5-15 timings at 533MHz are shown in middle pictures.

Results from running the memory at 5-5-5-15 timings at 555MHz are shown in right hand pictures.

CPU-Z 

 

 

SiSoftware Sandra memory bandwidth

SiSoftware Sandra memory latency

ScienceMark memory test

Lavalys Everest

Easy AdSense by Unreal Test	266MHz @ 3-3-3-12	533MHz @ 5-5-5-15	555MHz @ 5-5-5-15
Memory Read	6353 MB/s	9070 MB/s	9456 MB/s
Memory Write	4847 MB/s	6393 MB/s	6659 MB/s
Memory Copy	4605 MB/s	6774 MB/s	7180 MB/s
Memory latency	69.4 ns	52.4 ns	50.3 ns

Memtach

   

{mospagebreak title=Price and Warranty}

Price and Warranty (4.0 / 5.0):

Considering you can buy other brand PC2-8500 2GB kits from different manufacturers at nearly two thirds of the price of this memory with the same timings and sometimes less required voltage, Crucial are really relying on continued customer support to buy these modules.

As per most memory manufacturers these days, Crucial offer a limited lifetime warranty on their products. This means that the memory will have a lifetime guarantee with Crucial, unless you do something silly like drop it in water, or fry it with voltage.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}

Conclusion:

Crucial have produced some seriously fast memory with the Ballistix PC2-8500, which should be able to run even heavily over-clocked systems at a 1:1 memory ratio. Even if your processor can’t handle the front side bus speeds that are required to run this memory at it’s full potential, you can always lower the timings to see a performance boost.

We managed moderate over-clocking with these modules on stock voltage, 22MHz, which is roughly a 4% increase in speed. We also managed to get low timings at 266MHz (533MHz DDR) speeds.

If you’re a loyal Crucial fan then these modules won’t disappoint, but we couldn’t help but feel that they should be priced a little bit cheaper.
 

Packaging and looks: 4.5 / 5.0

Over-clocking: 4.4 / 5.0

Performance: 4.5 / 5.0

Price and warranty: 4.0 / 5.0

Overall:  17.4 / 20

Pros:

• Timings can be lowered significantly if you don’t need the full speed
  

Cons:

• Expensive
  

We’d like to thank Crucial

UK for supplying us with this memory to review.