Hardware Review
Crucial Ballistix Tracers PC4000
Crucial has been around for about almost a decade now and has provided end-users with their needs of high performance memory. With the introduction of Crucial's Ballistix Tracer Line, Crucial has joined the ranks of Corsair. Corsair memory has been well known to be the flashiest memory available, but the Ballistix Tracers also have its own style of flashiness. This is review is a bit of a milestone for us since it's the first Dual channel Memory review will be posting.
The blinking LEDs lights up in no specific order to show memory activity. Not only you’re getting a very high performance memory, but the light will certainly add some bling to your computer rig.
Similar to the Crucial Ballistix line, the Tracer memory uses black PCBs. The heat spreaders available for the Tracer are black. However, the sample we got was a bit different. The gunmetal spreaders do make the spreaders very sleek.
Because this is the first memory module that we have given a chance to review, we will keep it as simple and straight forward. We will benchmark the modules performance under the default latencies and clock speed we will also benchmarks at the most stable overclocked frequency we can attain. Crucial rates the modules at 250MHz with latencies of 2.5-4-4-8.
| GA-K8NSC-939 |
| AMD 64 3000+ |
| Nvidia GeForce FX 5950 Ultra | 2 x 512MB Crucial Ballistix Tracers PC4000 |
| 2 x 80 GB Western Digital SATA |
| 16 LG DVD-RW |
| Silverstone ST56F 560W PSU |
Click the image to see it full view...
We began testing the memory modules at 200HTT with 2-2-2-5 latencies. The memory ran just fine and stable with the tight latencies. We then began to increase our HTT speed and were able to achieve a very stable 250HTT with 2.5-3-3-8 latencies. We then ran a series of memory intensive benchmark applications to test our samples. Our test also includes UT2004 to show how well it performs with a real life application.
Because 3DMark2001 tests all of the system's main components, it's a very good benchmark to gauge how much performance can be gained at overclocked speeds.
Super PI is basically a speed test to find the digit you are looking for. We will be using the millionth digit.
Corsair is not the only manufacturer anymore with high performance as well as with flashy lights. The pair of Crucial's Ballistix Tracer is nothing short of amazing. Combined with very good performance results and awesome gunmetal looking heat spreaders, the Tracers certainly deserve your attention if you're in the market for high performance RAM. The Tracer's very flexible latency timings are also very good. With the right motherboard combination, you'll probably be able to overclock much further. With the Tracer's very good results in our tests, and the very attractive light show it creates inside our case, we are very pleased to give it a score of 10 and our Unique Rigs' Editor's Choice.
Pros:
Gunmetal heatsinks
LED activity lights
Very stable timings
Amazing overclocking
Cons:
Price might be a bit steep
Manufacturer Link:
