Athlon 64 Memory: Rewriting the Rules
by Wesley Fink on October 1, 2004 12:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Crucial Ballistix PC3200
Crucial Ballistix was a Gold Editor's Choice in our recent DDR400 2-2-2 Memory Roundup. On the Intel platform, the memory timings were the best that we have ever seen at DDR500. The logical question is, can Ballistix pull it off again on the Athlon 64?Ballistix is Crucial's first foray into the Enthusiast market, and Ballistix is intended to compete with the best from Corsair, OCZ and other specialty memory manufacturers. Kingston, another memory giant, has a similar Enthusiast line that they call HyperX.
Crucial supplies Ballistix PC3200 in both 256MB and 512MB DIMMs. Test DIMMs were a pair of Crucial Ballistix PC3200 512MB modules.
Crucial uses distinctive orange-gold Ballistix aluminum heatspreaders with black lettering. Ballistix 3200 is based on Micron chips, and not the Samsung chips used in other fast 2-2-2 DDR400. Micron chips were also used in the now discontinued OCZ 3700EB and 3500EB, which we found to be standout performers on Athlon 64.
With OCZ EB discontinued, Crucial Ballistix is the only memory based on Micron chips in the Athlon 64 testing.
Crucial Ballistix PC3200 Specifications
| Crucial Ballistix PC3200 Memory Specifications | |
| Number of DIMMs & Banks | 2 DS |
| DIMM Size Total Memory |
512 Mb 1 GB |
| Rated Timings | 2-3-2 at DDR400 |
| SPD (Auto) Timings | 2-3-2-6 |
| Rated Voltage | 2.8V |
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
47 Comments
View All Comments
Zebo - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=328636mkruer - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
If you get the chance, can you please test with 2GB of PC3200? I’m sure most would love to see what type of performance hit there will be with the larger modules vs. the smaller ones. Looking at the benches so far, it looks like even buying the cheap 1GB PC3200 modules will have negligible impact on the performance as long as the times are kept relatively low (under 3cls.) And one more big IF you could test 4x512 PC3200 with lower clock timings (2-2-2-5) vs 2x1024 PC 3200 with timings of (3-3-3-8) I’m sure that for the average user they would rather blow $400 for 2GB of slow memory then $400 for 1GB of fast memory.Zebo - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
spensive!:(p/p is horrendous for this stuff. It's too bad you don't include micron/crucial 8t in there which can also clock to 260 for half the price.
Kishkumen - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
I've loved all of these recent memory articles. For a while now, the current state of memory in general has been the fuzziest for me. Now I'm starting to get a clearer picture of where things are at and which direction to go. I'm still nursing along my old P4 Northwood, but the A64 plunge is imminent. Nice to see that memory development is keeping up at a strong pace what with 600 MHz speeds now a strong reality.RaistlinZ - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
Thank you for the great article! From your tests it looks like the OCZ 3200 Rev.2 is the best of the best. It performed near the top in every test and edged out the Crucial Ballistix at the highest speeds.I guess my choice for a memory upgrade is clear now. :)
klah - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
Seems you cut something off at the end of page 9"We have asked AMD to provide some insight into why we are "...
skiboysteve - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
excellent article, ill keep this in mind when I upgrade... im still pluggin on a TbredB @ 2.2 w/ a modded 9500nonpro