Crucial officially announces its new high-performance memory!

Shorty

Yes, you heard right! Crucial, the company you've always relied on for high-quality, stable memory, is now offering DDR and DDR2 modules made just for enthusiasts!

.... and for the first time in Crucial's history, each module comes with a double-sided aluminum heat spreader. No, that is not a type-o, I said "heat spreader"!

The blue screen of death, software crashes, driver and operating system hiccups—all can be caused by bad memory modules. Performance and stability are Crucial! Don't settle for anything less than Ballistix™!

Well it looks pretty but.. will it be any good? Considering how good their standard memory always is.. can they repeat this with high performance kit? Taking on the likes of Corsair and OCZ.. should be interesting...

Source: Crucial

EyesOnly

Nice. Can't wait for review.

Thrax

I've had more sticks of crucial memory die under my nose than any other module I've ever had.

I'm fully expecting their "High performance" PC3200 to be something lame like 2.5/3/3.

Cyclonite

Thrax, you are quite the pessimist.

I've never had any problems with Crucial, and I'm quite excited to see how these modules perform.

qparadox

They had ub3r problems with their PC2100, I personally had 4 256 MB sticks die on me.

Competition = good. Crucial knows where the profit margins are :P

Thrax

We outfitted our entire lab at school at the beginning of the year with Crucial DDR sticks. Their newest PC2700 modules.

This was against my best judgement, as like QP, I had several sticks of their 2100 die on me at home. However, we bought 40 sticks of 256 and we got a GREAT deal on them. We had 20 computers, and each stick had a half gig of memory.

By the time we got to the end of the year, only 11 computers had their crucial memory. That's right 18 sticks died on us.

I have nothing but loathing for Crucial for wasting my personal money for their sticks at home, and wasting my IT budget at school.

Cyclonite

Ah, gotcha. Everyone works from personal experience. Now, since I've had quite a few sticks of Crucial (granted, not THAT many), and none of them have ever had any problems, I'm quite happy with Crucial. In fact, I just picked up a stick of their 512 MB PC3200 from Newegg. Working like a charm.

SimGuy

Gotta hand it to Crucial for cheap, reliable memory (at least both the PC3200 I own and the PC2100 Registered ECC stuff too).

Crucial overclocking though? Something tells me I better stick with Corsair, Mushkin or ADATA (yes, you heard right)...

Thrax

Crucial Ballistix PC-3200
Densities: 256MB, 512MB
Package: 184-pin DIMM
Feature: PC-3200 (DDR-400)
Configurations: 32Meg x 64, 64Meg x 64
DIMM Type: Unbuffered
Error Checking: Non-parity
Voltage: 2.8V +/- 0.2V
SDRAM Timings: 2-3-2-6
Rank Configuration: 512MB dual ranked, 256MB single ranked
Heat Spreader: Aluminum

Crucial Ballistix PC-4000
Module Sizes: 256MB, 512MB
Package: 184-pin DIMM
Feature: PC-4000 (DDR-500)
Configurations: 32Meg x 64, 64Meg x 64
DIMM Type: Unbuffered
Error Checking: Non-parity
Voltage: 2.8V +/- 0.2V
SDRAM Timings: 2.5-4-4-8
Rank Configuration: 512MB dual ranked, 256MB single ranked
Heat Spreader: Aluminum

Crucial Ballistix PC2-4200
Module Sizes: 256MB, 512MB
Package: 240-pin DIMM
Feature: PC2-4200 (DDR2-533)
Configurations: 32Meg x 64, 64Meg x 64
DIMM Type: Unbuffered
Error Checking: Non-parity
Voltage: 1.9V +/- 0.1V
SDRAM Timings: 3-3-3-10 (4-4-4-12 timings, but supports 3-3-3-10)
Rank Configuration: 512MB dual ranked, 256MB single ranked
Heat Spreader: Aluminum

Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300
Module Sizes: 256MB, 512MB
Package: 240-pin DIMM
Feature: PC2-5300 (DDR2-667)
Configurations: 32Meg x 64, 64Meg x 64
DIMM Type: Unbuffered
Error Checking: Non-parity
Voltage: 1.9V +/- 0.1V
SDRAM Timings: 4-4-4-10 (5-5-5-12 timings, but supports 4-4-4-10)
Rank Configuration: 512MB dual ranked, 256MB single ranked
Heat Spreader: Aluminum

muddocktor

I still use Crucial products myself, even though I've had some failures with their ECC ddr dimms. Their support and replacement policy is great; every time I've rma'ed a stick they've had the replacment to my house in 2 days or less, plus they paid for shipping the defective modules back to them too. You just have to ask them about paying for return shipping and they will email you a return label for you to put on the package.

Gobbles

Having purchased about 5x the amount thrax listed above over the past several years, all different flavors from pc100 to ddr 2700 ive had 1 bad stick. I can also say the same thing about kingston value ram. I go through 80+ sticks a month of kingston and almost never have a failure. 1 maybe 2 sticks in the last 4 months.

Gobbles

EyesOnly

Thrax wrote:

We outfitted our entire lab at school at the beginning of the year with Crucial DDR sticks. Their newest PC2700 modules.

This was against my best judgement, as like QP, I had several sticks of their 2100 die on me at home. However, we bought 40 sticks of 256 and we got a GREAT deal on them. We had 20 computers, and each stick had a half gig of memory.

By the time we got to the end of the year, only 11 computers had their crucial memory. That's right 18 sticks died on us.

I have nothing but loathing for Crucial for wasting my personal money for their sticks at home, and wasting my IT budget at school.

This is why you should always use antistatic wristwraps. I did and have had no problems so far. I know that not everyone use them and still have no problems but why take the chance.