Ballistix rant!

Hmm this has got me worried lol I've just put 2 x 1GB PC2-8500 ballistix in my machine and pushing 2.2v through them =/ Well... I'll see how long they last lol
 
sanofi said:
On my old DDR1 build, I had x2 512Mb sticks of Ballistix and had to RMA them twice. Strangely, out of the 2 sticks, it was only 1 that was playing up each time, the other was the original from when they were first purchased.
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My brother had 1 set fail & I sent my ddr back 3 times:eek: now got ddr3200 overclocked & working perfectly.
I have to echo the comment
turned out to be my Gigabyte motherboard
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I don't think in my case it was compatible with my ASUS mobo as corsair worked like a dream.
I wouldn't touch Ballistix with a barge pole even if it was free!
 
ManCuBuS said:
They are the best in the business, shame their memory isn't. I reckon its a voltage thing personally. I've got some in HTPC at 1.9v which has been there for years, I've also got 4gb in my main pc and put 2.1v through it and had to RMA twice now.
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exactly:)

when i use 2.25Vdimm in the P5B dlx, i had two sets of Ballistyx (PC2 5300) dead in a period of 2/3 months
after my last RMA in April 2007 ,i start using only 1.9V in it,and no more problems- they are running fine until now (one year):)

and another thing - before i had it overclocked like mad- 600 mhz fsb - memory at 1200 mhz at 15-5-5-5
after my last RMA the maximum overclock i get in it is 400 mhz fsb - 800mhz in memory at 12-4-4-4
 
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netby said:
exactly:)

when i use 2.25Vdimm in the P5B dlx, i had two sets of Ballistyx (PC2 5300) dead in a period of 2/3 months
after my last RMA in April 2007 ,i start using only 1.9V in it,and no more problems- they are running fine until now (one year):)

and another thing - before i had it overclocked like mad- 600 mhz fsb - memory at 1200 mhz at 15-5-5-5
after my last RMA the maximum overclock i get in it is 400 mhz fsb - 800mhz in memory at 12-4-4-4
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Its a pain the ass really, I'd love to stick 1.9v through on my main but its just not stable and sometimes refuses to even boot. Long gone are the days of me OC'ing these ballistix modules. I think I'll be going over to Patriot or G-skill in the near future.
 
Id recomend G.Skill 2GB DDR2 PK PC2-8500C5 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK)

if you just want 2*1gb.

(snip from website review i posted)

583.33 @ 2.0v @ 5-5-4-15 held back by cpu not being able to go past 3500.

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/391/everestyc0.jpg

doesnt use micron chips (micron own crucial, crucial use (almost) exclusively micron D9 chips on balistix, most other high perf ram manufacturers also use micron D9...)
 
Amonlym said:
Id recomend G.Skill 2GB DDR2 PK PC2-8500C5 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK)

if you just want 2*1gb.

(snip from website review i posted)

583.33 @ 2.0v @ 5-5-4-15 held back by cpu not being able to go past 3500.

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/391/everestyc0.jpg

doesnt use micron chips (micron own crucial, crucial use (almost) exclusively micron D9 chips on balistix, most other high perf ram manufacturers also use micron D9...)
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D9 is popular, so you would expect most other ram with D9 to be flakey too. I bought ballistix 2Gb pc6400 and another set when the first failed (impatient), then found that the opinion of it had changed round here.
 
dint have anything with my balistix oced to 1066 at 4-4-4-12 fine or 1200 @ 5-5-5-15 of course i have this on top of it :

ocz61.jpg


ps: not mine picture random from google + when its on has nice blue neon glow :)
 
So can I just ask.. I was running my Ballistix tracer at 2.2V as thats what I read it has to run at to be stable, or thats what the manufacturer says it should run at. Even tried going up to 2.25 to see if that made any difference.. Should I try a lower voltage and see if it still errors? or am I right going straig to 2.2v?
 
If you can always run ram on lowest stable voltage

Go down .25v at a time or whatever your bios allows until you find instability and then you go up a notch and really paste it some to check it's stable

Ciao

Def
 
i thought it was only me that had problems with ballastix!
ive moved on to g.skill now, which i highly recommend.
 
Maybe a breakthrough lads although Im not sure what it all means..
I have emailed crucial about my problem and they suggested memtesting the memory at a lower voltage.
Now with all the stuff Id read about these 2.2V tracers I thought they had to be run at 2.2 for best results especially on an overclock, however thought Id give it a try to save me another RMA process.
So went as low as the Mobo will go which is 1.8v at stock speeds of 2.4Ghz on my Q6600. And guess what after 4 hours of memtest not a single error. Put it back up to 2.2V and after 11 mins thousands of errors.. Go figure!
So last night I upped it to 1.85V as 1.8 just seemed silly and put it back to my modeslty overclocked 3ghz CPU with the CS8500 running at 1002Mhz and after 17 hours no errors. Im now currently doing another memtest at the 1.8V on the 3GHZ overclock to see what happens..
But am I the only one who thinks this doesnt seem right? RAM rated at 2.2V giving errors at 2.2 and none at 1.8?
Dunno maybe this will help someone out there having problems with Ballistix tracer?
 
Well it looks like my Ballistix has gone up the duff as well :(

Been having issues with the pc posting, and now it won't post at all. I get power to the pc but a black pc monitor. After a bit of testing it seems it maybe my ram as I get a continous beep when its just the CPU + Memory. Have put in an RMA to crucial but got a reply email saying due to being busy i may not get a reply for 5-7 days:mad: I thought that it would be a nice easy and quick process, sigh. I am short on money as well so don't really want to get another set of ram. SO crossing fingers at the mo.
 
Yup i was having to send mine off for RMA every month or two when i ran it at 2.2v.
Now i've got it sat at 1.8v everythings been great for ages. I think the extra heat caused by the higher voltage just destroys it, where as it can manage good overclocks even at low voltages.

Cucials RMA service is very good, just ring up, ask for an RMA number and send them. Within 2/3 days your sent back a set.
 
i've got ballistix 2x1GB dual channel kit 1066 and i've discovered that they are giving me stability problems, I came into the memory forum to ask for advice and found this thread which doesn't give me much optimism for getting replacements.

I had them running at 1066 and they were fine for a month, but then the problems started (write errors to hdd, bsods i've never even heard of). I checked all of my hardware, stragnely memtest ran with no errors though for 7+ hours, but the MS memroy testing utility gave me errors on the random check (forget what it is called now). I've set the sticks to 800 and so far not a single problem for a week now (I was getting constant problems at 1066).

I'm very dissapointed and not sure what to do.

[edit] I've got a 620W Corsair modular psu btw so it's not a power issue
 
davethe11 said:
i've got ballistix 2x1GB dual channel kit 1066 and i've discovered that they are giving me stability problems, I came into the memory forum to ask for advice and found this thread which doesn't give me much optimism for getting replacements.

I had them running at 1066 and they were fine for a month, but then the problems started (write errors to hdd, bsods i've never even heard of). I checked all of my hardware, stragnely memtest ran with no errors though for 7+ hours, but the MS memroy testing utility gave me errors on the random check (forget what it is called now). I've set the sticks to 800 and so far not a single problem for a week now (I was getting constant problems at 1066).

I'm very dissapointed and not sure what to do.

[edit] I've got a 620W Corsair modular psu btw so it's not a power issue
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Sometimes it can be the motherboard/bios that's the problem. When I first built my system, my Tracer 8500 wouldn't run stable at anything over 1000Mhz on the mobo in spec. Was within a cat's whisker of RMA'img them when I updated the bios to 1.6. Could then run them at 1200Mhz rock solid!
 
Well it all seems very familiar to me! Just to say I’ve received my second set of RMA’d Ballistix Tracers last week and I haven’t opened the packet yet. The first lot I received only lasted three weeks. I do have an original pair that came with the machine from OcUK and they have been great on their own 2GB at 1068MHz 2.2v. I have run 4GB at lower volts but that was after I started to have the BSOD and that was at 890MHz. It doesn’t seem fair to have to run them at a lower frequency to enable them to keep stable. Maybe at around 2.0 volts to start with they would have lasted longer, I don’t know.
My thinking is even after an initial 7+ hour prime stable system and then after three or four weeks failing again is not good.
The RMA service is as said before excellent, but was told it is rare for two lots of ram to fail so quickly. That can’t be true after reading this forum and looking on the auction site can it?
So myself, after reading the threads I made the change and am now running OCZ 4GB PC2-8500C5 (OCZ2RPR10664GK). At the moment I can keep my overclock and run them at 1000MHz.
One thing I must say, that these OCZ sticks do run a lot cooler at 2.1v than the Ballistix did!

PM
 
Think some people have just been very unlucky with their ballistix.

Had 4x1GB running at 1200mhz 5-5-5-15 @ 2.2v for months and months without error, and 2GB of that would do 1400mhz 5-5-5-15 @ 2.25v...
 
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