Crucial 10th Anni RAM

WJA96 · 8 Mar 2007 at 10:17

mcc49 said:
Is there any reason to buy the Ballistix PC6400 version over the PC5300 version for a potential C2D6600 rig running at 400mhz memory speed? as the PC5300 version seems to run DDR800 speed fine with almost identical timing.

I have no trouble running my Ballistix PC5300 at PC6400 speeds 4-4-4-10 or 4-4-4-12 at the outside.

mcc49 said:
Edit: also would anyone recommend these RAM over other DDR800 RAM like the OCZ and the Geil which are on this week only?

Yes, other than the fact that it's definitely high quality Micron RAM, Crucial have by far the best RMA service for UK customers. It's guaranteed 48 hours from receipt which is basically a day to get it tested and a day to get it back. Corsair are taking several weeks to RMA RAM from the US, GeIL are reputed to be 8-12 weeks and OCZ and G.Skill also both require you to send your RAM abroad for RMA purposes. It might not seem important now, but if your RAM goes pop and you need it replaced, then Crucial comes through when the others don't.

WJA96 · 8 Mar 2007 at 10:19

Nickg said:
yea i would cos if your 6600 doesnt hit 400Mhz FSB then at least you can go ultra tight on the timings@ CAS 3 (which is worth upto 3/4second on superPi!)

This is actually true, and it's one reason why some of the top SuperPi times are still being recorded on ultra-low latency (CAS 1) DDR RAM.

It doesn't make a whit of difference in real life though :rolleyes:

mcc49 · 8 Mar 2007 at 18:05

cheers guys, think I ll go for the ballistix as they are only £5 more than the OCZ/Geil RAMs.

Kaiju · 9 Mar 2007 at 00:57

Nickg said:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Crucial/Ballistix5300/3

Why does the 425 MHz @ 4-4-4-12 1.8V bench beat the 512 MHz @ 4-4-4-10 2.4V bench in every test?

I would have thought the CPU increase @ 425MHz linked would mean a better 3D score in Quake, but not in the memory side of things.

WJA96 · 9 Mar 2007 at 08:28

Kaiju said:
Why does the 425 MHz @ 4-4-4-12 1.8V bench beat the 512 MHz @ 4-4-4-10 2.4V bench in every test?

I would have thought the CPU increase @ 425MHz linked would mean a better 3D score in Quake, but not in the memory side of things.

It's a bootstrap issue. To get the higher FSB's it's using the 1333MHz bootstrap so the Northbridge is running slower at 512MHz than it does at 425MHz overclocked from the 1066MHz bootstrap, hence the performance is worse.

The other thing that I would take issue with on that test is that it only quotes the first 4 memory timing, not the Trc figure. As the RAM is only as fast as the slowest refresh, I like to see the Trc figure quoted too.

Kaiju · 9 Mar 2007 at 08:31

WJA96 said:
It's a bootstrap issue. To get the higher FSB's it's using the 1333MHz bootstrap so the Northbridge is running slower at 512MHz than it does at 425MHz overclocked from the 1066MHz bootstrap, hence the performance is worse.

The other thing that I would take issue with on that test is that it only quotes the first 4 memory timing, not the Trc figure. As the RAM is only as fast as the slowest refresh, I like to see the Trc figure quoted too.

You do love your Trc.

Cheers WJA96