Verdict: Ludicrously overclockable low-latency PC2-6400.

Crucial currently produces two ranges of DDR2 modules: its standard modules, which don't have a series name, just a part number, and the Ballistix range of high-performance RAM.

As a member of the Ballistix series, the BL2KIT12864AA804 has lower latency timings than those of the standard CT2KIT12864AA80E. Both kits are rated as PC2-6400, though, so they're guaranteed to run at up to 800MHz. The Ballistix kit's timings are 4-4-4-12 at 2.2V, compared with the CT2KIT12864AA80E's 5-5-5-18 timings at 1.8V. This means that it performs better than its cheaper sibling in Athlon 64 systems, but almost identically in a Core 2 system, since the latter doesn't run significantly faster with lower-latency RAM.

The Ballistix BL2KIT12864AA804 supports EPP (SLI memory) in compatible motherboards, and we succeeded in manually overclocking it to an amazing 1.13GHz by increasing its voltage to 2.4V. This means that it's capable of running faster than PC2-8500 speeds, which is equivalent to 1,066MHz. By dropping the latency timings to 6-6-6-18, we managed to overclock the DIMMs stably up to 1.17GHz.

Although there's no guarantee that every set of Ballistix BL2KIT12864AA804 will overclock as far as our review sample, priced at just £82.24, we definitely think its worth taking a chance.

• PSUs - 14th July 2008
• Multi-GPU graphics - 20th June 2008
• CPU water cooling - 17th June 2008
• Hard disks - 20th March 2008
• Audio hardware - 29th February 2008
• Graphics cards - 24th January 2008
• CPUs - 21st December 2007

• Cooler Master Cosmos S - Cases
• Lian Li PC-P60 Armorsuit - Cases
• Asus Rampage Formula - Motherboards
• Gigabyte GV-NX96T512H-B - Graphics cards
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 - Processors
• Akasa Vortexx Neo - Other cooling hardware
• Zerotherm Hurricane HC92-Cu 8800 - Other cooling hardware