Verdict: Odd latency timings, sluggish performance, decent price

Crucial's high-end Ballistix range of memory sports a wide variety of speeds and latency timings, and the price difference between the different kits is equally wide. For example, the BL2KIT12864AA663 is a considerable £77 cheaper than the BL2KIT12864AA1005 (see p87).

As always, Crucial seems determined not to let you know what its products are but, having deciphered the string of gibberish that is this kit's name, we can tell you that the BL2KIT12864AA663 is a 2GB kit of PC2-5300 DDR2, which means that it's guaranteed to run at 667MHz. The latency timings start off well (3 - 3 - 3), but its active-to-precharge delay is a sluggish 12, which limits performance. The kit needs 2.2V to operate, which is quite a lot of voltage for PC2-5300 RAM.

As expected, despite having what appears to be low latency timings, the BL2KIT12864AA663 didn't perform well in our Core 2 or Athlon 64 test systems, due to its longer active-to-precharge delay. However, we were able to overclock the BL2KIT12864AA663 to 800MHz by increasing its voltage to 2.45V. It can be overclocked up to 1.1GHz if you're prepared to drop the latency timings to 6 - 6 - 6 - 18 - an impressive achievement for PC2-5300 RAM.

While the BL2KIT12864AA663 is aggressively priced, it isn't the best performer, nor is it the best overclocker.

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