Verdict: Good for overclockers
Ballistix is the new range of enthusiast RAM from Crucial so this memory is very similar to the Corsair DDR2, except for the gold-coloured heatspreaders, which may not be to everyone's taste.
These modules are rated at 667MHz, the same as the Corsair, but our test motherboard, an Abit AA8 DuraMAX couldn't push the memory any further than 640MHz. So if we can't make the modules reach 667MHz with a multiplier-unlocked CPU, what chance do you guys have?
DDR2 currently offers very little for the enthusiast compared with DDR. DDR2 has higher latencies, costs more and makes little difference to speed in anything other than games.
Where we do see it helping, though, is in the task of overclocking. Finding memory that will keep up with overclocked CPUs has always been a tricky and expensive task, but shouldn't be quite as much of a problem with DDR2.
The overclock from 533MHz (200MHz FSB) to 667MHz (250MHz FSB) seems like a lot for the memory to do. But as DDR2 runs at half the core frequency of DDR, the 133MHz effective overclock is in reality only 33MHz.
Unsurprisingly, the Crucial's performance is essentially the same as that of the Corsair, as they have equivalent speed and latency timings. And as the modules are more or less the same price, there really isn't a huge amount to separate the two.
