by Rob Williams on July 11, 2005 in Miscellaneous
In the world of fast performance memory, Crucial sometimes get’s overlooked. We are taking a look at their PC4000 Ballistix, which we hope will prove overclocker friendly, as were the PC3200’s. Let’s check them out!
In the review, we will use the PC3200 modules as comparison. We will run both sets at the same speeds while benchmarking, then will benchmark the PC4000 itself when the PC3200 can’t reach certain speeds. Here is the system stock specs:
Processor
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AMD 64 3200+ S939 Venice @ 2.00GHz
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Motherboard
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Power Supply
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Memory
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512MB * 2 Crucial Ballistix PC4000 (2.5-4-4-10)
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Hard Disks
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Sound Card
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AC’97 7.1 Built-In
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Video Card
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BFG 6800 GT OC 256MB Beta 80.40 Drivers
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Etcetera
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Windows XP Professional with SP2
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While the PC3200 modules have stock 2-2-2-6 timings, the PC4000 have been bumped up to 3-4-4-8. For this price range, these timings are on par with other performance modules out there. As we can see in the pictures, Crucial uses black PCB and gold heat spreaders.
Before we get into some benchmarking, I have a few points to mention. As already mentioned in the PC3200 review, the DFI Ultra-D is a fussy motherboard when it comes to memory modules. Way too much tweaking had to be done to get rid of the errors in MemTest with the PC3200 modules, and I was unable to completely rid errors with this set.
Even with the errors in MemTest, which didn’t amount to many anyway; All the settings I benchmarked with proved completely stable during use. If you own a DFI LanParty Ultra-D motherboard and use Ballistix memory, please e-mail me and let me know if you have experienced any weird problems, or errors in MemTest. You can also post about it in the related review thread.
All that being said, here is a quick chart of all the tested configurations with the PC4000:
2-2-2-6 @ 2.5v – 200MHz (DDR400)
1.5-2-2-6 @ 2.5v – 200MHz (DDR400)
2-2-2-6 @ 2.8v – 218MHz (DDR436)
1.5-2-2-6 @ 2.8v – 218MHz (DDR436)
3-4-4-8 @ 2.8v – 250MHz (DDR500) (Stock)
2.5-3-3-6 @ 2.8v – 270MHz (DDR540)
3-3-3-8 @ 3.0v – 300MHz (DDR600)
Let’s get right into the benchmarking.