Tuesday, February 3, 2015

The Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer DDR3-1600 Memory






  • Made in USA
  • Brand:  Ballistix 
  • Form Factor:  UDIMM 
  • Capacity:  8GB Kit (4GBx2) 
  • Warranty:  Limited Lifetime 
  • Specs:  DDR3 PC3-12800 • 8-8-8-24 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1600 • 1.5V • 512Meg x 64 • 
  • Series:  Ballistix Tactical
  • XMP 1.3 Support
  • Dual colour LEDs with custom M.O.D software control support
  • Onboard monitoring sensors








Besides the cool looking hardware, do check out this nifty freebie utility from Crucial too!


Ballistix Memory Overview Display (M.O.D.) Utility






The Ballistix M.O.D. utility is a customized software application designed to support Crucial Ballistix Elite, Ballistix Tactical Tracer, Ballistix Finned, and Ballistix Smart Tracer modules.

Lights on
The Ballistix Tactical Tracer is all about customisation. These modules are available in either orange/blue and red/green colour combinations. By utilizing our custom programmed Ballistix Memory Overview Display (M.O.D.) utility, you can manipulate the dual-colour LEDS in real time and switch between colour options. In addition, select from four different LED patterns, adjust brightness, or turn the LEDs on/off.

Utility work
The Crucial Ballistix M.O.D. utility allows you to view uptime, voltages, and set alarms for temperatures, making it one of the most customisable, responsive modules you’llfind. In addition to the LED light controls, this tool also lets you enjoy real-time temperature monitoring, so you can keep tabs on your high-performance memory.








PS: Interestingly, someone did their own Tracer control software which supports SPD accessing via LGA-2011 SMBus Controller too
BLT Controller Utility





Packaging

Tamper proof clear plastic blister pack as shown. Meanwhile note the Singapore office address on the back of the paper insert for locally sourced stock.

Product of USA as stated on the label sticker.









The LEDs are clearly seen in the last photo and for this particular kit, the LEDs are red-green as evident on the plastic packaging and in the part number ending in RG.


OK, here is another Tracer sample kit, can you guess what colour LEDs it has?

Hint: look at the colour boxes printed on the plastic housing and the ending 2 letters of the part numbers.




Yes, this is the Orange Blue Tracer kit with part numbers ending in OB.





Test Setup


★ Asus Z87-A | i7-4790K@4.6GHz | Crucial DDR3-1600@2133 Tracer RG  8GB Kit | Crucial M550 SSD | Corsair H55 AIO | Corsair RM850 PSU ★


The factory stock voltage is 1.50V while most enthusiast DDR3 kits are rated at 1.65V.

Sticking to a really safe low voltage of just 1.55V memory, I started pushing the clocks from the stock DDR3-1600 8-8-8 2T and easily achieved DDR3-2133 9-11-9 1T as seen below

DDR3-1600 8-8-8 2T  vs DDR3-2133 9-11-9 1T ie. higher frequency with relatively tight timings

The more adventurous can shoot for even higher speeds or tighter timings at higher voltages as this kit seems to scale well in that aspect.

* With more time, effort and voltages invested, one can expect to do better but as usual, overclocking is a delicate balance of everything including luck so YMMV.







Lights, Camera, Action!

With so many web videos already around, showcasing the bling bling of these Tracers and since everyone's got their own fave colour combination/sequence/timing, for this sharing - these sticks were left at their factory default LED settings.

Let's focus more on the bin rather than just the bling ie. how well they run (and overclock)...







Roll...


What you see on your PC screen....






And what you actually see on your rig...






UEFI SPD XMP 1.3






CPU-Z & hwinfo64

Note the onboard temperature monitoring of these Tracers as supported by hwinfo64





Mem TweakIt





HyperPi 32M





HCI MemTest Windows

Ah, 1600@2133 passed the acid test easily - no problemo, very nice!





Market Price Compare@Newegg 

With their togglable dual colour LEDs, these Crucial Tracers are actually rather unique in their aesthetic value so it can't be simply compared to any other DDR3-1600 kits on the market.

Newegg (RG is really popular... out of stock at time of checking!)




Initial Impressions

  • Unique
  • Affordable
  • Onboard sensor monitoring with good software support
  • Good bling - user customisable 
  • Good bin - nice overclockling

Yes, these DDR3 Tracers are not new to the world but over time, Crucial has reportedly improved their overclockability and LGA2011 compatibility as compared to the earlier batches.

Another superb job done with these Tracers by Team Crucial cos this is great stuff, definitely recommended!

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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB DDR4-2400 Quad Channel Kit


( A brand of Micron Technology)





  • Made in USA
  • Competitively priced (among the lowest in the market)
  • Factory matched quad channel kit (4 x 4 GB sticks)
  • Low profile heatspreaders (no clearance issues)
  • Easy to match attractive colours - silver gray/chrome aluminium plates on matte black PCB
  • Limited lifetime warranty worldwide (except Germany and France - 10 years from DOP)
  • Good RAM and good overclocking?

As for the last bullet point, let's find out...




Packaging

Tamper proof clear plastic blister pack as shown. Meanwhile note the Singapore office address on the back of the paper insert for locally sourced stock.










Unboxed

Proudly Made in America product as proclaimed on the product label, woah!







Test Setup


★ Asus X99-A | i7-5820K | Crucial DDR4-2400 16GB Kit | Intel 730 480GB SSD | NiCu HK 3.0-GTX360 | AMD HD7850 | Corsair RM850 PSU ★

The factory stock voltage is 1.20V while most enthusiast DDR4 kits are rated at 1.35V. 

Sticking to an arguably safe middling voltage of just 1.30V memory, I started pushing the clocks from the stock DDR4-2400 16-16-16 2T and soon, easily achieved DDR4-2666 14-14-14 1T as seen below

DDR4-2400 16-16-16 2T vs DDR4-2666 14-14-14 1T ie. higher frequency with yet tighter timings .

The more adventurous can shoot for even higher speeds or tighter timings at higher voltages as this kit has been reported to scale well in that aspect.



Now the test rig looks nicely colour matched for a Gotham Gothic theme party - Crucial Ballistix Sport kit with the black Asus X99-A mobo and sleeved Corsair RM850 cables, the turqoise HIS Radeon is kinda out of place though.




* With more time, effort and voltages invested, one can expect to do better as results close to DDR4-3000 have been reported in some batches eg.
2935MHz - pcgameware.co.uk (actual voltage, stress testing levels used not mentioned)

As usual, overclocking is a delicate balance of everything including luck so YMMV.




UEFI Identification


SPD Information




XMP Default Setting





CPU-Z






AIDA64






HyperPi 32M




Mem TweakIt





HCI MemTest Windows

About as good as it gets... if RAM tests have the equivalent of Super Grinder (relentless punishing level well known to Defence Grid fans), this is probably it. It's really time intensive, bogs down the whole test rig to a crawl but nonetheless, a nice stress workout in ensuring overclock stability. Go for a few full rounds (over a few hours) if you have the patience for it.

Pity too few RAM reviews showcase this tough stress test though.





Real Life Stability Testing



xvid4PSP






Ripbot264






Defense Grid 2

What followed was several hours of gaming - yup, went back  to honing my alien destroying skills in Defense Grid 2 - Super Grinder mode with its prolonged intense 100 waves of marauding hordes to a new peak and everything ran rock stable.

These 2 are probably among the toughest prolonged levels at Super Grinder.






Stability In The Longer Run

After 3 weeks running non-stop overclocked, this is the Event Viewer error report - a clean slate, no WHEA errors!




PS: Seasoned Asus mobo users would know that the usual Kernel PnP ID219 warning is a well known harmless side effect of Windows & the Asus Probe II AMDA00 Interface driver from time immemorial. Detailed explanation here... click!




Market Price Compare@Newegg 

A search shows that the Crucial Sport is among the most affordable kits around though occasional spot offers drop the street prices even lower.


Link





Other Web Reviews

Mouse click on the links to read the actual articles






















Initial Impressions

Having spent some time with this pretty Crucial kit, I am thrilled to find the all round glowing reviews now on the web are indeed accurate in saying that this is a most cost effective stable product which is also easily overclockable.

This kit may be rated at only DDR4-2400 speeds which coincidentally is Crucial current fastest rated DDR4 memory. It does seem though that Crucial has been conscientiously modest and has come up with RAM which is actually quite capable of easily running above its factory specs as shown by this sample.

Best part - we only get to pay the possibly market lowest DDR4-2400 prices for it.

Good stuff, definitely recommended.




Recommended Reading

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