Crucial Ballistix PC4000 DDR Memory (2x 256 MB)

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Brian Kristensen
Kurtis
Crucial
Aug. 12, 2004

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Test Setup

The memory was tested in an ABIT IC7-MAX3, which utilizes Intel's 875P chipset. The CPU used was a Pentium 4 2.4c. I found this motherboard to be an excellent overclocker which has allowed me to easily bring a 2.4c to 3.0 GHz. Two 256 MB sticks of Crucial Ballistix PC4000 were tested in dual channel against two 256 MB sticks of Corsair PC4000. The FSB : RAM was at a 1:1 ratio during testing. The Crucial memory used stock timings of 2.5-4-4-8 while the Corsair memory used stock timings of 3-4-4-8.

Each benchmark is run three times and the results of each test are averaged together. This helps to reduce most random variations between the tests and should provide a better representation of the performance difference between the different modules and setups.

Test System

Pentium 4 2.4c
ABIT IC7-MAX3
ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256 MB
160 GB SATA Seagate Barracuda (8 MB cache)
LiteOn 16X DVD-ROM
Soyo Raptor 400W Power Supply
Windows XP Professional (all the latest updates except Service Pack 2 installed)

Overclocking

I installed the two 256 MB modules in both memory channels and set the timings to 2.5-4-4-8 and VDIMM to 2.8 volts. The CPU requires at most 1.6 volts to reach 3 GHz and was set as so. The FSB (front side bus) to RAM ratio was set to 1:1 and the memory clock to 250 MHz. I was only able to push the memory 5 MHz past its rated 250 MHz for a maximum overclock of 255 MHz (DDR510). Looping SiSoft Sandra's Burn-In wizard confirmed that this was the highest stable overclock. Anything higher and the Burn-In wizard would fail.

In an attempt to verify the overclock, I installed the memory in a DFI LanParty NForce II Ultra equipped with an AMD Athlon 1700+ capable of 2.4 GHz. I set the CPU's multiplier to 5 (default is 11x133) and pushed the memory to 255 MHz. The computer booted into Windows and was stable. However, when pushed to 256 MHz, the computer would not boot.

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Page 2 of 5

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Page 1: Introduction & A Closer Look
Page 2: Test Setup / Overclocking
Page 3: SiSoft Sandra 04 / PCMark04
Page 4: ScienceMark 2 / Super Pi
Page 5: Conclusion

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