Crucial has been around for a long time. They're very well-known for making rock solid, dependable RAM. Not too long ago, however, Crucial decided that they wanted a piece of the performance memory market. Thus was born the Ballistix line of performance memory.
Today, we'll be looking at a pair of Crucial's Ballistix Tracer PC4000 DDR 512MB DIMMs. Unlike companies such as Corsair, Kingston, OCZ, and others, Crucial does not have a matched pair memory 'kit'. Crucial sells their memory DIMMs individually. Will this keep the Ballistix Tracer memory from performing well in a dual channel setup? Let's find out!
Before we get started, I would like to thank Jon and Sam at Crucial for providing the Ballistix Tracers samples used in this review.
Let's see what the FedEx man brought
One of the good things about reviewing hardware is coming home from my day job and finding packages of hardware waiting for me. It's kind of like having a birthday many times a year. It's not all fun and games, but a lot of it is. :-)
The two DIMMs arrived individually boxed in the traditional Crucial fashion. It's what was inside the boxes that had me almost giddy in anticipation.
Crucial doesn't usually add any extras to their memory packaging, so the Ballistix stickers were a nice surprise. The other non-memory item in the box was an installation instruction sheet in six languages. I don't recall receiving installation instructions with any other memory before, so this, too was a pleasant surprise. The instructions are written clearly enough that anyone with a modicum of mechanical ability should have no trouble getting their new memory installed correctly.
Inside the anti-static bags were two pretty slick-looking DIMMs. The black heat spreaders do a good job of showing off the Ballistix logo, don't you think? I also like the fact that Crucial made the batch and part numbers very easy to find by placing it in large type right on the DIMMs. The batch and part numbers are also located on each of the anti-static bags and on the boxes, so there is no excuse for not being able to find them, should you need to.
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