Going into this review, I didn't quite know what to expect from Crucial's kit. While the hype was going on and I had good experiences with micron based ram in the past (namely a psychotic little stick of DDR266 that rattled up to 380MHz with stock timings and voltages), I still tried to keep my hopes and expectations under control. While I had no expectation of the modules to come out as a failure, I didn't want to lose my ability to be objective because of ridiculous standards. While the modules began to bring my spirits up as they booted flawlessly below their rated timings - at a nice 2-2-2-8, they hadn't quite raised my eyebrows yet. After all, a lot of ram these days can push 2-2-2-X timings, a more and more common trend since the advent of the BH5 memory and its subsequent era.
What really caught my attention was the fact that these modules kept this 2-2-2-8 timing throughout our Overclocking procedures, eventually arriving at 225MHz - pretty impressive for modules bearing ratings of mostly 3 if you ask me. While this was a bit of a let down in some respects - considering that some individuals around the web have been reporting speeds and latencies mimicking those of Mushkin's Redline and OCZ's VX series (that's right, some modules are capable of DDR500 at 2-2-2-8), I decided not to let this minor fact get me down. As the overclocking continued, my excitement continued to build, and considering that these modules were able to reach the PC4400 spec, I was left satisfied, and a little bit impressed to boot. While it's not as stellar as some of the other "performance" ram out there in the Overclocking department, Crucial's Ballistix hold their own incredibly well considering the conditions that were available. I'm almost certain that on a better motherboard, perhaps using OCZ's DDR booster, these modules are more than capable of riding high with the fastest bits of kit out there today. Thus, I'd have to recommend Crucial's Ballistix to all of you out there looking for some ram to overclock your system to sky high levels with, or something stable and fast to live your every day with. Highly recommended, keep up the good work guys!
