New Version Ballistix PC2-8500 Review

[Richie P]

Hey guys, thought you might be interested in reading a review of the new revision of Crucial Ballistix. They're single sided modules, so no more D9GMH or anything...

Have a read and let me know what you think

http://www.digitalreport.net/content/view/79/1/

That being said, I'm nit-picking. In the Ballistix PC2-8500 2GB kit, Crucial have a very well presented product with a definite focus on the computer enthusiast. With no compatibility issues, and a kit willing to overclock well past its guarateed speed at the suggested voltage, there's nothing not to like about this product.

[RAMMAN]

this new revision is clearly inferior to d9gmh/gkx.

[eric66]

it isn't gmh ok so what it is ?

[RAMMAN]

it isn't gmh ok so what it is ?

d9hnl

[Richie P]

d9hnl

I doubt that...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=133235

Proabably D9GCT or new equivalent as i mentioned in the review. Ok it's not D9GMH but it's not bad, and a very good price.

[RAMMAN]

I doubt that...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=133235

Proabably D9GCT or something as i mentioned in the review. Ok it's not D9GMH but it's not bad, and a very good price.

either its higher binned d9hnl or im wrong on this occasion.
either way its inferior to what its replacing(d9gkx)so i dont like it one bit

[Richie P]

either its higher binned d9hnl or im wrong on this occasion.
either way its inferior to what its replacing(d9gkx)so i dont like it one bit

That may be the case, and you'd go with the previous version if you have a choice....but i'd challenge you to find a new revision of any kit nowadays that has better IC's than a previous one? DDR2 is getting faded out...so manufacturers focus is more on profit.

It's less than £60 here, and for that price it's a bargain. Ok it's not going to set any world records or take XS by storm, but it's a nice kit to bear in mind as a recommendation to someone looking for cheap overclockable DDR2 or for any new custom builds you have to do for other people.

[RAMMAN]

d9gmh--->d9gkx? not necessarily an improvement but was slightly better in some aspects and slightly worse in others.

[bf2142lol]

this new revision is clearly inferior to d9gmh/gkx.

Going by the results this is apparent but then again, he may of just had a bad batch? I'll wait for more reviews and independent results before I make up my mind. It might be worth grabbing some of this stuff before ddr3 takes over.

[lowfat]

Hmm, I wondered why my sticks were so AWFUL compared to the Crucial PC2-8000 that I use to have. This stuff scales like dog poopoo.

[irev210]

aw.

what a bummer. No more classic D9DCT/GMH/GKX IC

Moved onto their newer 78nm IC


A bigger question is how does this scale with voltage?


You guys arent looking at this on the positive side though -- GOOD 4GB ddr2 ballistix kits!

[Gogeta]

You guys arent looking at this on the positive side though -- GOOD 4GB ddr2 ballistix kits!

Bring them on. Thanks for the review, Richie.

[KTE]

Thanks for the review Rich!

So it's rated for the same timings but at 2.0V EPP instead of 2.2V as used to be... but at the same time it oc's worse at C3, C4 and C5 @ 2.2V. I mean I've not properly tested mine but they do 800 3-2-2-1 2-25-4/5-8-8-3-8-2 at 2.18V real fully benchable but those couldn't get close.

How were the loaded temps on them at stock compared to GKX/GMH?

I like the 6hr P95 testing you included though, worth it to show everyday use scenarios.

One thing: The image shows stock bootup at tRFC 52, is this really what they're rated for?

My GMH 2 revs back were rated at 1066 42 tRFC @ 2.2V and it required most volts to drop below 35 past 1100. I got a friend to send some older rev over to UK and it cost me 70+25 dollars so they still worked out cheaper than these.

[zsamz_]

d9gct it pure dog poo poo as lowfat said
wont even scale up past 1000mhz with 2.6v for me

[Don_Dan]

Thanks for the review Richie!

So they changed the chips from the old 16FD3 to the new 8FE5, I already expected that when someone was complaining about not getting good overclocks with his Ballistix 8500 in the respective thread.

I also think these are D9HNL or similar, I disagree with you on that, because I think GCT was a member of the GMH/GKX/GKW etc family.
Any chance you will take the heatspreaders off your kit to check?

[eva2000]

thanks for the review and heads up Richie!

[RPGWiZaRD]

Not really impressive overclocking results (other than CL5 result was decent) but if they're cheap then sure why not. This Team Xtreem DDR2-667 D9GMH kit I have for example is good up to DDR2-1020 @ 4-4-4-8 using 2.2v with TREF 25 and the rest subtimings 10-10-5-8-5 for example. Doesn't the old Ballistix often clock to around DDR2-1200 speeds on 2.2v?

[Veritas.no]

Thanks for the review Richie!

So they changed the chips from the old 16FD3 to the new 8FE5, I already expected that when someone was complaining about not getting good overclocks with his Ballistix 8500 in the respective thread.

Yeah, me :p

Think I'll need to get my hands on some older modules after seeing that test.

[David_L6]

I hope these are more reliable than the old PC-2 8500 Ballistix.... I've had 4 one gig sticks of that die (and 2 one gig sticks of the Ballistix PC-2 6400) in the last couple of months.

[cantankerous]

Man, this really has me worried about my sticks dying and as a replacement I get sent one of these. I would be really upset to have 4 sticks now with 1 or 2 of those 4 being replaced with these. It would bring my current overclock down to its knees and there would be nothing I could do about it.

Actually, I have the Tracers. Will these new chips be used in the Tracer line as well or only the regular Ballistix? I remember hearing around Christmas that newer Tracers were shipping with only one row of led instead of two. Could this be because they too are using these new single sided IC's?

I am curious as to how low the TRFC can go as well. I am currently running mine at 28 with 100% stability. That is half of what these new sticks are suppose to be doing.

[cadaveca]

I beleive these are D9HCD

[Don_Dan]

I beleive these are D9HCD

How could they be D9HCD? That's a 512MBit chip if I'm not mistaken, you would still need 16 chips for 1GB -> double sided, and not single sided like these are.

[eric66]

ok one question which one is better gkx or gmh i always thought that gkx is superior one am i right ?

[Veritas.no]

Any hints to how I can get the heatspreader of without destroying it? I can have a look if anyone comes with a hint Seems glued :o

[Don_Dan]

ok one question which one is better gkx or gmh i always thought that gkx is superior one am i right ?

The manufacturer of the chips ( Micron ) and the RAM manufacturers like Corsair do separate binning of the ICs. GKX is the higher bin from Micron, but you may find GMH that performs as good or even better. And the RAM manufacturers choose the chips that are better suited for a given task, like low frequency + tight timings or high frequency + loose timings, GMH may perform better than GKX in some of the tasks. Recently, most of the chips marked as GMH performed better than GKX,which were rarely found ( at least I don't know of it), but they performed very good, often better than previous GKX, as Micron has refined it's process.
So it mostly depends on the binning process of the RAM manufacturer.
I hope I could make it a bit clearer for you, but there are some people here on XS far more knowledgeable than me about the different characteristics of GKX and GMH.