Crucial

[lxskllr]

I have 4 sticks of Crucial ram(2*1gb Tracers, and 2*1gb Ballistix) that need to be RMAd. I haven't done it as of yet because it's hardly worth the postage to send them in when I'll just get Crucial garbage back. I'm finished with them forever as far as buying ram, but have they gotten any better recently where I could expect to get working ram back from a RMA?

 

[daniel1113]

I didn't realize Crucial ever went bad. I've been using them for years without any problems, but more importantly, I haven't heard of any large scale Crucial problems. The few times I've received bad RAM it took about 2 seconds to request an RMA and drop them in the mail.

I don't even know why people post questions like this. Why wouldn't you RMA bad RAM? You're not going to be any worse off than you are now, and chances are, it will fix the problem completely. Sigh.

 

[tommo123]

they went bad for ballistix especially in the ddr days. 2 different sets died. was VERY common back during my AMD X2 days (s939). haven't used them since. support was good, no hassle getting them replaced but there were reports of some being being given the runaround.

i RMAd the last batch and sold em on (which is how i got them btw) and bought different RAM. that would be my advice.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
I'm finished with them forever as far as buying ram, but have they gotten any better recently where I could expect to get working ram back from a RMA?

Even if you're "finished with them forever", you should RMA your memory.
You don't have to actually use the memeory you get returned, simply sell it "as is" NIB.
Why punish yourself even more... at least get some $$ out of the RAM. :laugh:

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I wouldn't discount the advice of others here, however-- this is my own experience.

I jumped on the Crucial bandwagon in summer, 2007, when some of our gurus here gave them a favorable eye, or at least when there were many enthusiasts who thought highly of them. In fact, Anandtech published an article -- probably within the previous 12-month period -- showing the flexibility of Ballistix modules for tight latencies and over-clocking. They may even have compared DDR2-667 with DDR2-800 choices.

Like others who will tell you, I set the voltage on a pair of DDR2-1000 Ballistix to just below the warranty maximum. And eventually, they went south after a few months. I picked up two kits of rebadged DDR2-800 Tracers [Tracers and Ballistix are essentially the same but for the LED lights] -- getting them on sale. With those latter, I ran them at 0.075V below the warranty maximum and over-clocked them modestly within a range between 835 and 875 Mhz. Those, too, blinked out after exactly one year.

I recently replaced the remaining 2GB kit with a 4GB kit of G.SKILL DDR2-1000's. And that's another story with a mixed ending, because I can't get the latter to run at DDR=835 Mhz and minimum warranty voltage at latencies tighter than the spec.

It's my opinion that Crucial/Micron had spec'd their modules 0.1V higher than they should have as a matter of business and engineering prudence, or conversely -- they didn't test them adequately. You will notice that more recent issues of 4GB Crucial kits are now spec'd to run at a 2.0V maximum -- instead of 2.1V.

Now -- sorry about the length of this post -- let me end it with observations about RMA'ing with Crucial.

There is no guarantee that you will get modules as good as the ones with which you started. I only suspect this scenario. They had so many RMA's on these suckers that they began to test the returned modules -- binning the "good" ones to re-package in kits and send back as replacements in their RMA process.

With my Ballistix DDR2-1000 sticks, they returned a set which "met the spec" alright, but you couldn't run them at 1T command-rate as all the others would run new out of the box. When I contacted them, they said "the modules weren't spec'd to run at 1T" -- that doing so would void the warranty. That may be true. But why, when the original three kits would run at 1T (even though I heeded their advice and set them later to 2T) -- would a replacement kit of the same DDR2-1000 modules be unable to run initially at 1T under any reasonable settings or slightly higher voltage than they ran at 2T and the same latency settings?

My conclusion: I didn't get "brand-new" replacement modules when I RMA'd.

You decide whether it's worth your trouble . . . .

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: lxskllr
I'm finished with them forever as far as buying ram, but have they gotten any better recently where I could expect to get working ram back from a RMA?

Even if you're "finished with them forever", you should RMA your memory.
You don't have to actually use the memeory you get returned, simply sell it "as is" NIB.
Why punish yourself even more... at least get some $$ out of the RAM. :laugh:

You're probably right. My issue is that 1gb modules are pretty cheap, and the cost of shipping is a significant portion of their total value. I don't have any complaints with their CS. I've already RMAd a set of Ballistix, and everything went very smoothly. I'll probably send them in with the cheapest shipping possible, no insurance. If they get lost it isn't like I'm out anything :^D

 

[RebateMonger]

STANDARD Crucial/Micron memory continues to have a strong reputation for reliability. I've never seen a dead Crucial module.

I was shocked when Crucial got into the overclocked memory business a few years ago. At the time, I wondered why Crucial would do such a thing and risk their long-term reputation for, relatively speaking, a very small market.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
STANDARD Crucial/Micron memory continues to have a strong reputation for reliability. I've never seen a dead Crucial module.

I was shocked when Crucial got into the overclocked memory business a few years ago. At the time, I wondered why Crucial would do such a thing and risk their long-term reputation for, relatively speaking, a very small market.

I don't know man. All 3 sets of mine died, and they spent their lives underclocked, and undervolted.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
I don't know man. All 3 sets of mine died, and they spent their lives underclocked, and undervolted.

I don't know what was special about the "high-performance" modules that Crucial was selling, but it's obvious that there was a serious problem with the design.

 

[zagood]

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
With my Ballistix DDR2-1000 sticks, they returned a set which "met the spec" alright, but you couldn't run them at 1T command-rate as all the others would run new out of the box. When I contacted them, they said "the modules weren't spec'd to run at 1T" -- that doing so would void the warranty. That may be true. But why, when the original three kits would run at 1T (even though I heeded their advice and set them later to 2T) -- would a replacement kit of the same DDR2-1000 modules be unable to run initially at 1T under any reasonable settings or slightly higher voltage than they ran at 2T and the same latency settings?

IIRC - The first few runs of Ballistix used the Micron D9 ICs. Later modules used different ICs.

-z

 

[18 Is Number 1]

Originally posted by: zagood

IIRC - The first few runs of Ballistix used the Micron D9 ICs. Later modules used different ICs.

-z

Actually, the bad RAM was after the D9s. When they started using high density double sided sticks, reliability went down the tubes. They made some changes at the beginning of 2009 (including scaling recommended voltage back to 2.0v). Since then, their reliability has improved. I can't say if they're back to their previous quality though.