The first review of Ballistix 2x2gb DDR2 800

[aultman07]

First of all, here's my system specs: Q6600, XFX 680i LT, and of course the Crucial Ballistix 2x2gb. Also, I would show some screenshots, but I don't know how. Yall will just have to trust me.

The ram is rated for 4-4-4-12 at 2.2v, which is what I ran it at to start off, actually at 2.1v. Everything was fine.

Then, I overclocked the cpu to 3.0 using "linked" and "synched", so the ram was at 667mhz, still with the stock timings and 2.1v. At first, I kept on getting a blue screen that said "hardware malfunction". But then I raised the CPU FSB to 1.4v and the NForce SPP to 1.4v. Everything was fine from then on. Prime95 stable (blend test) for 5 hours. CPU voltage at 1.28 (v-core at 1.25)

Then, I tightened the timings to 3-3-3-10 and upped the voltage to 2.2v and everything was fine. Same CPU voltages as the previous test.

Now this is where the fun starts. I lowered the CPU back down to stock with 1.24v (v-core 1.21v) and the CPU FSB and the NForce SPP both at 1.4v. Those voltages are what I used for the next 5 tests.

Test 1: 900mhz at 4-4-4-12 and 2.2v. Booted up fine, no problems. Due to time constraints, I didn't do any tests (I had a baseball game today).

Test 2: 950mhz at 4-4-4-12 and 2.2v. It wouldn't get past boot.

Test 3: 950mhz at 4-4-4-12 and 2.3v. It would hang up on post.

Test 4: 950mhz at 5-5-5-12 and 2.2v. Booted right up. Only had time for a 1 hour test of Prime95 (blend) and there were no errors.

Test 5: 1050mhz at 5-5-5-12 and 2.2v. Yeah, I skipped 1000mhz (according to Everest Ultimate, it'll run 1000mhz at these timings and voltages just fine). Ok, it worked perfect again. This time, I ran Prime95 for 6 hours and 15 minutes while I was playin ball, and again there were no errors.

Tonight, I will see how far I can push this ram on stock cpu, then I will overclock them both and see what I get. Look for another test review sometime tomorrow. And let me know what yall think...suggestions/comments?

 

[Big Lar]

Maybe try 950 @ 5.4.4.12, may just work out for you Nice thread.

Larry

 

[TC91]

hey aultman, i have the same board, have you tried a higher cpu overclock (dont have to if you dont want to, i dont want you to fry anything in the case you push too far) but im curious about how far fsb-wise the board will go with a q6600 using the 9x or 8x multiplier; i might upgrade to one in the near future (the board doesnt work with any of the 45nm quads).

 

[n7]

Very nice.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

for each of those ram speeds. u need to test in windows to see if it is stable. i suggest 24 hours of P95 v25.6 BLEND. i've seen systems fail this test after 20 hours or so...

 

[n7]

FWIW, HCI Memtest (set as many instances as you have CPU cores, & to use all free RAM) will find errors very quickly.

I honestly cannot recommend P95 for stressing large amounts of memory, as i've seen P95 run flawlessly for 8+ hours w/o an error, & then run HCI Memtest & get errors in 15 minutes.

Even when running custom runs of P95 set to stress all RAM, it still is basically useless compared to Memtest86+, & especially HCI Memtest.

 

[aultman07]

Ok, thank you for yalls comments. I will definitely do those other tests. I have the memtest86, so I'll prolly do it first.

Now, for the other tests. But first of all, I noticed that sometimes my actual memory clock speed would be different from what I set it at. For example, in test 5 of my previous post, I listed the memory at 1050mhz, but it was really at 1000mhz. Weird, I know.

I haven't gotten a chance to stress test any of these yet, but I'll do one tonight.

Test 6: 1066mhz at 5-5-5-12 and 2.2v. Booted right up.

Test 7: CPU at 3.15ghz at 1.34v, FSB 1.4v, NForce SPP 1.4v. RAM at 1100mhz with 5-5-5-12 and 2.2v. Ok, it stopped at post. I don't think the ram goes any higher than 1066mhz (533mhz for each module).

Test 8: CPU at 3.2ghz with 1.34v, FSB 1.4v, NForce SPP 1.4v. RAM at 1066mhz with 5-5-5-12 and 2.2v. Booted right up, but got an error in Prime95 pretty quickly.

I will continue to play around with this tonight, and when I find something I like, I will run all those tests. Tomorrow will be a good testing day, cuz I got another game.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

what u mean by "no problems" doesn't mean much since you've only gotten it to boot. u NEED either show or say something credible such as they booted up and was P95 Blend stable for 24 hours etc

i've seen the opposite but that can be due to other variables such as system stability. HCI Memtest seems to test ONLY the memory for errors etc, not if its current speed is stable or not.
i DO run it for stability testing but only for like 30 mins or 200-300% coverage and recently i've never seen any errors on my current system, but i also run 12-24 hour runs of P95 Blend and that gives me errors more often than HCI

 

[aultman07]

Sorry for the confusion, but when I say "no problems" I just mean I got it to boot up. I'll go back and edit my previous posts. So be sure to reread them if yall need to. Also, I ran Prime95 on the Test 8 setup, so be sure to look at the new results from it (or I can just tell yall that it produced errors really quickly).

Test 9: CPU at 3.2ghz with "auto" voltage settings (Vcore shows 1.41v in SpeedFan). RAM at 1066mhz with 5-5-5-12 and 2.2v. This setup went through 3 passes of Memtest86 test 5 with no errors (should have done atleast 5 passes, but I was pressed for time). Then, I did an overnight test of HCI Memtest (4 instances running simultaneously) with no errors. Then, I ran Prime95 blend test and got a fatal error on Worker Thread 3 after 6 hours and 18 minutes. I really thought this setup would work, but obviously it didn't. BTW, temps for the CPU are as follows:
CPU idle: 38C load: 65C
Core 0: 38C and 65C
Core 1: 38C and 65C
Core 2: 35C and 60C
Core 3: 36C and 60C

Those temps are with stock cooling.

So, any suggestions on what settings to test next?

 

[LOUISSSSS]

not really familiar with the 680i mb but u should not be leaving any voltages on auto. set your vcore to about 1.35 and try that for 3.2ghz. set your DDR voltage to +0.35. i have my MCH @ +0.10 but u can try +0.05 and move your FSB voltage up 1 or 2 notches up from the "default setting"