Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1866 8GB Kit - Specifications and Features

Specifications & Features:

Crucial didn't send a lot of info about the Ballistix Elite series memory.  If you look at the packaging above you will see there isn't much labeling or so much as a description on it.  In fact, the samples I received were supposed to be a matched set, but they were not.  After a little research I figured out by the part number that they were 2 individual memory modules in kit packaging.  This shouldn't matter for my testing purposes.  The specifications and features below were taken from the Crucial website.

Editors Note: Crucial pairs up their memory in kits that match performance and overall specification so there should be no compatibility issues.

Test Setup:

Below you will find the specification of my test rig for this review.  I did not do a lot of playing around with RAM settings at this point and we ran the memory at its rated speed.  I installed the memory modules as most users would and ran our benchmarks.  This would give me a good baseline of what to expect.  Then, I simply went into the system bios and changed the DRAM configuration from the default (auto) to the XMP profile.  The Corsair Vengeance could only support running the RAM in the 1.2 XMP profile while the Crucial Ballistix Elite series was capable of running the newest 1.3 XMP profile.  Then I re-ran all benchmarks.

On the next page we'll take a look at some benchmarks as we start testing these modules.