Crucial Tracer 2GB is DDR2 on steroids

With the new-found 64-bitness in the PC arena, and proliferation of memory-hungry games and multimedia software, vendors are starting to pitch 1 GB memory modules for the PCs, which in pairs give you 2 GB capacity, the maximum a 32-bit OS can address without tweaks. For the first time, these high-capacity modules are also quite fast, not far behind their half-capacity cousins.

Here we have the newest 2GB Ballistix Tracer dual-channel DDR2-667 set from Crucial, one of the big vendors in the 'enthusiast' memory space - just like Corsair XMS Pro series, Tracer has multicoloured LEDs on top of the DIMMs, but not as prominent as the Corsair unit - the only issue is that the uncovered LEDs in this case can be a bit strong emission wise...

We tested the two-DIMM set on both Intel 955XBK high-end mobo, and Abit LG-81 945G-based MicroATX boards. In both boards, it worked fine at 3-2-2-8 at 533 MHz at 1.9 V - pretty much the maximum setting you can get out of DDR2-533 spec right now. Going further up, with voltage at 2.0 V, I managed to run it at 4-3-3-10 at 800 MHz DDR2 - on the 955X only.

In Sandra 2005 memory test with 3.73 GHz Pentium4 EE at 1,066 MHz FSB in the 955X board, it achieved 6,113 MB/s in Integer and 6,045 MB/s in FP mode at CL3-2-2-8 in dual DDR2-533 mode - an excellent result. It couldn't match Corsair's 3-2-2-8 at DDR667 mode though as it can't support that latency. At DDR2-800 with 1,066 FSB 3.73 GHz CPU, it gave a marginal improvement of 6,267 MB/s integer and 6,198 MB/s FP.

Overall, the implication is that, with DIMMs like this one, you can finally have a full 4 GB of ultrafast memory in your PC - with both low latency and high bandwidth. Just make sure you use 64-bit Linux or Win64 to make use of all that RAM! µ