Testing Method & Test Setup

To keep in pace with the times, we use the widespread LGA1155 as our testing platform.

Motherboard	ASUS Maximus V Gene (BIOS 0086)
CPU	Intel Core i7-3770K
Graphic card	XFX 8600 GT
Memory	Crucial Ballistix Tactical BLT2CP4G3D1608DT1TX0CEU
HDD	Samsung 40 GB
PSU	Silverstone OP1000
OS	Windows 7, 64 bit SP1

Each combination of settings is going to face our usual stability test that is a 150% pass of eight HCI Memtest instances, 750Mb assigned each. We will not get tired of telling this over and over again, but our chosen stress-test is amongst the toughest things a memory can face, so the numbers we achieve can safely be transferred to daily operation.

Results

Speaking of setting combinations, our previous experience allows us to simplify the testing procedure of any Micron D9PFJ based memory, reducing it to five sets of even timings times six voltage possibilities, which is more than enough to have an idea of what is going on.



The results are in and one doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to tell that our Ballistix show great voltage scaling in almost the whole of the testing range starting to slow down only closing in on DDR3-2133. At that sort of frequency, our kit could work stable with timings of 9-9-9-27, however, due to very little headroom and random nature of overclocking, we would not state that every sample would do the same.
Comparing these numbers to ones we achieved with the higher-rated Ballistix, it’s apparent that the 1600s are down on quality as they can’t achieve DDR3-1866 with 9-9-9-27 at 1.5V that is the spec of the more expensive version. This indicates that Crucial bin and grade the ICs by their overclocking abilities, so replying our initial question - no, the lower-rated version is not as good as its faster analog.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 4 - Results
Page 2 - Closer Look	Page 5 - Conclusion
Page 3 - Photo Gallery

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