Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3 PC3-12800 6GB kit
Packaging & Appearance
The packaging of the Crucial Ballastix is the same as Ballistix kits have been packaged in the past. A plain brown cardboard box with an anti tamper sticker sealing the box. While this type of packaging is basic it does afford the modules inside excellent protection.
Opening up the box we find that the modules are neatly stacked side by side in sealed anti-static sleeves. These sleeves are printed with all the information you require to get the memory up and running such as the timings, frequency and voltage.Â
The modules themselves are shielded by some very attractive heatsinks. The green ‘holographic’ effect given off by the heatsinks is very appealing. These heatsinks/modules are also available in Blue and Red to perfectly match the aesthetics of your PC setup should you be concerned about such matters. Most readers who read this article will find this appealing and it is these readers who Crucial are marketing the products for: Case modders and overclockers, which pretty much sums up the bulk of our readers I believe.
Being of nominal height, these modules will not interfere with fitting an oversized CPU, certainly no more than any modules without heatsinks would anyway. On the top and bottom of modules there are a number of tiny LED’s which are pretty much indistinct when the modules are not powered up.
Taking the heatsinks off the modules we get to see the banks of integrated chips which in the Ballistix case are Samsung HCF0, the very same chips used in the 2000MHz Kingston modules we reviewed recently which spells good news. Crucial have not used Micron IC’s, which is surprising considering Crucial are a division of Micron. Nevertheless, the Samsung chips are a very good choice and should prove to be excellent overclockers.
That about rounds up the packaging and presentation section of the review. Check out the test setup page where IÂ power up the modules which give off a stunning light display…
