Well, Crucial Ballistix has a dark secret...

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Originally Posted by ImaNihilist

I'd be interested to know. I don't have a board on hand now, but I'll check out the forums. Thanks.

Also, does anyone know what JEDEC spec is? Is it 2.5V or 2.6V?

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I just checked the VDIMM and VCORE (PITA with a Big Typhoon in the way) on my DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra. Voltages for Vdimm and vcore were both .01V below what Motherboard monitor (with a custom DFI profile) were reporting. The BIOS is reporting voltage's that are .02 higher for the Vcore and .03V higher then MBM and therefore .03, and .04 higher then true voltages respectively.

So in conclusion get MBM and the custom DFI profile and you'll have a pretty accurate picture of the various voltages. And it seems the DFI does OC the Vdimm .03v from your setting; but again with MBM you would see the true voltage with that variation.

It's not just dfi boards. You can read @ XS about new Asus boards eating dimms as well. Maybe it's on the sticks after all.

Are there OCZ sticks that use the same Micron chips?

One other question, that anyone with these sticks can answer, can you run 2-2-2-6 stable at DDR400 speeds?

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Originally Posted by OutKlast

I just checked the VDIMM and VCORE (PITA with a Big Typhoon in the way) on my DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra. Voltages for Vdimm and vcore were both .01V below what Motherboard monitor (with a custom DFI profile) were reporting. The BIOS is reporting voltage's that are .02 higher for the Vcore and .03V higher then MBM and therefore .03, and .04 higher then true voltages respectively.

So in conclusion get MBM and the custom DFI profile and you'll have a pretty accurate picture of the various voltages. And it seems the DFI does OC the Vdimm .03v from your setting; but again with MBM you would see the true voltage with that variation.

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I stopped using MBM after the NF3, because the developer stated they would no longer build in support for the new chipsets. Did someone else take the project over?

*Edit: Oh, and ImaNihilist, I'll check when I get them back from newegg. :)

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Originally Posted by James

I stopped using MBM after the NF3, because the developer stated they would no longer build in support for the new chipsets. Did someone else take the project over?

*Edit: Oh, and ImaNihilist, I'll check when I get them back from newegg. :)

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Thats what I also heard but with the custom data profile (not available through MBM site) It correctly reads Temps and voltages the fan rpms occasionally go crazy.

well i hate to bring this thread back up, but my 2x1gb ballistix kit just started cr@pping out on me. i'm getting random boot failures at 250 (any timings) 1T. i had to put in a spare 512mb hyper-x kingston module i had laying around.

too bad newegg is only showing RMA for replacement. i'll call after the holiday weekend to see if they'll let me exchange for another brand. if not, i'll go through crucial as their RMA service offers cross shipping to speed up the process. i wonder if the cruial people have tried to fix whatever is wrong with these modules....

Kenrippy,

I've been meaning to dig up this thread myself.

I RMA'd my sticks (again) through Newegg, and got some brand new ones this time. I am now running them at 3-3-3-7 1T @ 250MHz using 2.6v This has stabilized my entire system. I am now able to run 9x250MHz at stock voltage on both CPU and RAM, that's something I couldn't do before when I was running it at 2.8v for the RAM.

Sorry you have been having the same issues I have. :(

Hopefully Crucial will get you your new sticks quickly, if Newegg won't let you go to a different brand.

Good luck

Sheesh, that's terrible. I thought I had it bad, but your Stix won't even do stock speeds?

I thought I had it bad, but at least the redline are fast and smooth until you get to ~260.

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Originally Posted by r'aggro

I thought I had it bad, but at least the redline are fast and smooth until you get to ~260.

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260? that's it and then what? i was going to try to get newegg to let me exchange the ballistix for those. but if they're not much better than the mushkin black then i'll get those and save $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146397

that is, if they'll even let me do an exchange, i sorta doubt it. :(

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Originally Posted by James

Kenrippy,

I've been meaning to dig up this thread myself.

I RMA'd my sticks (again) through Newegg, and got some brand new ones this time. I am now running them at 3-3-3-7 1T @ 250MHz using 2.6v This has stabilized my entire system. I am now able to run 9x250MHz at stock voltage on both CPU and RAM, that's something I couldn't do before when I was running it at 2.8v for the RAM.

Sorry you have been having the same issues I have. :(

Hopefully Crucial will get you your new sticks quickly, if Newegg won't let you go to a different brand.

Good luck

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james,

how long are you going to give the new batch before you deem them problem free? your first set lasted over 6 months didn't it? maybe they have fixed the issue somewhere in production, who knows.

The redline aren't typically clocking up very well, although I've seen some guys get into the 280's with them. It just depends upon which batch your pair comes from, I guess.

In any case, they don't go to 300 like the ballistix can, but they allow tighter timings right from the start and feel very fast. They also run ALOT cooler than the crucial.

The 'blackline' are also sort of hit-and-miss, and have to run looser than the reds. But they are quite a bit cheaper...

damn - so i'm definately not gonna get in on the ballistix, and if those redlines aren't a great deal better as far as how high they clock - then what should i get for overclocking?

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Originally Posted by thebove

damn - so i'm definately not gonna get in on the ballistix, and if those redlines aren't a great deal better as far as how high they clock - then what should i get for overclocking?

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OCZ 4000EB Platinum.

Everything I have read about these is extremely positive, I'm using them and I love them.

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Originally Posted by KaoTiK

OCZ 4000EB Platinum.

Everything I have read about these is extremely positive, I'm using them and I love them.

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Nice, can you give us some numbers @ stable for comparison's sake?

there's no F'in way i'm paying $370 for that stuff though. i think if i had a choice (if newegg gives me a choice) i'll get the black mushkin for $205 AR.

http://www.atacom.com/program/print_...EDD_OCZT_BG_V8

I'm giving these about 3 months before they are officially called good. Of course, by then I hope to be running watercooling on my RAM.

I'm going to see how high I can get them over the next few days while running 2.6v to them. I won't go any higher than that on the voltage, so we'll see what I get.

i hope it's just a matter of "hit or miss" when it comes to the ballistix. it's either bad or really good! and hopefully we'll all end up with a good batch in the end.

james,
please keep this thread updated with your findings & thanks for bringing this to our attention.

i did a google search for "crucial ballistix failure" and found a huge thread over on the DFI forums about it:
http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29743

Yeah, it seems that only the boards that can "properly" give it the voltage that it's labeled at fry it. Go figure. Today is a business trip, but hopefully tonight is play time. :D

well, I just spoke to anthony in the RMA dept. at crucial. anthony claimed to have no idea about the reported failures at first. then after i told him it's all over the forums about this problem, he said it's coming from "a COUPLE guys who don't like to use their ram". i also told him that the customer reviews at newegg even show what's happening. i didn't want to get him all wound up so i didn't push the issue. i could tell he was in denial about it, that's to be expected, he's a good company man.

bottom line is they're sending me a new matched pair once they receive the bad pair. seems they only cross ship if you purchased the ram directly from them. i decided to go through crucial for the RMA (instead of newegg) because maybe, just maybe there's a better chance of getting a NEW/GOOD batch. but who really knows....

I just thought I'd post my experience with Crucial's 2GB PC4000 DDR kit here.

After <2 months of operation @ 472MHz 3-3-3-8 timings and only 2.75V, one of my sticks crapped out last night. The damn thing often refuses to post, and has yet to let me into Windows as the sole stick, regardless of slot, even @ only 400MHz w/SPD timings and 2.55V. This is on a Gigabyte K8N Ultra 9 board. The other stick appears to be functioning properly, but the pair will be RMA'd tomorrow. Fortunately for me I purchased the set directly from Crucial through my work (we are a Crucial reseller) so I will be getting a replacement ASAP.

Funny story, the kit I've got was actually an RMA replacement for a 2GB PC4000 Ballistix kit that had gone bad in an Asus K8V SE Deluxe board, which was *never* overclocked or overvolted.

I hope Crucial's fixed whatever issue they were having with their 2GB PC4000 Ballistix kits. Note: both failed kits were Z503.

For what it's worth, the latest replacement set is running 24/7 @ 3-3-3-8 250MHz 2.6v.

No issues yet. I'm still tempted to overclock these guys a bit, but my gut tells me to wait for my RAM waterblocks before I start.

i got my replacement set back from crucial last week. i haven't had time to do any testing or overclocking with them, but i popped them in at 250 3-3-3-8 1T 2.7v and they're running fine so far.

crucial's service was quick and easy, although they wouldn't cross ship because i didn't buy them direct from them. hopefully they'll last more than 3 months!

btw, here's the batch numbers of my last two sets:
DEAD SET: CL1115N.J3

NEW SET: CL1115Y.P8

The batch code on my dead set is:
CL1115T.88

Update:
batch code on new set is:
CL1115Z.QB

Looks good so far. I'm gonna run it at stock DDR 400 speeds until I get a new RD580-powered mobo.

Some sticks are susceptible to getting their internal SPD settings overwritten somehow. There is a program to reverse this damage.

Check this out: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=85533

It might work for you.