Related Articles

Published: Aug 18, 2008 Author: Niko Lupala Editor: Amber Lupala Provider: Crucial Share this article:

Introduction

Today we are taking a look at another DDR3 kit on the market, this time it comes from Crucial. We got their PC3-10600 kit for review which is the first DDR3 kit that we look at from Crucial.
We are going to benchmark it vs some well performing kits on the market to see how well this memory kit performs and also see what type of overclocking results we can expect from the kit.

About Crucial:
The Crucial story starts with Micron Technology, Inc., one of the largest dynamic random access memory (DRAM) manufacturers in the world and the only one based in the U.S. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, Micron manufactures DRAM chips and assembles them into high-quality memory modules for sale to original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs") worldwide.
For nearly three decades, Micron has learned that when you make some of the very best memory in the world, lots of companies want it, from computer makers to wireless device manufacturers to printer producers. (And we're really glad that they do!)

But then Micron asked, well, what about the end user? What about the everyday folks who want to upgrade their existing systems with OEM-quality memory — the home desktop user, the IT network guy, the student notebook user? Why don't we offer our memory to the public, at factory-direct pricing?

So in 1996, Micron responded to a growing demand for high-quality memory upgrades among end users who wanted the best possible performance from their systems. Micron launched Crucial Technology in September of that year, and for the first time, end users had the opportunity to buy directly from the manufacturer the same memory modules bought by the world's major OEMs for original installation in their systems.

Having a direct sales division focused on selling Micron's DRAM to the public was apparently an idea whose time had come, and 10 successful years later, we have expanded our product line to include graphics cards, flash cards and readers, and USB flash drives. In fact, we are celebrating our 10th anniversary at www.crucial.com/ten!

Why is Crucial thriving? We offer our customers a number of clear advantages over our competitors.

Specifications:
Module Size: 2GB kit (1GBx2)
Package: Ballistix 240-pin DIMM
Feature: DDR3 PC3-10600
Specs: DDR3 PC3-10600 • 6-6-6-20 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1333 • 1.8V • 128Meg x 64 •

The product:

Please click on thumbnails to get bigger pictures

Crucial always packs their memory in a cardboard box while Corsair, OCZ etc pack theirs in a plastic container. Personally I don't have a problem with either of them and both feel as safe as the other, anyway if we look at the box it is sealed with a Crucial sticker and each stick is packed in their own little anti static bag. The sticks this time have a orange heatsink on them which we hope will keep the cool enough even under heavy overclocking.

 
Please click on thumbnails to get bigger pictures

The sticks each have a sticker with the specifications, if you remove the stickers you will void the warranty so make sure they remain on each stick. Lets get on with some test results and see what we can expect from this memory kit.

Testing:
Intel QX6700
MSI X48 Platinum motherboard
Sapphire X1900XTX
Western Digital Caviar 16mb SATA 2 HDD
Zalman 500W PSU

We used the following software to benchmark the kit, Everest Ultimate Edition, Sisoft Sandra XI, SuperPi and Pcmark Vantage. We decided to use Patriots Pc3-14400 kit and Supertalents ProjectX 1800 kit to compare with.

Sisoft Sandra XI, Single stick:

While running just one stick of the Crucial kit we see that it is faster than both the others. Lets see what type of results we get when it really counts (dual channel).