Crucial Ballistix RAM question

[tecninja]

I haven't been on the forums in a while, so I haven't kept up with some of the events. Anyhow Back in May of 2008 I had a series of issues, which turned out to be some Crucial ballistix RAM (2x 2gb) that worked for a few months then failed. It took me to around August to figure it out (due to other troubleshooting issues), and I RMAed the stuff and got 2 new sticks of a "new configuration" that crucial was using. This set had a lower voltage and was supposed to rectify some issues they were having in the beginning of the year.

Long story short, I tested the heck out of the stuff and got everything "Prime95 stable" and it ran grate for 4 months, and here I am again with Dying/dead RAM. First there were intermittent BSODs, and now the RAM won't run 60 seconds in Memtest86 @667mhz and 7-7-7-21 timings. This RAM was NEVER run over their recommended 2.0v and never pushed passed their advertised 4-4-4-12 @800Mhz speeds.

I'm just wondering if other people have still been having troubles with these series of RAM? I'm about to RMA this batch, but I'd really rather not keep leasing RAM from crucial on a 3 month basis, waiting for the next failure.

 

[jkchang626]

I have RMAd 2 times (all sticks... oddly enough?) of Ballistix 8500 1gb x2 kits.

The original purchase called for 2.2v. The first RMA returned with the same spec (2.2v). The most recent one returned with a 2.0v setting. So far, the 2.0v has been running fine.

You may want to run the ram at the specified voltage though... I found it more stable to adjust it and run at the specified voltage than to run at the default (1.8v).

 

[tecninja]

The 2nd Set I received was speced for 2.0v and I ran it at exactly that, also the Timings and clockspeed were exactly at spec. Ran for 4 months, and then those Died as well. I RMAed them today, and we'll see what happens. I don't clock my CPU past 400mhz typically and at 1:1 ratio that puts the RAM at exactly 800. I'm just hoping for some stable RAM that will run at spec this time. I don't need it to be OC worthy.

 

[jkchang626]

Those sticks are going in an old PC now (3.0 Pentium 4 Prescott...) Anyhow, I now an running 8gb of the regular Crucial ram and it's been fine. Vista rates the ram at 5.5 versus the ballistix at 5.9... but the difference isn't really that obvious.