| May 13, 2007 |
First Look: Ballistix PC8500 DDR2
Packaging and Aesthetics
Not too long ago, the only way to get your hands on Crucial memory was to order it direct from Micron, Crucial's parent company. Lately however, Crucial's high speed memory has exploded onto the retail channel, showing up in all of the prominent e-tailers at significant discount. Even though there are more retail channels from which to buy Crucial's product, they still come in the no-nonsense cardboard packaging that I've come to know and love. No frills, no added expense. When my 2GB (2x1GB) kit arrived, I opened the cardboard box to find my ram in two individually sealed anti-static bags. Opening the bags I was pleased by the attractive presentation of these modules. Instead of the copper heatspreaders found on the standard Ballistix modules, the tracer series come adorned in sexy black spreaders. On both sides of the heat spreaders Crucial has scrawled the "Ballistix Tracer" logo in an aggressive font. On one side of each stick was a sticker which indicated the batch that this memory came from and the individual part number of each stick. Also interesting from an asthetic point of view was the fact that the PCBs (the board upon which the physical ram chips are mounted) on these modules were black, matching sexy looking heat spreaders.
Tracer LED Sexiness
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Crucial's "Tracer" branded memory modules are exactly like the standard Ballistix memory modules except that they include some additional aesthetic flash in the form of multicolored LEDs which light up your case when active. Now, usually, I'm not all that impressed with this kind of unnecessary visual flourish. If you're like me, you're usually worried about one thing: performance. But... that was before I saw these tracer modules in action... I've seen the flashing lights, and let me tell you, it was good. On the top ridge of the tracer module there is a series of yellow and red lights which, when the memory is working blink on and off in a dazzling star trek-esque pattern. Additionally, at the bottom edges of these tracer modules there are several blue/blacklight LED's all incognito beneath the heatspreaders. When your computer is on, these lights bounce off the face of the motherboard, filling your computer with a very cool blue/ultra-violet glow. In combination with the flashing yellow and red, it is truly a sight to behold. Mark my words, these tracer modules will make you the envy of your friends at your next lan party... they are just that cool. |
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