Crucial Ballistix Memory Stability Testing and Review

[Ismellbeaver]

Re: Crucial Ballistix Memory Stability Testing and Review

Wow...2 faulty Asus boards in a row? Now that is something you don't hear very often. Sorry for your luck

Thanks for the sympathy btw. This is something I've been dealing with for almost 2 years. Unfortunately I lost my job and it looks like I'm going to be going back to school so there won't be any cash for PC upgrades anytime soon. Well, besides maybe replacing the RAM but if I can get a decent buck for them then that won't cost me much...or a trade...anyone?

[Ragdollcatman]

Re: Crucial Ballistix Memory Stability Testing and Review

I've had more than 2.

2 odd years ago = Bought 2 Striker Extremes - both were replaced 3 times by retailers. Then they were "repaired" 4 times each by Asus. Asus's MD at that time then agreed that they were "unfit for purpose" under the UK Sales of Goods Act, and changed them for 2 Striker II Formulas. My one, as mentioned, was RMA'd and the replacement was faulty.

Both of which have also gone wrong, my Dad's RMA repair came back fine back in early 09, so I have now given him my Q9550 chip and my 8Gb of DDR-2 800 MHz Ballistix Tracer RAM.

I sent my board back using my previous RMA number to the company Asus use here in the UK yesterday via special delivery, so hopefully I'll have a PC again in 8 weeks or so.

I'm now so thoroughly peed off and sick of Asus's Nvidia chipset LGA 775 boards that I'm now saving up and clearing a credit card so that in 12 weeks or so I can go and buy a new i7 PC.

I'll give my Dad my Evo Blue 700/750w modular PSU to cut down on the amount of cabling he has so that he will have a decent computer - all he really needs now is a GTX graphics card to allow him to run stuff at full tilt - even though the BFG 9600GT OC2 cards we have are still ok, they are showing their limits now.

I'm gonna have to buy a board, a chip, RAM, graphics card, cooler (possibly a Cooler Master V8 or V10 - I don't think much of my Corsair Hydro - really needs an upgraded version with a double radiator) and maybe a good sound card. I wouldn't mind getting a solid state drive too - maybe one of the Samsung ones.

Depending on what money/resources I have at the time will depend on what I want to spend. I'm not an overclocker - I don't really know how to do it without using the basic motherboard BIOS settings, which seem to speed one thing up and slow something else down, so I'd rather buy the next chip up, but the 920 will probably be fast enough for now. I'm not a hardcore gamer, but a lot of games now require stupidly high specs - Fallout 3 for example needs a 2.4GHz processor! So my old Dual Core running at 2.4GHz was just enough to run it lmao!

Anyway, when the time comes, I'll ask you guys and girls for advice on what to buy. I'd prefer not to buy another Asus board, but then Asus seem to make the best spec boards for their price, or at least it looks that way from what I can buy.

[Ismellbeaver]

Re: Crucial Ballistix Memory Stability Testing and Review

Just thought I would post an update. I listed my RAM in the usual places and after about a week had no takers so I called a local computer shop and worked out a decent deal. Cost me 40 bucks all in to trade him my Ballistix PC-6400 2x2Gb for OCZ Gold XTC PC-8500. I difinitely didn't set out to look for OCZ RAM, in fact I was avoiding it as I had read about issues with my board but the guy offered a "compatability guarantee" for the price (and his stock on the faster stuff was a little limited atm) so if I have issues I can just simply bring em back and try again. Overall not too bad of a deal I think. I was expecting somewhere around 20 to 30 bucks to replace the RAM anyway, and I think a little extra is worth it for the guarantee and he's local so no waiting.

So the RAM is in and so far so good. Once I got things in the bios all setup its been stable as a rock *knocks on wood*. Got an extra .1 out of M$'s peformance index on the RAM!! *rolls eyes* I ran M$'s memory test for 2 cycles and let prime95 run for a while, all with no errors, and almost no heat.

It really is probably too early to tell as my Ballistix would run perfect too, for a while. That was the most frustrating part. System would be perfect from anywhere between a month, to a few days but usually about a week, maybe 2. I'll try and remember to report back in a couple of weeks. Here's hoping!