Crucial Memory Interview
Sean W. Gibson / May 27th, 2011 1 Comment
Crucial Memory has been at the forefront of RAM technology for a number of years, specifically catering to the power gamer users of the world. Crucial’s track record has proven time again to be an industry leader no matter what product line they release, which now includes Solid State Drives (SSD).
Gaming Illustrated recently talked with the product team over at Crucial Memory to talk about high end Ballistix memory, SSDs, tips on how to improve performance and more.
GI: Where do gamers fit within the target consumers you hope to reach with Crucial products?
Crucial: Gamers are important audience to Crucial and an important consumer of our products, especially our high-performance Ballistix memory product lines. Tending to want the best in performance and products, gamers inspire us to come up with new offerings that utilize the latest technology. Additionally, gamers can also be tech influencers, whereas they influence the purchase of tech products by their family and friends too.
GI: When developing specific products for the power consumer community, how do you juggle the balance between offering a product at a competitive price but making sure it holds to a high standard of performance and quality?
Crucial: Clearly the market drives what products we offer. With DRAM, price tends to be a significant influence on purchase decision, so there is a fine balance. Our job is to make sure we offer products that not only offer the performance required, but also maintain a competitive price point too. At Crucial, we always strive to ensure we offer high-quality, reliable products; however, this process can increase test time and screening, which in turn can increase costs.
GI: The Ballistix performance line seems to be exactly what PC gamers crave. What makes this line of RAM perfect for gamers looking to squeeze every last bit of juice from their system?
Crucial: As demonstrated in many independent reviews, performance in games (FPS) can increase with higher-speed, lower latency memory along with higher density products. With Crucial Ballistix memory, we find the fastest parts and put them through a rigorous testing process to ensure the speed and reliability consumers have come to expect from our brand. Our high-performance Ballistix memory offers the highest memory bandwidth available at Crucial, to ensure users are providing their processor and subsystems with the data throughput necessary to achieve maximum performance.
GI: Could you give three solid tips for gamers looking to tweak their system settings who have just purchased (or are about to) your Ballistix line of memory?
Crucial: First, before purchasing Crucial Ballistix memory, ensure the PC system allows for proper memory setup. Users need to be able to go into the BIOS and set memory parameters. They can refer to the motherboard / system manual to confirm supported memory speeds and settings available.
Second, when setting memory parameters, make sure they match the specifications of the Ballistix memory. Be sure to set speed, timings, and voltage to match the module. By default Ballistix is programmed with standard timings and voltages as a failsafe so the system will boot, but these are lower than rated speeds. The user needs to setup the correct setting within the system to achieve rated performance. Some systems support an XMP (eXtreme Memory Profile) setting implemented by Intel©; if the user’s system and memory supports it, try enabling the profile which will auto set the speed timings and voltage in one easy to toggle setting.
Third, ensure the system is seeing all the memory and the correct speeds within the OS. There are several free tools – either on the internet or that come with the motherboard – that allow users to confirm processor and memory speed, along with how much memory is installed. CPU-Z is a popular utility that allows users to confirm everything is setup correctly within the system.
GI: Solid-State Drives (SSD) have been a huge craze for the last couple of years within the gaming community. Last year we saw quite a few industry awards for your like in fact. How does the line stack up in 2011?
Crucial: We saw huge success with our Crucial RealSSD C300 product line, and enjoyed many awards and accolades for being the first mainstream SSD to offer a blazing-fast 6Gb/s interface. We recently made our follow-on SSD products – the Crucial m4 series – available to business and consumer customers, and we’re seeing great reception for this next-generation product line as well. Already we’ve garnered an assortment of awards, especially when price and performance are factored into the mainstream SSD equation.
GI: For the average gamer, what’s the best benefit of upgrading to a SSD for your primary boot drive?
Crucial: FASTER LOAD TIMES! Levels load incredibly fast compared to traditional rotational media. Boot times and load times are also much faster with SSDs. Users will load their map up faster than the competition!
GI: We’ve heard of people even hacking their laptops and Mac systems to take advantage of SSDs. Where does Crucial sit with supporting such upgrades?
Crucial: We always recommend following the manufacturer’s recommendations for upgrades, as this approach will NOT void your warranty. However, we do understand there are some more adventurous users out there and so we have many offerings that will work in the various Mac systems – but the user assumes all responsibility in those instances. The great thing about adventurous consumers though, is that they help push manufacturers to allow for easier upgrades, instead of limiting access and upgradability.
GI: As everyone knows, a lot of “standard” hard drives are just ticking time bombs. What level of reliability can we find out of Crucial’s SSDs and to take the question a step further, the same question for the line of Ballistix memory?
Crucial: With all of our Crucial-branded memory products – DRAM or NAND flash – we stand behind our products. Our Crucial DRAM memory products come with a limited lifetime warranty, and our SSD products come with an industry-standard 3 year limited warranty. From a reliability standpoint, we utilize quality components and manufacturing processes that we can stand behind.
GI: Here is a screenshot of my Crucial System Scanner results for my rig. Based off of my current system, what recommendation would you personally recommend and what would I see out of that upgrade? Are there tweaks I could do to the RAM settings to get even more performance?
Crucial Memory RAM & SSD
Crucial: It looks like the scanner wasn’t able to determine your existing speed of memory. However, if you want a density increase, you would want to match what is currently in your system to ensure compatibility. Crucial Ballistix memory modules may have different voltages and speeds and may not mix well with the existing memory, creating compatibility issues. The ASUS P6T SE gives you many options at Crucial.com.
If you were to replace what you have with Crucial Ballistix memory, you may want to consider the following:
For best performance, Ballistix DDR3-1600 CL8 Ballistix Finned modules (part # is: BL3KIT25664FN1608) would be a solid choice due to the improved finned heat spreader design and integrated thermal sensor. These improvements enable you to run at fast speeds and keep an eye on your temperatures via our Ballistix MOD utility. Note: just be sure your CPU cooler gives you enough clearance, since the finned modules are taller.
If you have a windowed side panel, our sweet DDR3-1600 CL8 Ballistix Smart Tracer will add some great LED effects to your system. With the ability to change between two colors and adjust LED patterns, dimness, or even turn them on and off all together, you can’t go wrong. These modules are also supported by the Ballistix MOD utility to control the LEDs and monitor temperatures. The correct part numbers are:
BL3KIT25664ST1608OB (orange/blue LEDS) or
BL3KIT25664ST1608RG (Red/Green LEDS).
As far as performance, that board likely supports Intel’s © XMP spec which are supported by these modules as well. Go into the BIOS and enable XMP (generally called Profile 1) and you’ll be up and running at speed in no time.
GI: Finally, you’ve been able to develop a large following thanks to years of being in the marketplace and delivering solid products. What would you like to say to your dedicated consumer base?
Crucial: At Crucial, we promise to continue engaging our customers in a way that empowers them. We will also continue to make doing business with us easy, with a focus on earning and maintaining customer trust, while consistently delivering an unparalleled customer experience.
Sean W. Gibson
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