Introduction

Memory experts ‘Crucial’ have sent us a number of RAM kits in the past – all of which have proved to overclock very well. A new member of Crucial’s vast family is the red Ballistix Tracer. This kit is of the performance range of Crucial's line up and includes LED’s which "trace" horizontally along the RAM. Today we’ll be reviewing this bling; let’s see how it performs…

The Crucial Story

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 flash cards and readers, and USB flash drives.

Specifications

Using 4GB

The only "problem" with using a 4GB memory kit is that over 3.2GB isn't supported by 32bit operating systems. That means the only two Windows Operating Systems that support the full four gigabytes are Vista x64 and XP x64. Vista has its obvious attractions and drawbacks for certain people, so many might go for XP x64. However, just like Vista, this one suffers - to some extent - from driver compatibility issues so neither is particularly attractive to the prospective gamer who wants a bit more memory in their system.
Vista's implementation of 64bit processing means that you can't install unsigned drivers without going through a lot of hassle which makes keeping up with the latest drivers difficult. You'll find that peripherals that aren't well known won't have their Vista drivers signed, effectively denying them the chance to be used with Microsoft's latest OS. All of this makes switching to x64 a painful path.
Therefore, bearing in mind that this kit is marketed towards hardware enthusiasts and gamers, we will be using the OS of choice for this review, XP x86.