Crucial Ballistix Tracer
Crucial’s Ballistix Red are some of the most visually attractive modules we have reviewed. The Red PCB and aluminium heatsink will match any graphics card with the same colour and allow the consumer to begin making an impressive looking system. When powered up the aesthetics only get better as the activity LEDs and memory slot lighting make a windowed system look stunning.
On a performance level we are able to see the benefits an additional two gigabytes of memory can give us when we compare these sticks to two gigabytes of DDR2-800. With the Crucial kit (which uses the same timings) we see performance increases in numerous scenarios including gaming and media encoding.
The added performance as well as a lifetime warranty really do make the Ballistix Modules worth considering for anyone looking to give an existing system a boost, or for those building a brand new system.
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Corsair Dominator
With the Corsair Dominator modules we really do know what to expect when reviewing them. Not much has changed with the design since they were first launched and this is not the first time we have seen the Airflow fan bundled. This lack of evolution is not a problem as the design and performance is always excellent.
In almost all of the results we have documented today there were significant increases in performance over the DDR2-800 2GB results but this was not just down to the additional memory available on the modules. As the comparisons with the Crucial modules show the higher speed of the Corsair sticks gives us a clear increase in performance. This increase does come at a price however and that is approximately $150 or £90 extra.
The lifetime warranty offered by Corsair does mean that this should be a purchase which lasts a while but it really is a case of you get what you pay for.
