probably doesn't need any introduction. Well known for producing high quality memory, it's no wonder that so many OEMs use their brand. Launched November 1996 by Micron, the company was made for the end user/consumer to buy ram direct from the same place OEMs buy it. This assured compatibility as well as competitive pricing. Crucial cooks their own ram right here in North America, and being one of the largest memory manufacturers worldwide contributes to their low prices.
As I've mentioned in past reviews, it is really hard for manufacturers to distinguish themselves from the rest of their competitors. The market is chock full of different choices, and they are relatively equal in speed. What I am looking for today is something more reasonable for consumers. I need something inexpensive but also deliver good performance, and as a bonus, some O/C capabilities.
Specifications
Module Size: 256MB
Package: 184-pin DIMM
Feature: DDR PC3200
Configuration: 32Meg x 64
DIMM Type:
Error Checking: Non-parity
Speed: 5ns
Voltage: 2.5V
SDRAM Timings:CL=3
The ram modules arrived in a small brown box that included the memory sticks wrapped in an anti-static bag, as well as the instructions. Minimal, yes, but it gets the job done.
The memory's physical appearance isn't much to get excited about... pretty much standard memory with no heatspreader. Considering the low price, we're not going to tag them for this, and we're more concerned with the quality and performance.
Little information was found on the memory label like the. We're given the Cas Latency (CL3), the memory speed 3200, and the size of this particular stick of ram.
Their 256MB memory modules are single-sided, as opposed to being double-sided. What this should mean is less noise, and overclock a little better. From past experience here at VL, when we've worked with 256MB sticks (double-sided), it's always overclocked a little better than two double-sided 256MB sticks.
Overclocking
Memtest86 was used to test for stability throughout our over clocking tests. If it failed, we'll be clocking back until the tests pass.
The first test was to see if we could run the Corsair 3200 at its rated 400MHz, 3-4-4-10 settings. This is always a good first step just to make sure your ram is working, as it should be. Remember that the spec is determined by my motherboard.
Everything was running well so we will go up 1 MHZ at a time until we reached our maximum over clock. As we approached the higher speeds, we had freezing issue, and we had to increase the memory voltage to 2.8v to maintain stability. At 3-4-4-10, I managed a maximum over clock of 236MHz (472MHz DDR), but the ram fails the Memtest86 tests.
As you can see, the memory performance gets a nice boost from the additional bump in FSB.
The ram was completely stable at these speeds, so I decided to give it a more aggressive setup. I set the CL and timings to 2.5-3-3-7.
At these timings, the maximum OC was 458MHz. it still gave me good results, but my system was not 100% stable.
Something to point out... the reason we're displaying the SiSoft screenshots is because I am still getting CPUZ issues. The only thing that was detected is the CL so, and it seems to be a motherboard issue with CPUZ.
Test Setup
Abit NF7-S nForce2: Athlon XP 2500+ (9.5x200: 1900MHz), 2 x 256MB Crucial DDR PC3200, FIC Radeon 9600 Pro, 40GB Maxtor, Windows XP SP1
Test software will be:
SiSoft Sandra 2003
PC Mark 2002 Memory
PiFast
UT2003
We'll be presenting benchmarks at the ram's stock speed (400MHz), as well as at the over clocked speeds, with the timings as shown earlier on the page. Tests were done with the FSB and memory speed, asynchronous for 200MHz (400DDR) and up. At all FSB settings, timings are 3-4-4-10.
SiSoftware Sandra 2003
Although a synthetic benchmark, it's a popular one, freely available if you wish to make comparison benchmarks. We will be testing the memory speeds.
Considering that the Crucial PC3200 is considered to be budget ram, we were quite surprised to see it overtake the Platinum, which is considerably more expensive.
