[grogi]

Crucial 2x1GB Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500 Memory Kit Review
" For any of you that have read my previous review of the Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2-6400 memory kit, you know just how much I love this memory. The look, the performance and now the price for DDR2 is just unbeatable. I gave it an easy Editors Choice award back then and I have pretty much been using that kit in my personal rig until a new package from Crucial arrived recently; the PC2-8500 Ballistix Tracer Kit! Same bling, higher speeds. Other than the higher stock speed rating, there is absolutely no difference from the PC2-6400 kit I already reviewed. In fact, my guess it's the same exact kit just hand selected to overclock nice and stable at 1066...or more

The high performance "Ballistix" brand of memory from Crucial has been among the best memory you can buy for a long time now. A good portion of that reason is because of their use of high end Micron chips in their memory products. Hardcore enthusiasts know that Micron IC's are the best, period. You'll pay more for them (though the prices of DDR2 right now are at an all time low!), but they're worth it if you plan on running them hard. They overclock the highest, they'll suck up higher voltages when overclocking (therefore allowing higher speeds), and they're more stable than virtually any other memory chips out there.

Many other memory companies out there buy their high end chips from Micron for their top end high performance kits. So obviously, with Crucial being owned by Micron, they get first dibs and can sell it direct to the consumer. If you've read any of our other memory reviews here on VH, you can almost pick out which kits used the Micron chips by the overclocking results and the editors choice awards. They're just that good and that sought after."

Mushkin HP2-6400 2x2GB
"A few months ago, the first desktop oriented 4GB kits hit the market. At the time, it seemed that they appeared with very little fanfare. This could be for a combination of reasons, from absolutely terrible overclocking performance to little real demand for that much memory capacity. At the time, using four 1GB sticks was cheaper, faster and overclocked better, thus the newly introduced 2x2GB kits were useless really. Fast forward to today: memory prices have dropped a lot, and chip technology has continued to advance. While 4x1GB is still an alternative, The chips used in the 2x2GB kits have come a ways.

The kit in question for this review is Mushkin's midrange HP2-6400 kit. The stock speed is DDR2-800 at 5-4-4-12, with 2.0v. Compared to many other 2x2GB kits, this one is among the faster ones. However, it is Mushkin's midrange kit because there are also DDR2-800 @ 4-3-3-10 and DDR2-1066 @ 5-4-4-12 kits available."