It's Time: Buffalo Firestix PC2-8000 vs Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 (2GB Kits)

Tiramisu

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 28, 2007
Messages
125
Hello everyone:

NCIX finally has them fully in stocked and at a KILLER PRICE! in this week's Pre-Summer Sale; the sales just started tonight! (Note that the currency is in CDN)

1. Buffalo Firestix FSX1000D2C-K2G PC2-8000 2GB Kit
Original Price: $374.99 Now: $189.99 Chip: MicronD9GKX?


http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=23834&vpn=FSX1000D2C-K2G&manufacture=Buffalo&promoid=1060

Versus

2. Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 2GB Kit.
Original Price: $214.99 Now: $174.99 Chip: MicronD9GMH and/or D9GKX?

http://www.ncix.com/products/index....5&manufacture=CRUCIAL TECHNOLOGY&promoid=1060

My first choice is the Ballistix but I've heard many good things about the Firestix 8000 as well. Please help me decide which one would be a better OC contender to attain my goal:

CPU: E6700 (Currently 3730mhz stable @ 1.48v, FSB466x8)
Mobo: DFI Infinity 965-S DARK

Target Goal with New Rams: 24/7 OC rig threshold: 533FSB, 1:1 ratio = DDRII 1066 stock clock, 2.35v Max, Tight Timings of CL4-4-4-12/10/8 and subtimings.

I'm not shooting for the record or fit myself in the 600/700 club but it'll mostly be an aggresively OC gaming rig on the boarderline of being safe for 24/7. Sorry, I'm not so [H]ard afterall..:p

Hopefully I'll get as many suggestions before its retail store close tomorrow. I know it's kinda late to ask this and I appreciate any help from you :D
 
All out clocking using 2.6v+, Ballistix should win but for 24/7 you have to go with the Firestix..... Havent tested my Ballistix yet but this is what my Firestix can do at 2.25v.... Im sure it still has alot of room to go higher and maybe even lower voltage but Ive been testing at 3600mhz only..... Finished 32M at 540fsb 4-4-4-12 at 2.3v.....

untitled.JPG
 
i kind of want to buy both sets of RAM. for the HELL OF IT!! LOL!!

WOW those are AMAZING prices..
 
you got Reapers for $150..... Doesnt get much better than that......:D
 
yah i know.. But im greedy. :p

I mean when you see a sale like this. You just wanna bite on it. The reapers were on sale for 2 weeks straight. Good purchase. Cant wait to use them

But This sale is also a Hell of a great Catch as well. so tempting.
 
I havent had experience with ballistix but I love my Buffalo Firestix pc2-8000. I also have an EVGA 680i so read alot on the memory problem ppl been having. So to be on safe side I stay at 2.2v or below for now (though there has been ppl who run their ram fine over 2.2v). At 2.2v I was able to run my my Firestix to 1200mhz @ 5-5-5-18 or 1100mhz @ 4-4-4-12. Right now I am running linked so down to 800mhz @ 3-3-3-8 w/ 2.1 v. I have yet to have problem with it, thought my rig is pretty new. All I can say is my ram is not holding my system back.

:D Woot!
 
Hey guys, would you consider the Buffalo Firestix PC2-8000 is suppose better than the Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 based on comparing their regular price?? There's like a $150 price different between the two. It makes me wonder how could the PC2-8000 Firestix be selling way more than the PC2-8500 ? Could it be possible that the Firestix are higher binned chips and better overclock-ability with lower volts required...:confused:
 
Firestix= D9GKX
Ballistix=D9GMH

D9GKX are more expensive ICs hence rams that uses them are more expensive... They clock high at lower voltage but ( they say ) dont scale well with voltage like the GMH..... As a rough guide, the GKX will clock better till around 2.4v, theyll be even to about 2.6v then the GMH will take the lead.... thats in general ofcourse...... The Firestix wont have the best binned GKX....
 
Hey Tiramisu. I'll post my results here too, in case people here are also interested.

Since Firestix are GKX they are awesome for low voltage OCing.


Firestix results with rig in sig:

Everything was set in BIOS, which means it's all Windows bootable. Memset wasn't even launched during all this testing.

600MHz 5-4-3-8@ 2.1v:
6e995085.jpg



600MHz 5-3-3-3, with a little bump to 2.35v:
I know the SuperPI time is a bit slower, but it's because I didn't bother running it multiple times and picking out the fastest time.
bb21cf75.jpg



1:1 clocks I use to run 24/7 with my other E6600. 472MHz 4-3-3-8 also with just 2.1v:
c0ab037f.jpg



The memory controller in my mobo has trouble after 600MHz. Just to be able to hit 625MHz I had to pump the voltage all the way to 2.5v and loosen the timings to 5-5-5-15. I'm sure the memory can go much higher than that, but I would need another motherboard with a better memory controller.
 
Hey Guys,

I'm going to get the ASUS P5K Deluxe P35 chipset mobo later.

Who will take a lead in OC on that board, the D9GKX from the Buffalo 8000 or D9GMH from the Ballistix 8500 ?

THANKS !! :D:cool:
 
anyone you choose. you will be happy.. most ppl will suggest the Ballistix though

I got back from NCIX retail store yesturday, and I decided to go with the Ballistix 8500 instead. Native PC2-8500 Rams works better with P5K-Deluxe becouse of the divider configuration. Some P5K-Deluxe owners also uses the Ballistix PC28500 and they got great results. This board is great for overclocking RAMS (Memory Transaction +1 boost for greater memory bandwidth! :D) and Vdroop stabilizer is just amazing (~0.003 Vdroop underload!:D). Extremely Quad-Core overclockable(FSB 475~485!! easy). I havn't comepletely finished reading the thread that EVA2000 created but apparently all the OC results were very good and stable for an early BIOS. The newest official bios is 3011.
This mobo hold a lot of potential and very much futureproof.
:)
 
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