DDR-2 memory has really become the memory for the future or at least for the next couple of years. Its ability to deliver speeds well beyond the ability of the aging DDR memory standard makes it a far better option.
When DDR-2 made its debut to the memory world, honestly we were expecting to see another Rambus incident - another high priced, latency riddled memory that no one wanted or could afford. Intel moved all its platforms to the DDR-2 memory standard, including its notebook and Celeron-D platforms. While this was good to see, AMD’s adoption to the DDR-2 memory standard with their AM2 platform really put the nail in the coffin for the DDR memory standard. And in fact, now no new platforms are being made to support DDR, all AMD and Intel based system now only support DDR-2 memory.
Every major memory company has taken DDR-2 to heart and they will want to in order to survive in the memory industry, and with Core 2 and its supporting chipsets now making high FSB overclocks, the emphasis is on high speed memory modules for gamers and overclockers.
Crucial has been one of the biggest memory manufacturers for the past 5 years. It has been one of, if not the biggest, online memory retailer of all time with extremely reasonable prices as well as extremely reliable modules and customer support.
Today we have from the Crucial labs their Ballistix PC2-8000 2GB memory kit. We will put it through its paces and see if it would make a good choice for a gaming system or overclocker.
