Crucial, a division of Micron, recently announced the a new DDR3 memory that aims at the magic number of 1000Mhz. With the arrival of Nvidia's 790i SLI chipset for Intel processors, it would be very interesting to see see how the Crucial memory performs.

- Crucial Ballistix BL2KIT12864BE2009  — The ultimate in gaming performance

The Ballistix line is specifically built for performance enthusiasts who want to push the performance envelope without worrying about data loss or corruption, mysterious intermittent errors and display problems, or worse — the dreaded BSOD! The Ballistix line of high-performance memory modules features advanced speed grades, low latencies, and integrated aluminum heat spreaders.

A Ballistix dual inline memory module (DIMM) consists of a number of memory components that are attached to a black printed circuit board. The gold pins on the bottom of the DIMM provide a connection between the module and a socket on a larger printed circuit board. The pins on the front and back of a DIMM are not connected to each other.

Ballistix 240-pin DIMMs are found in DDR3 memory. DDR3 — the next generation of memory — boasts an improved architecture allowing very fast data transmission. Ballistix 240-pin DIMMs are available in DDR3 PC3-16000 SDRAM (DDR3-2000).

- Main features

• Module Size: 2GB kit (1GBx2)
• Package: Ballistix 240-pin DIMM
• Feature: DDR3 PC3-16000
• Configuration: 128Meg x 64
• DIMM Type: UNBUFFERED
• Error Checking: NON-ECC
• Speed: DDR3-2000
• Voltage: 1.9V
• Memory Timings: 9-9-9-28

- Retail package

Crucial provided us a retail package of 2x1GB of Ballistix PC3-16000 series. The product is priced at around $650 and it can be obtained directly from Crucial. The kit we received arrived in our lab in a common carton box, with the memory modules packed into antistatic plastic bags.

CPU-Z provides information about the memory. Crucial's DDR3-2000 supports Nvidia's EPP v2.0 profile that should give you instant performance boost when paired with an Nvidia 790i SLI chipset. The embedded JEDEC timings for 444,593 and 667MHz are rather relaxed. We will try find the tightest timings for you later in this review: