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Introduction:
First a little about the
company. Most of us know Crucial, but their official corporate name is
Micron Technology, Inc. This next blurb is
from their website:
“The Crucial story starts with Micron Technology, Inc.,
one of the largest dynamic random access memory (DRAM) manufacturers in the
world and the only one based in the U.S. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, Micron
manufactures DRAM chips and assembles them into high-quality memory modules for
sale to original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs") worldwide. Over the past 26
years, Micron has learned that when you make some of the very best memory in the
world, lots of companies want it, from computer makers to wireless device
manufacturers to printer producers. (And we're really glad that they do!) But
then Micron asked, well, what about the end user? What about the everyday folks
who want to upgrade their existing systems with OEM-quality memory—the home
desktop user, the IT network guy, the student notebook user? Why don't we offer
our memory to the public, at factory-direct pricing? So in 1996, Micron
responded to a growing demand for high-quality memory upgrades among end users
who wanted the best possible performance from their systems. Micron launched
Crucial Technology in November of that year, and for the first time, end users
had the opportunity to buy directly from the manufacturer the same memory
modules bought by the world's major OEMs for original installation in their
systems. Having a direct sales division focused on selling Micron's DRAM to the
public was apparently an idea whose time had come, and eight successful years
later, we have expanded our product line to include graphics cards, flash cards
and readers, and USB flash drives. Why is Crucial thriving? We offer our
customers a number of clear advantages over our competitors...” ~more
info
September 2006 marks a
10 year anniversary for Crucial, spanning from 1996 to 2006. Ten years is a long
time in the computer industry, but I vividly remember playing Quake 1, which was released in
1996. That same year, Crucial opened its doors. Their most popular memory upgrade at
that time was a matching pair of 16MB EDO SIMMs (60ns), selling price: $141
each, or a total of $282. Most systems at this time required matching sets of
either two or four modules to operate correctly, which means doubling or
quadrupling the number of modules to buy. Memory was expensive in those days,
considering the megabytes you get per dollar now. Memory has sure come a long
way in a decade.
Below is a timeline which really gives
you an idea how things have changed over the years. Just select a year at the
bottom and then click on the red, green, and blue buttons in the center. Take a
trip down memory lane!
I've reviewed countless Crucial products in the past. Hard to believe it, but
the first one was way back in 2001 and it was on the PC-2100 memory. Crucial has
come a long way since then. As a matter of fact, the whole computer industry has
excelled in the past few years. Memory speeds have to keep up with the current
system advancements, so memory has become faster and faster. There is a big
difference between PC-2100 DDR memory from yesteryear and today's Crucial Ballistix Tracer Red PC2-6400 4GB Memory Kit.
The demands that are put on memory these days are enormous. With image/video editing packages and games requiring more and more memory, 1GB of memory is hardly enough anymore. Games like Battlefield 2142, F.E.A.R., Splinter Cell Double Agent, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and many more require a minimum of 2GBs to play at high resolution. Upcoming games being released in 2007 will further benefit from having 2GB of memory installed. Games like Medal of Honor: Airborne, Bioshock, and Crysis definitely aid from 2GB of memory. As a matter of fact, if you can afford it, go with 4GB. Additionally, Microsoft Windows Vista operating system requires more memory than XP. I would recommend nothing short of 4GB of memory if you are installing Vista, especially since DDR2 is very affordable. Let's get on with the review.
