I'll be testing how the Crucial DDR PC3200 does against similar Mushkin PC3200, both running Dual-Channel. It's sort of an unfair test as the Mushkin ram I have is 2 512MB sticks, compared to the 2 256MB sticks of Crucial. In testing the ram performance I'll overclock the Barton 2500+ to Barton 3200+ speeds, or 11x200. That's 200 fsb x 2 = 400fsb. Therefore the ram will be at its rated speed.

• Asus A7N8X v2.0
• AMD Barton 2500+
• 80gb Seagate 7200 IV
• Radeon 8500 128MB
• Fortissimo III sound
• Antec TrueBlue480 psu

Below you see the results running PC Mark. The picture on the left is with the two 256MB sticks of Crucial DDR PC3200 while the picture on the right is running the two 512MB sticks of Mushkin DDR PC3200.

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Higher is better. The Crucial scored at 5662 while the Mushkin scored at 5580. Notice the other scores were slightly better too, the cpu and hard drive performance.

Next test is running Sandra 2003. The first graph below is running the Crucial DDR while the second is with the Mushkin DDR.

As you can see, once again the Crucial tests faster than the Mushkin DDR. Keep in mind, the Crucial was using just two 256MB sticks for a total of 512 while the Mushkin was using two 512MB sticks for a total of 1gb.

You are welcome to check the price difference between the Crucial and Mushkin ram, but the Crucial DDR is a lower cost. No heat spreaders come with the Crucial ram as they do with the Mushkin, but frankly, most included heat spreaders for ram are just about worthless. It only adds to the "looks".

Crucial does not support overclocking, but being a pc abuser, I had to try. I could get my system stable at 11x203 using the Crucial DDR. Anything past that, my system would just reboot. Now that's using default voltage on the ram.

The Crucial DDR PC3200 does what is is suppose to and bests a more expensive ram in the process. Couple that with Crucials known quality, most excellent service, support, shipping and their Top 10 Reasons to buy Crucial, we have our selves a winner here!

Many thanks to Crucial for sending us the two 256MB sticks of their new PC3200 for this review. Direct link to the Crucial PC3200.