The Ballistix Tactical Tracer Series Memory not only provides the performance you want but also boasts aesthetic design that makes your system look good. It’s a great choice for case modders, serious gamers, or PC enthusiasts who want to get more out of their systems.
- Performance memory for case modders, serious gamers, and PC enthusiasts
- LED lights add visual variety with four selectable patterns
- LEDs available in two color combinations: red/green and blue/orange
- Custom Ballistix M.O.D. software monitors temperatures and controls LEDs
- XMP profiles for advanced speeds and timings
- Custom heat spreader
- Premium-quality DRAM
Tactical Tracer modules feature LED lights and thermal sensors, which allows the custom M.O.D. software utility to monitor temperatures and customize the LED colors and patterns that play out across the module. Touting all the usual features of the Tactical series – XMP profiles for advanced speeds and timings, stylish black PCBs, and a custom heat spreader for improved thermal design and heat dissipation – the Tactical Tracer series is designed to add some serious bling.
With the integrated and customizable LED light system that’s built into every design, Tactical Tracer modules feature activity-indicating LEDs on the top edge of the module to reflect your system’s activity level, while ground effect LEDs emit steady light. Switch between red/green and blue/orange LED color combinations on the fly to get a customized look and display. All in real time, you can adjust the brightness of the LEDs, turn them on and off, and adjust LED light patterns.
Tactical Tracer modules also feature thermal heat sensors and Ballistix’s custom software utility called Ballistix M.O.D. that allows you to dial into your system and monitor temperatures in real time. Designed exclusively to support Crucial Ballistix high-end modules, the Ballistix M.O.D. utility (Memory Overview Display), allows you to load up your system while also keeping internal temperatures in check. With Ballistix’s temperature monitoring technology, you can keep tabs on your performance memory and keep your system at the top of its game.
Crucial is a trusted name when it comes to DRAM, and that’s no coincidence. As a brand of Micron, one of the largest manufacturers of DRAM in the world, Crucial’s engineers design, refine, test, manufacture, and support the extensive line of memory modules. To ensure that you get a reliable memory upgrade, they test every single Ballistix Tactical Tracer module in the Systems Compatibility Group to make certain that it meets the exacting specifications. If it doesn’t meet or exceed the performance levels that were advertised, then it doesn’t leave the doors.
Pros: No defects in the 4 sticks I bought. Stable and cool (~38 deg. C) under the Passmark stress test. No trouble running at advertised speeds on an Intel DZ77BH-55K mobo. The "Mod" utility (www.crucial.com/mod) works well and doesn't need to be memory resident or even installed after the LEDs are to your liking. The utility lets you control the colors and patterns of the individual sticks of RAM. I bought a pair of red/green and a pair of blue/orange, and together I can make the inside of my case look like a psychedelic rainbow (if I wanted to). There are LEDs pointing down and up. The downward LEDs are always steady on. The upward LEDs are the activity LEDs that move around due to memory activity. The downward and upward LED sets each have their own color option. So, for example, you could light up the motherboard red and have the activity lights be green.
Cons: Not really a con, but it did make me nervous to push on the heat sinks in order to seat the RAM. There was no other way to do it as far as I could tell. It didn't cause a problem though. Apparently Crucial uses a strong adhesive!
Overall Review: Note that these are the red/green sticks (hence the RG at the end of the product code). There are 4 LED activity patterns to choose from: 1) Lava - LEDs seem to go crazy at this setting, blinking on and off rapidly and randomly. 2) Stereo - Think "stereo equalizer". You get "steady on" lights in the middle of the RAM. They bounce outward (and back in) rapidly during activity. Kind of a cool effect. 3) Stream - Think "wave". Lights move in one direction, like a wave. Wave moves faster with more activity. 4) Inside out - Like the Stream mode, but lights start in the middle and move outward toward the edges.