Michael H;1638625
Considering the criticisms applied to this pack can also be applied (to an even greater extent) to the £500 Corsair Dominator pack tested earlier in the week, what justifies the crucial scoring 62% and the corsair 80%?
The value portion of the final score is much smaller for high-end and extreme modules than it is for run-of-the-mill mid-price components.
The Corsair DOMINATOR scores very poorly on value, with the Crucial faring only slightly better, but it does better (and much) in terms of performance. Yes, the benchmarks only show a little difference, but the DOMNATOR is the fastest RAM you can buy. In comparison, the Crucial, is barely above mid-range but also horribly expensive.
The DOMINATOR is that £1,000 CD or Blu-ray player and receives recognition, via scoring, that this is the creme de la creme of DDR3 desktop memory. You want memory? There is nothing that's currently better, and price is somewhat incidental.
The Crucial Ballistix is in no mans' land, being some way from the fastest and, as noted above, priced highly. It's difficult to recommend no matter which way you look at it.
We have no intrinsic problem in passing impartial judgement on ultra-expensive kit
if we can see a demand and point to it. The DOMINATOR has that point, we believe, whilst the Crucial doesn't, hence the deviation in scoring.