I always like getting new hardware in for testing. There's something about the endless possibilities that gets to me. Maybe I just like tinkering with new stuff too much, I don't know. Crucial obliged my needs this time by sending over their latest and greatest, the Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500. The sticks come with a sleek black heatspreader on a nice black PCB. They sure look mean, but will they perform? Plus anytime you get memory from Crucial there's always a chance of getting some really nice performing Micron memory chips. Let's put these in the test rig and fire her up.