Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 Review – Sexy Memory

<p>The need for high-performance memory has never been higher&period; The average PC gamer may have noticed recent games and hardware pushing the recommended and optimal requirements for their systems above and beyond 8GB&period; The gameplay recorders and streamers amongst the PC community need as much power as possible to have an optimal gameplay experience alongside their media efforts&period; This is where DDR4 modules and in particular high-performance sets come in&period; The recent introduction of DDR4&comma; which provides even more performance and control capabilities has kept firmly above and beyond the &&num;8220&semi;recommended&&num;8221&semi; settings&period; Crucial are long-standing figures of memory manufacturing&comma; and they have proven on previous occasions that their memory is some of the best available on the market&period; The Ballistix sport LT DDR4 memory is defined as &&num;8220&semi;memory for everyone who wants to get higher performance out of their system&comma;&&num;8221&semi; and  it&&num;8217&semi;s safe to say there is a clear focus on the enthusiast and gaming communities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>Design<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>We&&num;8217&semi;ve all done it&period; Sometimes you just have to admire how pretty hardware can be&period; I personally have spent far too much time on Reddit looking at rigs that are just astonishing&period; Some even make me question my own style&period; Design is certainly a sector where the Sport LT ticks all the boxes&period; The memory is available in both white and grey camouflage&semi; the white set has a sleek camouflage white PCB whilst the grey edition &lpar;the one we are reviewing&rpar; sports a classy black PCB&period; The heat-spreaders area is a key feature of the Sport LT&semi; they provide higher thermal performance and quite frankly look fantastic&period; The razor-like edges add an aggressive look to it&comma; something which I appreciate&period; Often RAM can go unnoticed in a PC&comma; so it is nice to see a set finally showing some flare&period; It is also nice to see a set of RAM that correctly advertises &&num;8220&semi;Black&sol;White PCB&period;&&num;8221&semi; Not brown&comma; not some dodgy cream color&comma; but an actual black&sol;white set&period; The only concern here is for air-cooled systems which need to ensure that they have adequate clearing from the attached fans&comma; so be sure to check first&period; It is certainly notable for those high-end builders out there that the camouflage heat-spreader and PCB would look absolutely bad-ass on some of the recent camouflage boards that have released&period; However&comma; I can imagine the camo look may not be everyone&&num;8217&semi;s cup of tea&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>Packaging<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>The packaging isn&&num;8217&semi;t perhaps the most appealing in the world&semi; it actually somewhat resembles something you&&num;8217&semi;d get from a DIY store&period; However&comma; the real beauty comes from what is inside&period; There are some images below of both the packaging and RAM itself&period; I think you can probably agree&semi; it is awesome&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-large wp-image-99152" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;04004621&sol;20160131&lowbar;194322-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"20160131&lowbar;194322" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"349" &sol;><br &sol;>&NewLine;<img class&equals;"aligncenter size-large wp-image-99155" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;04004602&sol;3849af46622b0f9a07fcb68ae8af5f35-1-1024x576&period;png" alt&equals;"3849af46622b0f9a07fcb68ae8af5f35" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"349" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Technical Specifications<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>When launched in September 2012&comma; the new DDR4 technology featured a higher module density over DDR3 and at a lower voltage&period; The result is larger and cooler DIMMs giving the largest module size to date with feasible speeds in the 3500&sol;4000Mhz region&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Product Description&colon;<&sol;strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;Crucial Ballistix Sport LT &&num;8211&semi; DDR4 &&num;8211&semi; 16 GB&colon;2 x 8 GB &&num;8211&semi; DIMM 288-pin<br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>Product Type&colon;<&sol;strong> RAM memory<br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>Capacity&colon;<&sol;strong> 16 GB&colon;2 x 8 GB<br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>Memory Type&colon;<&sol;strong> DDR4 SDRAM &&num;8211&semi; DIMM 288-pin<br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>Upgrade Type&colon;<&sol;strong> Generic<br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>Data Integrity&colon;<&sol;strong> Check Non-ECC<br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>Speed&colon;<&sol;strong> 2400 MHz &lpar; PC4-19200 &rpar;<br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>Latency Timings&colon;<&sol;strong> CL16 &lpar; 16-16-16 &rpar;<br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>Features&colon;<&sol;strong> Heat sink&comma; dual channel&comma; Black PCB&comma; Intel Extreme Memory Profiles &lpar;XMP 2&period;0&rpar; &comma; unbuffered<br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>Voltage&colon;<&sol;strong> 1&period;2 V<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Product Highlights<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Speeds start at 2400 MT&sol;s<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Faster speeds and responsiveness than standard Crucial® DDR4 memory<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Ideal for gamers and performance enthusiasts<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Four channel memory architecture maximizes data rates<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Digital camo heat spreader and black PCB<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Easy plug-and-play installation<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Intel® XMP 2&period;0 profiles for easy configuration<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Optimized for the latest Intel X99 platforms<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Limited lifetime warranty<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Ballistix Sport LT comes with a number of benefits such as being well optimized and easily overclockable&period; There was a surprising amount of overclocking headroom&comma; considering its budget price&period; Under testing it attained a maximum frequency of roughly 2756Mhz when the voltage was increased from 1&period;2v to 1&period;35v&period; However&comma; as I can imagine&comma; there won&&num;8217&semi;t be many of you counting on overclocking your RAM&period; Stability is key and quite frankly the potential cons outweigh the benefits of a slightly higher frequency&period; The installation was quick and easy&semi; it&&num;8217&semi;s a simple plug-in and play&period; The RAM caused no issues on the MSI bios and performed well on RAM intensive applications&period; At one point &&num;8211&semi;  just to try and stretch its capability &&num;8211&semi; I opened up Adobe After Effects&comma; Photoshop and Premiere Pro just to see what problems I could provoke&period; All of these programs had a RAM allowance of 4-6GB&period; But&comma; no matter how hard I tried&comma; I never encountered any issues with the programs or the physical hardware itself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>Gaming<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Now here is probably the biggest consideration when it comes to upgrading or buying new RAM for a rig&semi; what should you keep in mind for gaming&quest; Well&comma; in terms of performance RAM&comma; it offers very little addition to your frame-rate in games&period; However&comma; that is not to say your RAM performance doesn&&num;8217&semi;t matter&period; Games can consume a lot of RAM&comma; especially with recent titles that are amping up their requirements&period; As game engines get more complex&comma; your machine will have to take the brunt of the changes&period; What really matters is how much RAM you have available&comma; how well it performs and how stable it is&period; The Sport LT performance is consistent&comma; staying at a wonderful 2400Mhz at a constant basis&period; The RAM also encounters absolutely no trouble in terms of stability&period; I never received any odd hitches that&comma; believe me&comma; happens with &&num;8220&semi;plug-in play RAM&&num;8221&semi;&period; Not too long ago 16GB RAM would have been considered &&num;8220&semi;overkill&&num;8221&semi;&period; Now however&comma; that isn&&num;8217&semi;t the case&period; Here is a list of recent titles minimum and recommended RAM usage&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-99159" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;04004538&sol;Untitled-1&period;png" alt&equals;"Untitled-1" width&equals;"400" height&equals;"800" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With games like <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;star-wars-battlefront-plans-for-upcoming-content&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Star Wars Battlefront<&sol;a><&sol;em> already sporting a 16GB recommended memory&comma; now really is the time to upgrade&period; It is likely that Frostbite-run games that will follow like <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;mirrors-edge-catalyst-trailer-explains-who-exactly-is-faith&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Mirror&&num;8217&semi;s Edge&colon; Catalyst<&sol;a><&sol;em> and a possible <em>Battlefield 5<&sol;em> will have the same requirements&period; Even with some of the 8GB titles such as <em>XCOM 2<&sol;em>&comma; I personally prefer to have just above the recommended for decent headroom&period; That way&comma; if I want to record&comma; stream or run other applications on the side&comma; I have that option without any potential limitations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>Value<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The final thing to consider really is price&period; DDR4 modules when they first launched were not cheap at all&period; However&comma; over time they have decreased significantly&period; You always have to find a nice price to performance balance with any hardware&period; What makes the Sport LT even more wonderful is its price&period; At the moment&comma; you can find the memory for between <strong>£77-£93<&sol;strong> in the UK <em>&lpar;Feb 2016&rpar;<&sol;em>&period; That is a great deal for RAM that performs well&comma; especially 16GBs of it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>Conclusion<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>To conclude&comma; the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT RAM is some of the best on the market&period; At a very modest price with excellent performance and stability&comma; this is a great set to purchase for those looking to upgrade or build a new PC&period; It overclocks well&comma; looks fantastic and the 16GB set is enough memory to provide you some comfort for the impending future of increased hardware requirements&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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