INTRODUCTION
As expected the recent introduction of the very good (yet mainstream) Z77 based solutions and CPUs by Intel really changed nothing in the market (in terms of performance) and so X79 based solutions are still at the top of the food chain (although far from perfect). Now as most of you know we upgraded our main test rig to the LGA2011 (X79) with a brand new 2nd generation Intel Core i7 3930k and so because of that we will be focused on Quad Channel memory kits in 2012 (perhaps in 2013 as well if nothing better comes along). Today with us we have one such kit and more specifically the latest Ballistix Elite 16GB DDR3 1600MHz (BLE4KIT4G3D1608DE1TX0) by Crucial.
Crucial Technology is now Lexar Media, a division of Micron Europe Limited. Lexar Media boasts one of the most comprehensive offerings of memory product lines in the industry. We deliver high-quality, award-winning products in every memory category: USB flash drives, all popular form factors of memory cards and card readers, DRAM computer memory for PCs and Mac systems, and solid state drives (SSD). We back our products with outstanding customer support and industry-leading warranties, and we strive to expand our offerings to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers — customers just like you. Our Crucial brand reflects our status as the only consumer memory upgrade supplier that's part of a major DRAM manufacturer. We sell high-quality memory that has been qualified and approved by most major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The Crucial.com website features innovative online tools and an intuitive design that makes it easy to find compatible memory and recommended upgrades. And because we carry over 250,000 upgrades for more than 40,000 systems, we've got options for nearly every system out there. The Lexar brand has long been synonymous with reliable, high-performance products, which is reflected in the award-wining memory products and USB flash drives sold under the Lexar name. Lexar Media has more than 10 years’ experience in the memory industry. Our strong retail brands, along with our direct online and OEM presence, make Lexar Media a global player in every major customer channel, including value-added resellers, system builders, and e-commerce. And we've built a name synonymous with quality, innovation, and customer service. Lexar Media. when memory matters.
Prior to starting this entire review i need to point out that when Crucial send us this package the BLE4KIT4G3D1608DE1TX0 16GB kit was not available yet so instead they send us two BLE4G3D1608DE1TX0 8GB kits which should work practically the same together (or almost). That aside the Ballistix Elite series kit we have here with us may not come with the best available speeds (1600MHz is quite mainstream nowadays) but it achieves them with a very low voltage of 1.5v and very good timings of 8-8-8-24 so when used with an X79 mainboard which has no problems going up to 1.65v you should be able to work miracles with it. However should is not enough and since seeing is believing let’s not stay more time in the introduction page.
SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS
Don't expect anything remarkable in terms of packaging since both kits arrived inside the usual clamshell clear plastic package as with most kits in the market.
The two modules along with installation instructions are placed inside the packages.
THE BALLISTIX ELITE 16GB 1600MHZ QUAD CHANNEL KIT
The Ballistix Elite series come with large heat spreaders so they should be able to take quite a bit of overclocking punishment.
Crucial has placed the product name right at the center of the front.
The barcode and country of origin are placed on a small sticker at the far right.
At the far left we see the kits serial number, default timings and required voltage (again default).
The rear has nothing on it but i guess that's not a bad thing (plain black looks good).
Perhaps the only issue with tall heat spreaders is clearance with your CPU Cooler so prior to buying such modules make sure they fit.
Crucial also offers their BallistixUtility if you want to know the temperatures of your modules.
Unfortunately after loading it returned a motherboard not compatible error so it's obviously not ment for X79 based boards.
TEST BED
TESTING METHODOLOGY
Whenever i test something which can be measured in terms of performance i always like comparing it with similar products just to see how well it stands its ground against them (comparing apples to apples is natural) and since this is not the first quad channel kit on our test bench we can now compare it against the previous ones. To give you the best and most accurate results possible we decided on using several methods including both benchmarking programs/suites and games. The benchmarking programs used are the well-known AID64 Extreme Engineer (formerly known as Everest Ultimate), the Sisoftware Sandra Pro, the old but quite reliable ScienceMark 64Bit and the all-time classic SuperPi 1.5MOD. Finally we use HAWX II as our reference benchmark game since due to its high FPS we are able to better showcase and pinpoint any differences between kits.
By default the Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB kit comes with a command rate of 2 but manually switching it to 1 didn't produce any issues whatsoever with any of our benchmarks and so since the differences between 1 and 2 are quite small (as you can see from the Kingston results) we decided to only test it with 1T. Overclocking the kit was actually quite easy and so by leaving the voltage on auto (slightly increased to 1.58v) we were able to achieve 1866MHz but we had to loosen the timings to 9-8-9-24 (could be because we also used a command rate of 1T here as well). Further overclocking was possible by manually increasing the voltage to 1.65v which yielded impressive results and more specifically allowed us to reach 2133MHz at 10-9-10-27 (again command rate 1) with slight issues however in HAWX II which were enough for us to stay at 1866MHz at 9-8-9-24. Still since these are basically two 8GB kits combined and not the same exactly as the 16GB kit retailing in the market right now you may be able to reach 2133MHz and perhaps even slightly more without issue.
TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / SCIENCEMARK
TEST RESULTS - SUPER PI / SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO
TEST RESULTS - HAWX II
CONCLUSION
Overall we were quite impressed with the Ballistix Elite 16GB 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit not only because it managed to go up to 1866MHz (it even reached 2133 but with freezing issues in HAWX II) by just slightly upping the voltage and loosening the timings but also because Crucial supplies their own temperature monitoring utility (although it didn't work in our case). Of course since we didn't have the "real" 16 Quad Kit here but rather two 8GB kits i am quite certain that it will work better and so i am quite positive that it can go up to 2133MHz without having the same issues. The single drawback of the Ballistix Elite kits is the tall heat spreaders used so prior to making the purchase be sure to check whether or not your CPU Cooler gets above the memory banks to avoid any clearance issues.
The Ballistix Elite 16GB 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit (BLE4KIT4G3D1608DE1TX0) by Crucial retails for around USD150 inside the USA but it's not currently available for purchase inside the EU. However the two 8GB kits we used in this review (BLE4G3D1608DE1TX0) retail for around 130Euros which is not bad at all (if you can't wait for the 16GB kit) for a kit that can easily do 1866MHz and perhaps even 2133MHz (with another mainboard and/or even command rate 2). Bottom line if you are on a tight budget and can't go for the more expensive 2133MHz+ kits then the Ballistix Elite 16GB 1600MHz Quad Kit by Crucial is certainly worth a look and that's why it gets our Golden award.
PROS
- Quality
- Quad Channel (Full 16GB kit)
- Performance (Should Go Up To 2133MHz)
- 16GB
- XMP Profiles
- BallistixUtility
- Lifetime Warranty
- Price (For Some)
CONS
- The X79 Platform Supports Much Faster Speeds (2400MHz+)
- BallistixUtility Doesn't Support X79 Boards
- Tall Heat Spreaders