INTRODUCTION

   Who would had thought that even though roughly 20 years ago 128MB of DDR RAM was more than enough for even the most demanding users today even 32GB of DDR4 RAM might just not be enough for some (for some heavy professional applications even twice that amount will probably not be enough). Certainly, these gigantic amounts of RAM are not the only thing we didn't really have back then, today one also needs to take into account frequency, timings and even features like heatspreader size and design and RGB lighting. Crucial is among the oldest RAM manufacturers and since our latest DDR4 charts already include their Ballistix Elite series today we decided to take a step backwards and check their Ballistix Sport AT series and more specifically a quad-channel 32GB 3000MHZ CL17 kit.

   Crucial is a global brand of Micron Technology, Inc. Crucial solid state drives (SSDs) and memory (DRAM) upgrades are compatible with over 100,000 new and old desktops, laptops, workstations, and servers. Available worldwide at leading retail and e-tail stores, commercial resellers, and system integrators, Crucial products enhance system performance and user productivity. Learn more at Crucial.com.

   The Ballistix Sport AT line of DDR4 modules by Crucial is XMP 2.0 certified and currently available in 8/16GB single, 16/32GB dual and 32/64 quad-channel kits (we actually used 4 single module packages for this review) with frequencies all the way up to 3200MHZ (2666/3000/3200MHZ), CAS latency timings set as low as 16 (2666/3000MHZ CL17 & 3200MHZ CL16) and voltage set at 1.35v for all kits. Under the very short gunmetal gray (with a touch of yellow) heatspreaders (designed specifically to match the color theme of ASUS TUF Gaming mainboards) of the Ballistix Sport AT modules Crucial has placed 8GB D-Die memory chips by Micron (single rank for the 8GB modules and dual rank for the 16GB modules). Of course, as expected from a leading manufacturer like Crucial the entire Ballistix Sport AT line is covered by a limited lifetime warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE BALLISTIX SPORT AT DDR4 3000MHZ CL17

As mentioned earlier we received 4 single module blister packages for this review.

Just a single 8GB module is placed inside each package (although each package has room for 2 modules).

Crucial decided to make this special edition RAM (gunmetal gray and yellow heatspreaders) for owners of ASUS TUF mainboards.

A very small sticker located at the rear of the modules contains the serial number, frequency, timings and voltage requirement.

The heatspreaders are thin and short so you shouldn't have any clearance issues with radiators and CPU coolers in general.

Measuring just 35mm top to bottom (28mm for the heatspreader) the Ballistix Sport AT modules are even shorter than the XPOWER Turbine modules.

Here you can see some pictures of the Ballistix Sport AT installed in our system (unfortunately the TUF color theme doesn't stand out in the dark).

Thanks to the popular Thaiphoon Burner program you can see detailed information about the kit we’re testing today.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Thanks to XMP profiles the only thing one needs to do in order to run this RAM kit at its advertised frequency, timings and voltages is to choose/enable it from within the Bios and reboot. That being said if you're into overclocking you may not wish to use the main XMP profile but instead to choose your very own frequency, timings and voltages to achieve even higher performance numbers and that's exactly what we'll also be doing during our DDR4 tests. To be more specific aside testing each kit with its XMP profile we will also be upping the voltages (up to 1.4V max) and frequencies (200MHZ increments) until we find the maximum achievable stable frequency. We also thought about upping voltages and reducing timings instead of increasing the frequency of the modules as high as it can go (always stable and without going over 1.4V) but the end results are pretty much identical.

   As for the how we'll be testing each DDR4 Quad-Kit to arrive in our lab well there aren't that many benchmark programs that only test RAM (or at least RAM and CPU without anything else coming into play) but we got most of them and so you will be seeing results from following benchmarking programs, AIDA64 Engineer Edition, Cinebench Release 20, MaxMemm2 (because we are getting low performance numbers this doesn't seem to play well with our test rig - probably because of the X299 architecture - but we decided to include it regardless), Passmark Performance Test 9, Sisoftware Sandra Titanium and WPrime v1.55. All tests are performed on a fresh Windows 10 Pro installation (complete with all updates until the day of this review) and are repeated a total of 6 times after which the average numbers get recorded into our charts.

TEST RESULTS - XMP PROFILE

TEST RESULTS - OVERCLOCK

Just like other similar kits we managed to raise the frequency of the Ballistix Sport AT DDR4 3000MHZ CL17 modules by Crucial all the way up to a stable 3600MHz CL20 (3200MHZ 1.37V / 3400MHZ 1.38V / 3600MHZ 1.4V).

CONCLUSION

   Having already tested the Ballistix Elite 64GB 3200MHZ CL16 kit we more or less knew exactly what to expect from its lower-end brother the Ballistix Sport AT 32GB 3000MHZ CL17 kit, at least in terms of stock performance. What we didn’t know is how well the Micron D-Die memory chips would overclock and as you can see from our charts and CPU-Z screenshots although CAS latency wasn’t as low as with some of the other kits we’ve reviewed to date getting a stable OC with 600MHZ over the base clocks is always a good result (also it’s safe to assume that you can squeeze even better performance if you break 1.4V). As far as looks go if you happen to have an ASUS TUF mainboard the gunmetal gray color theme of the Ballistix Sport AT modules will fit like a glove. On the other hand, if you don’t have an ASUS TUF mainboard you may want to opt for the Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGBDDR4 RAM by Crucial instead (review soon).

  At the time of this review the Ballistix Sport AT 32GB 3000MHZ CL17 (4x8GB) by Crucial retails for USD256.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 183Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk – for some strange reason however the 3200MHZ CL16 kit is cheaper making it a much better deal). This of course puts the Ballistix Sport AT kit right in the middle of several similar kits so at the end of the day the TUF color theme may actually be the decisive factor. Overall, we’re satisfied with the performance of the Ballistix Sport AT 32GB 3000MHZ CL17 kit and that’s also why it comes highly recommended by us especially for owners of ASUS TUF mainboards.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design (ASUS TUF Gaming Edition)
- Overall Performance (Up To 3600MHz CL20)
- Short Heat Spreaders (Zero Clearance Issues)
- Lifetime Limited Warranty
- 3200MHZ CL16 Kit Price (EU)

CONS

- Price (USA)
- No RGB Lighting