Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2400MHz 32GB Kit Review

Overview

 

Not much has changed in the world of Memory/RAM in the last year or so to be honest, although with the advent of cheaper prices there’s no better time to think about larger capacities. With that in mind today I will be taking a look at a new 32GB kit from Crucial.

This is the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2400MHz 32GB (BLS4C8G4D240FSE) kit, a DDR4 kit consisting of x4 8GB modules with Timings of 16-16-16-39 at a voltage of 1.2v. Admittedly we have seen the Crucial Sport LT modules before but now, as can be seen here they’re now available in red as well as white and grey.

 

 

 

Packaging is the now standard Memory/RAM affair (no scissors required) with all four modules arriving at pcG in a sealed clear plastic wallet.

 

 

On opening the wallet we find that the four modules themselves sit clipped into two separate plastic trays. Behind this tray there’s a cardboard Crucial folder that gives a basic guide on how to install the modules. And that’s it, nothing else, not even a sticker! For that I applaud you Crucial, I’m so fed up with everything coming with stickers… 😉

At the time of review, the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2400MHz 32GB Kit (BLS4C8G4D240FSE) is available from Amazon for approximately £134 and comes with a limited lifetime warranty.

 

Specifications/Features

courtesy of Crucial

Series Sport LT

Memory Type DDR4

Capacity 32GB (8GBx4)

Multi-Channel Kit Dual Channel Kit

Tested Speed 2400MHz

Tested Latency 16-16-16-39-2N

Tested Voltage 1.2v

Registered/Unbuffered Unbuffered

Error Checking Non-ECC

SPD Speed 2400MHz

SPD Voltage 1.20v

Fan lncluded No

Height 44 mm / 1.73 inch

Warranty Limited Lifetime

Features Intel XMP 2.0 (Extreme Memory Profile) Ready

* Additional details available here

 

First Impressions

 

 

First impressions of the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT modules are pretty good, I like the colour red (but hey it’s a popular colour right!?) and like the digital styled military camo pattern on them also. They’re also a good size (33mm in height/despite what Crucial seem to suggest) meaning that they’ll fit with pretty much any setup out there…

 

 

As far as the design of the Crucial Ballistic Sport LT goes it may best be described as a safe design yet it’s still a good looking design. Both sides are effectively the same except for two information stickers found on one side only. Note that there’s no ‘Warranty Void if Removed’ sticker, so therefore you know what I’m thinking… 😉

 

 

This time around as the modules are now Red Crucial have elected to use a black PCB which works well. The modules themselves are actually quite short, which is always a good thing, gone are the days of the massive RAM heatsinks, well I hope so anyway! The modules measure in at a total height of 33mm, meaning that they’re likely to fit in with most Rig builds and under pretty much any Air CPU Cooler.

 

Hardware Installation

 

To install the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT modules could not be easier as it is basically the same as installing any other memory modules. Just line up the slot in the Module with the key in the Motherboard DIMM slot and (carefully) push into place. Make sure the RAM can be secured by the clips, as this is a good way to know that the RAM modules have been pushed in far enough…

 

 

As you can see the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT modules, at only 33mm in height, offer plenty of clearance, they also look good too, especially here as they compliment our test ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6 motherboard well.

 

 

The images above show that there’s plenty of clearance around the modules meaning that you are unlikely to run into any clearance issues with this Memory/RAM and an air type CPU Cooler. As you can see our Noctua NH-U12S fitted with ease.

 

• Test Rig Setup

Case	Cooler Master HAF XB	Power Supply	Corsair AX760i 760W
Motherboard	ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 GAMING K6	CPU	Intel Core i5 6600K
CPU Cooler	Noctua NH-U12S	RAM	Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2400MHz 32GB
Graphics Card	EVGA GeForce GTX 980Ti Classified	SSD	HyperX FURY 120GB

 

 

What was also useful was the fact that these Ballistix Sport LT modules did not default to the default Intel maximum speed of 2133MHz, but instead set themselves up at their maximum rated speed of 2400MHz, with the correct Timings (16-16-16-39) and the correct Voltage (1.2v). No need to use the XMP setting!? Result, see screenshots above.

 

Testing Methodology/Setup

 

The Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2400MHz 32GB Kit was tested on our new Z170 (Skylake) based platform shown above, using Windows 10 64Bit with all relevant Drivers installed. Prime95 (Blend) was used to test stability and the following benchmarks were also used.

• AIDA64
• 3DMark
• UNiGiNE Heaven 4.0
• Metro Last Light

 

Hardware Performance

 

 

AIDA64 Benchmark Results

Memory	Type	Platform	Read	Write	Copy	Latency
Patriot Viper DDR4 2400MHz 16GB Kit @ 15-15-15-35	DDR4	X99	40550	37050	45891	71.9 ns
G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4 2400MHz 16GB Kit @ 15-15-15-35	DDR4	X99 (Quad)	40502	36974	45615	72.0 ns
G.Skill TridentZ DDR4 3000MHz 16GB @ 15-16-16-35	DDR4	Z170	42559	44605	40599	53.2 ns
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB Kit @ 16-16-16-39	DDR4	Z170	34023	36352	33339	60.6 ns
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2400MHz 32GB @ 16-16-16-39	DDR4	Z170	32559	35683	33263	67.3 ns
Crucial Ballistix Elite DDDR4 2666MHz 16GB Kit @ 16-17-17-36	DDR4	X99	35829	19186	32148	73.9 ns
G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4 2400MHz 8GB Kit @ 15-15-15-35	DDR4	Z170	34439	35588	31274	55.3 ns
Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR3 2133MHz 16GB Kit @ 9-11-11-31	DDR3	Z97	32180	33437	31298	48.9 ns
HyperX Savage DDR3 2400MHz 8GB @ 11-13-14-32	DDR3	Z97	33409	34811	29523	48.9 ns
Avexir Raiden Series DDR3 2133MHz 8GB Kit @ 9-11-10-27	DDR3	Z97	30478	31445	28178	48.9 ns

 

I have left the DDR3 RAM results in the benchmark results table for comparison purposes as obviously much has changed here for Z170 (new MB, new CPU and obviously new RAM). As you can see the 32GB version of the Ballistix Sport LT cant quite match the speed of its smaller sibling the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB kit, although to be honest there’s really nothing in it when you look at the Copy scores. Looking at the results for the AIDA64 memory benchmark you can see that the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT modules do indeed perform well, as far as the numbers (Read/Write/Copy) go. But as you can clearly see adding more Memory/RAM doesn’t necessarily mean more memory bandwidth.

 

Gaming Related Benchmarks (Z170)

 

Memory	3DMark (FireStrike Extreme)	Unigine Heaven	Metro Last Light
G.Skill TridentZ 3000MHz 16GB	8037	1093	121.00
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB	8001	1097	117.00
G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4 2400MHz 8GB	8023	1097	117.00
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 32GB	8014	1090	117.00

 

Does more memory (over 8GB) and or faster memory mean you will get better FPS in Games? Well, we’ve looked at this before and as a rule of thumb it’s safer to say No rather than Yes! Why? As you can see from the above tests, in the pure Gaming tests (Unigine & Metro) there’s no discernible difference between these Crucial 2400MHz modules and our regular test 2400MHz modules! It makes no difference whether your using 8Gb, 16GB or 32GB! Bottom line is that (within reason) 2400MHz RAM is 2400MHz RAM! And that’s actually a good thing to know. 😉

But we need to be careful here: In recent testing I have seen more system memory used when running at higher resolutions (Ultra Wide (3440×1440) & 4K (384×2160)) with high levels of detail in Game. Therefore if you’re planning on playing at these extreme resolutions then 16GB or more is your best bet!

 

Final Thoughts

 

There’s no doubt that Crucial know a thing or two about Memory/RAM and there’s no doubt that their reputation precedes them. The Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2400MHz 32GB (BLS4C8G4D240FSE) kit is also a great kit for those looking for the ultimate in performance and capacity. There really is very little to complain about here to be honest…

The Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2400MHz 32GB modules arrived at pcGameware in the (now standard) plastic wallet, with no scissors required to get at the modules within! Once out of the packaging it was obvious that the Ballistix Sport LT modules were both good looking and low profile (approx 33mm high), which is good to see as is the new vivid red colour scheme.

Installation was a breeze and the PC booted with no problems. Once in the UEFI though it was odd (and good) to see that the modules were already running at their maximum rated speed of 2400MHz. Odd as normally all modules over 2133MHz default to the Intel maximum supported speed of 2133MHz. But not the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT modules, they ran at 2400MHz 16-16-16-39 @ 1.2v out of the box, no need to enable the XMP profile!?

Performance wise the Ballistix Sport LT modules in this 32GB kit ran well, although it would appear that the modules cant quite perform as well as Crucial’s own 16GB (x2 8GB) Sport LT kit, which is a shame. But there’s still no denying that it’s a lot of (high performance) RAM for just £134.

Yet again Crucial offers up a good set of RAM modules that are both good looking and low in profile, setup’s a breeze as the modules seem to default to their top rated speed even without enabling XMP. Memory prices and competition is now fierce though and although this 32GB kit comes in at a fair price there’s still plenty of other kits that offer the same…

 

Verdict

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Many thanks to Crucial for providing this sample for review