Specifications and Features
SPECIFICATIONS:
- DRAM family – Ballistix
- Brand – Crucial
- Speed – DDR4-3600 / PC speed – PC4-28800
- Extended timings – 16-18-18-38
- Density – 64GB Kit (32GBx2)
- Kit Qty – 2
- Module type – UDIMM / Form factor – UDIMM
- DIMM type – Unbuffered
- Voltage – 1.35V
- Warranty – Limited 10-year warranty
Our Crucial Ballistix memory modules are rated at DDR4-3600 CL16-18-18-38 at the standard voltage for gaming memory series, so 1.35V. This is the fastest memory at such a high capacity we can buy. Most competition is offering 64GB DDR4-3600 memory kits at CL18-22-22 and nothing faster than that. I can say that looking at the current market, even XMP for the Ballistix RGB looks impressive.
As I mentioned earlier, our tests will include two 64GB memory kits, so 128GB in total, or four 32GB modules. Who can use so much RAM at home? Probably not many users but content creators, video editors, and those who use virtual machines can, for sure, use more than 64GB of RAM.
Ballistix RGB DDR4-3600 is using dual-rank modules with Micron B-die IC. It’s not a surprise, and I’m actually glad to see it as I already had some nice overclocking results on this IC. The more popular IC is Micron E-die, but I feel that the B-die has a higher potential.
Our 128GB kit works without issues and fully stable. However, there is also one thing worth mentioning. In our tests, we are using Ryzen 5 PRO 4650G processor because it has a much stronger memory controller than the Ryzen 3000 or 5000 series. As far as 32GBx2 works fine at XMP on all these processor series, then the whole 128GB may cause problems at DDR4-3600 or higher on Ryzen 3000 or 5000. Some additional tests were performed on Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 9 5900X, but in both cases, we couldn’t run 128GB DDR4-3600 at more than XMP settings or tighter timings and the same clock.
Simply, if you don’t have Ryzen 4000 series CPU, then I recommend a 32GBx2 kit, as sold by Ballistix, or use lower frequency memory, which is also available in stores.
Ballistix provides already well-known MOD software. This software is around for a while and, in the latest version, supports all Ballistix DDR4 modules. It gives us more detailed info about memory modules. Those modules with thermal sensors will also show us the temperature in real-time. RGB series will additionally let us manage LED lighting. Lucky for us, the Ballistix RGB memory supports all these features, and below, you can see all MOD software tabs and available options.
The RGB can be controlled manually or by picking one of many modes. Lighting modes can be different in motherboard software, while the MOD software offers more modes and full control over 8 lighting zones. Each zone can be programmed separately to mix static and dynamic effects on each memory module. This is something that competition doesn’t offer.
I will tell you some more about the RGB lighting on the next page of this review, where I also show you some product photos. Let’s go to the next page.
