Nowadays, there is an abundant supply of DDR4 memory modules with varying speeds and capacity. They also come in different colors, looks and design. Some have LEDs, some don’t, while others have plasma/lightning effects. Today we are going to take a look and review one of Crucial’s DDR4 memory kit geared towards any users who needs a stylish yet stable and reliable DDR4 memory kit – the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Red DDR4-2400 32GB kit (8GBx4). Crucial has previously released a grey and white version of the Ballistix Sport LT. As far as I know there is no difference between these memory kits except for the color of their heat spreader. The 8GB stick retails for around $30 at the time this review was posted. So how fast can the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Red DDR4-2400 go? And can we squeeze out more speed from this kit? Please continue reading our Ballistix Sport LT Red DDR4-2400 review below.
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Red DDR4 Review
The Red version of the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 memory is the latest addition to the company’s DDR4 memory lineup. It is basically similar with the Grey version (first Ballistix Sport LT DDR4) and the White version. The heat spreader design is basically the same, with the digital camo-themed heat spreader.
Optimized for the latest Intel platforms (100 series and X99), the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 features four channel memory architecture that maximizes data rates and speeds starting at 2400 MT/s. Obviously, this memory kit is faster and more responsive compared to the standard Crucial DDR4 memory. Like most memory modules, it supports Intel XMP 2.0 profile and comes with a limited lifetime warranty from the company.
The Ballistix Sport LT lineup is designed for performance enthusiasts, gamers, and anyone who simply wants to get more out of their system. Compared to competition, the Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 lineup doesn’t seemed to have a (very) high XMP clock speeds. In fact most of Crucial’s DDR4 memories have a clock speed of around 2400MHz to 2666MHz only. However, this doesn’t mean that their memory kits are not good. At these safe speeds, most (if not all) motherboards should be able to detect and validate them without any problem; and you should be able to set the XMP with ease. That’s actually one of the goals of Crucial’s memory.
Crucial designed the Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 to be a plug and play memory with little to no tweaking at all. Of course if you want to overclock the memory, that’s another story and you really need to tweak the memory’s config including setting the voltage higher if necessary.
Below is a screenshot of the SPD information of this memory kit taken from AIDA64’s report, and its specs sheet. After that, let’s proceed to the next page and take a closer look at the memory itself.
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Red 8GB DDR4-2400 Specifications
| Brand | Ballistix |
| Form Factor | UDIMM |
| Warranty | Limited Lifetime |
| Specs | DDR4 PC4-19200 • 16-16-16 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR4-2400 • 1.2V • 1024Meg x 64 • |
| Series | Ballistix Sport |
| ECC | NON-ECC |
| Speed | 2400 MT/S |
| Voltage | 1.2V |
| DIMM Type | Unbuffered |
Packaging and Closer Look
Above you see the front and back packaging of the Ballistix Sport LT Red DRR4. It’s pretty simple and nothing out of the ordinary.
Here we have the front view of the Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 Red. It looks gorgeously red and the heat spreader is a low profile type making it very much compatible with any type of CPU cooler you may use. The black PCB mixes well with the red camo-themed heat spreader and there are silver edgings that have a serrated texture on it, giving it some shine when looked from an angle.
The heat spreaders are identical on both sides, with some additional information about the memory stick. They are also not joined, leaving a gap between the top portions of the memory. The only thing that holds the heat spreaders on to the memory chips is an adhesive tape (most probably a thermal adhesive tape).
Above you see how the Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 looks like without its heat spreader, pretty common if you ask me. Below is a closer look on the Micron chips with the BX (Ballistix) branding imprinted on each chip. Unlike in other DDR4 memory where each chip installed bares the model of the chip used, this one has none. But I’m pretty sure these are Micron chips and are said to be “rigorously tested to some of the most demanding standards in the industry”.
Now it’s time to install this memory kit on my test bench and let’s see how the Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 performs.
Test Setup and Overclocking
In testing the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Red DDR4-2400 32GB memory kit, I am using a Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7 motherboard powered with an Intel Core i7-6700K Skylake processor. Below are the rest of the specifications of the test system.
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64bit
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7
Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Red DDR4-2400 32GB
Graphics card: Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Edition
Storage Drives: Samsung 950 Pro NVME SSD
Power Supply: Seasonic 1050W Platinum
Chassis: DimasTech Bench Table Easy V3.0
Here is a CPU-Z screenshot of the Z170 system, where the memory is configured using its Intel XMP Profile.
Overclocking the Ballistix Sport LT DDR4
The Crucial Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 has a clock speed of 2400MHz, so I was hoping that its memory clock speed can be pushed more considering that there’s plenty of room. First I tried setting it to 2800MHz, then 3000MHz with loose timings. Finally I settled with 3000MHz with a timing of 18-18-18-38, and bump up the voltage to 1.35V. It was fairly easy getting 3000MHz with this memory kit, but anything beyond 3000MHz and the system wouldn’t boot or POST properly anymore. So for the OC testing and benchmarking, I went for 3000MHz at 18-18-18-28 / 1.35V settings.
This may look like you could buy a Crucial DDR4-2400 memory kit, overclock it to 3000MHz and save some money instead of buying a 3000MHz memory kit. Usually, memory kits with higher clock speeds are priced higher specially if it’s beyond 3000MHz. But does bumping the Ballistix Sport LT’s speed to 3000MHz from 2400MHz yields any performance improvement?
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Red DDR4-2400 Benchmark Results
In testing the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Red DDR4 32GB (8GBx4), I used some of the popular benchmarking tools available, namely: AIDA64 Memory Benchmark, SiSoft Sandra and RealBench 2.4. Note that all four sticks are installed on the motherboard, same with the OC tests. Also, the other memory kits mentioned on the graph below were tested on the same test bench. Below are the results I got during my tests.
AIDA64 Engineer
Memory bandwidth benchmarks (Memory Read, Memory Write, Memory Copy) measure the maximum achievable memory data transfer bandwidth. The code behind these benchmark methods are written in Assembly and they are extremely optimized for every popular AMD, Intel and VIA processor core variants by utilizing the appropriate x86/x64, x87, MMX, MMX+, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE4.1, AVX, and AVX2 instruction set extension.
The Memory Latency benchmark measures the typical delay when the CPU reads data from system memory. Memory latency time means the penalty measured from the issuing of the read command until the data arrives to the integer registers of the CPU.
SiSoftware Sandra Lite 2016
SiSoftware Sandra is a 32- and 64-bit client/server Windows system analyzer that includes benchmarking, testing and listing modules. It tries to go beyond other utilities to show you more of what is really going on under the hood so you draw comparisons at both a high and low-level in a single product. You can get information about the CPU, GPGPU, chipset, video adapter (GPU), ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals even .NET and Java.
RealBench 2.4
Realbench is a benchmark that uses open source applications and simple scripting to simulate real-world performance of a PC system. It’s designed for to show the difference: Before and after a PC upgrade. To gauge the real effect of an overclock.
Based on the benchmark results above, bumping the memory clock speed of the Ballistix Sport LT to 3000MHz from 2400MHz did result to a (slightly) better performance as seen on the AIDA64 memory benchmark. The difference is not that huge, but it gave the Ballistix Sport LT a boost in read and write speeds. Its performance was a little bit or almost on par with the more expensive Klevv Cras DDR4 running at 3000MHz.
Surprisingly, during the RealBench 2.4 benchmarking, the Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 at 2400MHz was able to perform on par with the other memory kits running on 2800MHz. Overclocking the memory kit to 3000MHz yielded a little bit more performance improvement in multitasking test and encoding. But the difference is not that huge and in real life experience it may be unnoticeable at all.
Price and Availability
The Crucial Ballistix Sport LT-DDR4 memory kit is available in Grey, White and Red version and is widely available. You can buy directly from Crucial’s online store but it’s usually cheaper when you buy from retailers and popular online stores. The company is also offering a limited lifetime warranty for this memory kit. Check out the links below for the current pricing and availability.
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Red DDR4 Review: Conclusion
Crucial is a very solid and trusted brand by Micron. Their DDR4 lineup may not have the fastest or highest clock speed around or fanciest design, but they are very solid performing DDR4 memory kit. At 2400MHz, the Ballistix Sport LT Red DDR4 performed very stable and rock solid. My system was able to recognize it without having any problem during POST. You may not be aware of it, but some memory kits tend to have incompatibility issues with some motherboards (even if they are designed for that platform). This one is easily plug and play.
Aesthetically speaking, it looks very simple, no LED or RGB lighting effects. It has a low profile heat spreader, yet the design of the heat spreader is not lackluster. The red color is actually more attractive compared to its grey variant and the black PCB gives emphasis to the camo-themed heat spreader. Since it has a low profile heat spreader, you shouldn’t have any problems with any CPU air coolers, specially the large ones, like the Noctua NH-D14/D15 or Cryorig R1 Ultimate. However, I would like to see Crucial release some memory kits with LEDs, like what they did before with their DDR3 Ballistix. LEDs on memory kits may seem to be a personal preference, but it wouldn’t hurt to have some kits with LEDs specially if they implemented the lighting or illumination effects properly.
Now in terms of performance, the Ballistix Sport LT Red DDR4-2400 memory is not the fastest around. But its performance is pretty solid and I was able to overclock it up to 3000MHZ. It’s also noteworthy to mention that the Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 series are also one of the lower priced memory kits available on the market. There are some cheaper options, but reliability and probably performance may be questionable.
Finally, the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 series is a good solid performing memory kit, very stable and easy to use. It doesn’t promise ultra-fast speeds, but its performance is definitely fast and very much acceptable on a day-to-day computing or gaming use. If you are planning to build or has a black and red themed PC (and doesn’t want/need any LEDs on the mems sticks) the Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 should be on your short list.
