Ballistix Sport 32GB (2 x 16GB) 2666 MHz DDR4 Memory Kit Review
Peter Donnell / 8 years ago
Final Thoughts
Price
The Ballistix Sport 32GB (2 x 16GB) 2666 MHz DDR4 Memory Kit is a very high-end bit of hardware, and it comes with a price tag to reflect that. 1 x 16GB stick currently costs around £130, and while it’s pointing out the obvious, two of them are twice the price. £260 is a lot of money for any memory kit, but keep in mind that few consumers will be shopping for 32GB kits.
Overview
We’ve seen in the results today that you can get slightly faster performance from Ballistix’s 16GB (8 x 2) kits, and you can even get them at a lower price too. However, if you’re populating your motherboard with the intention of getting as much memory in there as possible, then 16GB modules are a good balance of price and capacity to do so. The slightly lower clock speeds did leave it behind 3000 MHz kits, but well, duh! What’s surprising to me, however, is that the 2666 MHz kit still came very close in terms of performance figures. Combine this with the fact it comfortably hit an overclock of 3000 MHz, while maintaining its original timings at 1.38V is very impressive, giving you extra performance in most tests basically for free.
The build quality of the kit is very good, and I love the fact that it uses a black PCB. It’s only a minor detail, but they just look so much better than the old school green PCBs. The heat sink design is tasteful, in that it would look great inside a workstation or professional system, but still has enough visual swagger to add some flair to your high-end gaming rig too. The low profile design is certainly beneficial too, as it won’t impact your choice of CPU cooler, giving you much more freedom with your choice of components.
The kit did suffer some minor slowdown in both Cinebench and FireStrike while it was overclocked, which I simply cannot figure out. Of course, how your motherboard behaves, how you overclock (if you do at all), and your choice of CPU and day-to-day usage scenarios can all have a huge impact on how a component behaves. If you’re seeking to perform a specific application with this memory, simply benchmark at stock and OC to see which offers the best performance for you.
Pros
- Black PCB
- Stylish low-profile heat spreader design
- Lifetime warranty
- Available in single and multiples of 16GB DIMMs
- Excellent day-to-day performance
- Easy to overclock to 3000MHz
Cons
- None
Neutral
- 3D application benchmarks scores dropped slightly while overclocked, but overall performance was still excellent
“With a stylish low-profile design, blazing fast performance and easy overclocking, the Ballistix Sport would make a great addition to any modern system used for work or gaming. Highly recommended!”