Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (4x4GB) 3000MHz Memory Kit Review

Final Thoughts

Price

At the time of writing, the Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (4x4GB) 3000MHz memory kit is available from the company’s website for £103.19 including delivery. While this is an acceptable price considering the quad-channel configuration and 3000MHz frequency, there is some hefty competition in the form of the G.Skill Ripjaws V. Rather impressively, the G.Skill kit featuring four DIMMs with an operational speed of 3000MHz and lower 15-15-15-35 timings can be acquired for £89.36. This pricing difference may be down to the lack of stock from various retailers who offer promotions as a way of gaining customers.

Overview

The Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (4x4GB) 3000MHz memory kit utilises a simplistic design and revolves around an understated gunmetal colour scheme. This stylish finish is quite neutral and easily complements a wide range of motherboards. As a result, the memory kit has a widespread appeal and shouldn’t clash with any leading components. Interestingly, the heatspreader colour contrasts with stainless steel shielding on the PCI-E slot or DIMM slots rather well and enhances the level of synergy through a particular build. The memory kit’s use of distinctive lines creates a more distinctive appearance and helps it to stand out. Of course, this design isn’t going to be for everyone and some users may decry the lack of RGB lighting. On the other hand, RGB lighting appears to be a polarising topic right now so I’m pretty sure Crucial has been the correct decision.

As expected, the memory kit’s 3000MHz frequency and quad-channel setup perform magnificently throughout a number of memory intensive tasks. When paired with an i7-5960X, the bandwidth numbers are exceptional and the latency remains fairly decent. While it’s not the highest performing memory product I’ve encountered, the figures are within the range I’d expect once the specification is taken into account. Therefore, it’s a really solid option and you should be more than happy with the final result.

When it comes to overclocking, the Crucial Ballistix Tactical (4x4GB) 3000MHz memory kit had good overclocking headroom and the frequency easily increased to 3333MHz with a small voltage boost and slightly looser 16-16-16-36 timings. Eventually, I managed to modify the BCLK and tuned the overclock to a figure of 3353MHz. This is a significant gain without relying on poor timings. Unfortunately, the performance gains after overclocking were underwhelming and I tested the modules a number of times to clarify my findings. This didn’t amount to anything outside of a margin of error. It’s not a huge issue though because the performance is still good and most people will run the memory at the stock XMP profile. Also, I’m going to conduct some further investigations to see if a hardware issue could have limited the memory’s overclocked performance, although this is very unlikely.

Pros

• Black PCB
• Compact height shouldn’t interfere with large air coolers
• Elegant visual design
• Excellent timings
• Good overclocking headroom
• Lifetime warranty
• Respectable 1.35v considering the 3000MHz frequency
• Superb stock performance

Cons

• Costs more than the G.Skill Ripjaws V while having slightly looser timings

“The Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (4x4GB) 3000MHz memory kit features an elegant design and employs impressive timings. Not only that, the stock performance is superb and there’s good overclocking headroom without the need to dramatically alter the default CAS rating.”

Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (4x4GB) 3000MHz Memory Kit Review

Thank you Crucial for providing us with this sample.