Much like all Crucial RAM kits, the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Red comes in a plastic clamshell type see-through shipping container. While certainly not the most durable or aesthetically pleasing this shipping container does have two things going for it. The first is you can easily see the RAM modules housed in side, so there will be zero surprises when you get home with your new purchase. The other is that even though it is lightweight it does securely hold the RAM in place. Any amount of force that can damage metal clad, RAM IC encrusted PCBs is certainly going to leave a mark on the plastic container – a mark that will easily be seen by all.
While the Ballistix Sport’s initials may be ‘BS’ there is nothing ‘BS’ about the Crucial Ballistix Sport series. This series has quickly gained a following amongst knowledgeable consumers. Consumers who want a hassle free set of RAM that will not break the bank, but also want them to not look or act like ‘budget’ RAM, know they can reach for the Crucial Ballistic Sport’s series and be 100% satisfied. The new LT iteration in general and the Red color version in specific are the latest edition to this illustrious series and have been designed to improve upon the ‘original’ or ‘stock’ Crucial Ballistix Sport series. How did Crucial go about improving on an already extremely good value orientated series? By making a few tweaks and adjustments in a few crucia…. err… critical areas.
The first and most noticeable change is the custom heatspreader that accompanies the entire Sport LT series. The new LT series heatsink has proven to not only be more efficient but also a touch easier to work with – as it is basically stock DDR4 height but much better engineers. As such anywhere ‘nude’ standard height DDR4 RAM modules can fit, this new higher performance kit will also fit.
While Crucial’s engineers were hard at work at making them more effective they also took the time to make them more aesthetically pleasing. From a system builder’s point of view being able to have one line of ‘known good’ RAM that comes in white, silver, or red does make properly integrating the RAM into a build a whole lot easier. The little digital camouflage motif on the center of each module’s heatsink is also a nice little touch that gives this kit more personality.
The only minor issue we have with these custom heatspreaders is that in order to ensure they are as low profile as possible Crucial made them a two-piece affair with nothing covering the tops of the PCB. What this means is that in builds where consumers will be looking in through a case window and directly ‘down’ on to the motherboard and RAM some of the effect of the Red heatspreaders is lost. Basically in most cases people will see red and green (or silver and green, or white and green) instead of one solid color when looking in through the case’s window. This is a minor quibble as they are still very attractive but one that may not be right for ultra-high end systems where everything needs to be perfect. That is perfectly fine as this is a more frugally priced series and as such minor cost cutting procedures like this are to be expected. In either case, this kit will look a million times better and more professional than bare RAM modules are used.
This change in color options and heatspreader design is only the tip of the iceberg. Along with the better and more effective heatsink design Crucial also changed the DDR4 RAM ICs themselves. Change is the one constant in this industry but this change was not done as a cost cutting procedure. Instead this change was to make the Sport LT even more faster and much more capable.
Specifically, it allowed Crucial the luxury of programing the SPD to tell your system to run these at DDR4-2400 (1200Mhz) speeds even without implementing the XMP profile.
This change is the hallmark of second generation DDR4 memory and allows these kits to simply blow the doors off its predecessors (which defaulted to 2133), and blurs the line between mainstream and high performance options. Put simply a higher SPDs (ie above 2133) used to be the hallmark of highly expensive kits. To be precise this very inexpensive kit has the exact same SPD timings of that of the much more price Crucial Ballistix Elite series! That is what makes this improvement a real improvement.
