When building a new system and looking for what set of RAM to choose we always use five basic criteria: Performance, Price, Value, Ease of Use, and Aesthetics. In all five of these areas the 16GB kit of Ballistix Tactical DDR4-3000 did not disappoint. By itself, the out of the box performance of DDR4-3000 pretty much covers all the basses. It is the rare time a build of our needs more than DDR4-3000 and in fact for most builds it is pretty much overkill. However, as we saw in testing this kit not only offers DDR4-3000 speeds but can easily reach DDR4-3200 with very little effort. The same is true of those (rare) scenarios where tighter timings are needed as this kit can do DDR4-2800 with rather tight timings. That really will cover darn near anyone needs more that adequately.
The same holds true of the overall aesthetics. Yes will some find them a touch on the boring side, but their unusual color means that they will easily fit into most color schemes without a hitch as they are not black but a dark ‘gunmetal’ gray… and gray mixes with a lot more colors than basic black. Mix in slightly taller but not too tall a design, and this combination not only makes them fairly good looking but also a heck of a lot more flexible than some custom heatsink designs out there.
With an asking price of $175 – or $10.94 per GB – Ballistix really does offer a lot of bang for your hard-earned buck. It certainly is not the cheapest DDR4-3000 kit available today but this small difference does not take it out of the running by any stretch. This is especially true when you consider overall value, as here the Ballistix Tactical DDR4-3000 kit really shines. Combine a lifetime hassle free warranty with excellent performance and once again you are pretty much going to love what this 4x4GB kit has to offer.
Usually the one area that lets us down is in the ease of use department. Here requiring 1.35v can cause hiccups but we are happy to say that this is almost a moot issue with this kit. Yes it may require 1.35v to hit its factory specs, but unlike some ‘overclocker’ kits this set of RAM is more than happy to run at 1.2v at lower speeds. Not only will it POST and either let you to enter the BIOS to manually set the proper timings and voltages (AMD systems) or POST and read the XMP profile to set itself up properly (Intel) if you so choose you can run this kit at 2133 speeds for basically ever -as it is rock solid at slower speeds. So much so you can boost this to 2800 speeds before you need to boost the voltage to 1.35V. That pretty much is everything you could hope for with a non-standard 1.35v set of RAM.
In other words, with their combination of price, performance, ease of use, overall value, and good looks the Ballistix Tactical DDR4-3000 is pretty much everything you could want in a set of RAM for your new build. Be it Intel or AMD this kit will not disappoint – as it sure did not disappoint us.
The Review
Ballistix Tactical 16GB
In other words, with their combination of price, performance, ease of use, overall value, and good looks the Ballistix Tactical DDR4-3000 is pretty much everything you could want in a set of RAM for your new build. Be it Intel or AMD this kit will not disappoint – as it sure did not disappoint us.
