Much like their earlier Pro branded predecessors both variants of the Crucial Pro DDR5-6×000 kits come housed inside a cardboard and clamshell configuration. That is both a good thing and a bad. It is a good as will not take up much room on retail shelves, and yet stand out, while at the same time providing you a second chance to ensure that you have indeed picked up the right set of RAM!
The downsides… well they are many. First and foremost all that is protecting the RAM from the typical bumps and bruises while in transit is a thin layer of plastic and maybe a thin layer of cardboard. RAM by its very nature is robust so that is not exactly a deal-breaker issue. Still a wee bit disappointing to see Crucial has done nothing in the interim to ‘fix’ this known complaint… especially on a kit marketed for “professionals”.
Plastic is also, by its very nature, prone to static build up. So when you combine ESD (“static shock”) with sensitive electrical components… well… bad things can happen just by opening up their shipping ‘container’. Thankfully, these kits do come clad by metal heatsinks so ESD damage is highly unlikely. Still higher than it ‘should’ be, but not overly worrisome.
Lastly… and the actual main gripe we have with these shipping containers… it is extremely difficult to tell them apart. It is even going to be easy to choose the wrong capacity version if a bunch of these are on retail shelves next to one another. The only, and we mean only way, is to pay careful attention to the black lettering on gray background in the upper left’ish corner. Doing anything else and you may ‘accidentally’ bring the wrong version to the check out. Worse still, if you purchase it online at say Fast AliExpress (aka ‘Amazon’) the chances of the (over-worked and woefully underpaid) warehouse agent picking the wrong one are higher than we would like… and good luck arguing that they sent you the wrong kit. That is a headache that is never fun. So if possible buy in person, or at least from an actually reputable e-tailer.
On the positive side, at least Crucial has made the clamshell internal ‘box’ reusable. Something the original Pro models could not boast of having. As such they do listen to user feedback and at some point in the future can and probably will fix these nit-picks.
Moving on.
Upon actually opening the “internal” clamshell protective case and handling the Crucial Pro OC’s for the first time a word did spring to mind. That word was Pulchritudinous which is Latin for “beauty” and while that is a twenty dollar word to say the least it actually is fairly apt… but at the same time not really. We say both and neither for one simple reason: it fits and yet conveys a level of portentousness that these kits are lacking.
Up until now DDR5 has been anything but ‘user-friendly’ and makes the early days of DDR4 seem like a golden age of performance and practicality. Unfortunately in DDR5 times, most kits can actually be downright finicky and / or Prima Donnas. So much so that during many a build (especially when dealing with above JDEC standards) we have longed for the days of past. A simpler time where we did not have to spend as much time on getting RAM voltages and timings dialed in as we did the frickin’ CPU.
These kits are different. Different in a good way. That however is getting ahead of ourselves. So going back to the beginning upon opening up the cardboard sleeves, and then the plastic clamshell(s), we were struck with the elegance and styling that Crucial’s Pro design team have bestowed upon them. Yes, most will not care about the styling of the heat spreaders accompanying their RAM kit, and rather will just care about the color matching the build, but if you take the time to actually look at them… the Pro’s are rather pretty.
Some will be reminded of a Tesla cybertruck (albeit in a good way and sans the negative connotations associated with said abonination). Some will say they are a call back to the old school F117 ‘night hawk’ Stealth Bomber. Others will say they look like a work of art like those of Juan Gris (less cultured red necks will say Picasso who dallied in cubism). Others still will be disappointed as there is no integrated LED diffuser. No holographic logos or similar goo-gaws adoring their RAM, or anything else “fancy” that separate the n00bs from 1337 G4M3R kits they luv so much, and will be disappointed in how ‘boring’ these professional sticks are.
All are right, none are wrong… as at the end of the day that is what a good design should do. First grab your attention, then invoke an emotional (or even visceral) reaction. No matter if you like it or not and even if the reaction is only at the subconscious level making you pause and think about “it” is what art is actually all about. So if like them or find them too conservative no one will argue that they are not art. Highly functional. Highly useful. Highly practical art… but art nevertheless.
For us they remind us of an old school “Bankers Hot Rod”. While others were saving up the cool 10 Grand (USD) to buy a “Copo” or even “Yenko Special” muscle car (and having their fellow co-workers wondering about if you were going through a mid-life crisis) those with actual money were buying twenty grand Mercedes-Benz 300s.
Understated. Elegant. Professional. All were applied to the 300 models but above all else they were known as the stealth car to own if you had the cash (and knowledge) to buy one. This was a model that routinely, year in and year out, dominated the Big 3 and (if they were so inclined) made the banker all the richer at night racing for pink slips against those overly aggressive and yet underperforming “muscle” cars. Once again, your reaction and what you associate with them will be different, but you most likely will think of ‘something’ when viewing these kits for the first time. So to the Crucial design team who worked on these new heatsinks you knocked it out of the park from an aesthetics point of view… and all those years at college or university actually paid for itself!
