It is all well and fine to be attractive, but no one wants to spend money on a prima-donna that cannot walk the walk like they can talk the talk. We are happy to say that while they do (nearly) max out the ‘hot’ portion of the matrix, then (nearly) minimize the ‘crazy’ portion. Yes. They are the rare unicorn that offer beauty and practicality in that while they are striking and eye catching but at only a smidgen over 34mm of height they will fit right in under neath a beefy Artic Liquid Freezer III in smaller cases. They will tuck right in underneath big boi dual tower coolers (e.g. Noctua D1x series). They will basically work anywhere typical DDR5 RAM will fit. All while looking better and working better. Thus they are pretty and easy to use.
This trend of no fuss, no muss further continued when we started using them. As is our want, when we first install a kit of RAM to be testing, we do not pre-adjust the BIOS. We just wipe back to factory settings, power down, replace the RAM with the test kit and boot backup. That way we can see what a motherboard (or two) makes of them and how they react. Put simply we look to see if they are low stress or all about the drama.
In this regards the Crucial Pro DDR5 6 and 6.K options offer little to no drama. What they say they do, they go out of there way to do, and if they can not do what they say they try to at least get you as close as possible to their promised frequencies. So if you are the ‘the journey is the reward’ and not “the destination is the reward” type builder then these low stress kits are not right for you and your… “special” needs.
To be fair. Yes. Both kits did make the BIOS ‘hunt’ for a proper memory config. It did so on both AMD (MSI X870E Carbon) and Intel (MSI Z890 Tomahawk) based systems. That is to be expected. All above original JEDEC standard(s) DDR5 kits do this.
It is what it is. With that said, these kits made the motherboards hunt less than most and posted a lot, and we mean a lot, faster than some other DDR5 6000(and above) kits. Remember we are not talking about single rank kit of DDR5 RAM here. We are talking big boi “1D2R” (dual rank single DIMM populated per channel) kits. 64GB of capacity and high memory frequencies really do not mix all that well… and yet both kits did POST. They posted at DDR5-5600 @ 1.1v to be precise on both AMD and Intel Rigs. They did so because in addition to both Intel XMP and AMD EXPO settings preconfigured on the PCB, and bog standard JEDEC speeds, Crucial went out of their way to also include what is arguably the sweet spot (performance vs. PITA) DDR5-5600 timings.
Yes, they are rather loosey-goosey 50-45-45 timings… but it is DDR5-5600 at 1.1v we are talking about here folks. That… that is going above and beyond to say the least. Put bluntly that is the kind of attention to detail that professionals love to see included. This is the best kind of ‘fan service’ with a call back to the DDR4 days of ‘plug and play’ ease of use that DDR5 has been missing. We say that as while other manufactures consider it going “above and beyond” to just include both XMP and EXPO, plus bog standard JEDCC timings, Crucial does all that and then includes a middle path on top of that. We are not overstating things when we say this is a game changer for professionals. Pros know that when dealing with 32GBx2 of DDR5 kits of memory that DDR5-5600 is pretty much what most Intel (pre-Core 200) or AMD (pre-Ryzen 9000) Integrated Memory Controller can do with big boi kits… and Crucial preprograms this kit for you with that frequency/performance level.
As such, if it POSTS you are probably good to go for a lot of your builds you quoted to your customers. If it doesn’t and instead falls back to DDR5-4800 well… you already know without having to do any stress testing if you have to yank and replace the CPU or if it is probably going to be ‘good enough’ (all depending on the build’s priorities… and what was quoted to said client). All that information is being conveyed to you on the first POST if you know to look for it. Furthermore this allows us system builders the luxury of only needing to carry stock of the 6K Pros for both mainstream and entry level premium builds… as 6K is right in the sweet spot for AMD and Intel’s latest and greatest.
Hell, if you build enough the couple extra bucks to step up to the DDR5-6400 kits is probably worth it. Basically, by opting for them over the DDR5-6000 option(s) suddenly you only have to stock two capacity kits of RAM for your entry, mainstream and entry premium builds… and just buy the odd ball 2x48GB kit on a “as needed” basis. Now that is a great example of simplifying logistics. Which, once again, makes like easier for professionals… and what Crucial’s Pro line is all about.
Equally important is for non-professionals (aka average joe and jane six pack) nearly all the features and benefits do carry over. Haven’t built a rig in a while? The Pro’s will go above and beyond to POST at as fast as possible frequencies as it can. All without first needing to use a set of ‘starter sticks’ to pre-configure the BIOS. The same is true for enthusiasts. After all, with not one, not two, but (at least) three ‘steps’ pre-programmed one already has starting point for ‘manual overclocking’ done for your new build… and the one after that. Even if it is AMD now and Intel later (or vice-versa) these kits have you covered. They not only offer a great starting point on the performance front, as long you know what to look for, they also can tell you if your new CPU’s IMC still got any gas left in the tank for manual overclocking… or not. Either way you are not wasting time trying to figure out if your CPU’s IMC is ‘good’ or just ‘good enough’ as you will be told if it is good enough on the first POST. If you pay attention.
Before we move on, we do feel it necessary to point out that the DDR5-6400 kits do take things a step further. Where the DDR5-6000 kit has JEDEC+5600+XMP+EXPO baked into them, the 6400 includes all that but then includes not one but two XMP+EXPO timing settings. To be precise they include the Crucial Pro DDR5-6000 timings as their ‘fall back’. Meaning your motherboard can try 6400, 6000, 5600 and then and only then fall back to 4800 (and then even 4400 and lower if needed). This to us makes it blatantly… pleasantly (and never painfully) obvious that the Crucial Pro DDR5 series are made by professionals for professionals. Color us highly impressed to say the least… Which nicely segues into the overclocking ability of these kits.
