APC Australia - September 2019

$268 | WWW.CRUCIAL.COM

Crucial Ballistix

Sport LT

A no fuss 32GB kit

that’s all about value.

H

ere we have the

first of two

2x16GB kits in our

roundup. Crucial’s

Ballistix Sport LT doesn’t

have any RGB lighting and

is in fact quite subtle with

its simplistic design, but

that’s something that won’t

bother a user who doesn’t

care about looks.

The Ballistix Sport LT kit

is the only standard profile

kit in our test. This makes it

well suited to users who use

very large air heat sinks.

While it’s not as big a

problem as it used to be, tall

R AM can still interfere with

air coolers that don’t take

R AM height into

consideration.

As a 2x16GB kit with a

dual rank design, the

Crucial was actually the

best performing kit in the

entire roundup. The

margins as always are small

but a look at the

benchmarks shows how

dual rank memory helps

performance, though it does

means there’s a tiny latency

hit. Where the Crucial

Ballistix LT kit excels is its

value. At $268 it’s proof of

just how much DR AM prices

have fallen in recent times.

It’s not all that much higher

than some of the 2x8GB kits

and it adds that extra

degree of future proofing.

Of course if you’re dealing

with large data sets, several

memory hogging

applications or even alt-tab

out of games and want to

minimise page file access,

then 32GB can come in

handy.

The Crucial Ballistix

Sport LT offers terrific

value, which along with

great performance and a

highly compatible low

profile design makes it a

solid choice for those

looking to make the jump up

to 32GB.

Verdic t

Crucial’s Ballistix sport is priced at

a level that makes upgrading to

32GB more compelling than ever.

$179|WWW.CORSAIR.COM

Corsair Vengeance

RGB Pro

Performance and good looks.

T

he Corsair
Vengeance Pro is of
course a DDR4-3200
kit with 16-18-18-36
timings. Though a look at
the many tight XMP
sub-timings reveals why
the Corsair kit is often in
near the top of the
benchmarks leaderboard.
While looks are always
objective, the Vengeance
RGB Pro has a lovely design
with its nice and dare we say
simplistic metal heat sink.
Our kit came with a black
finish, though Corsair also
offers it in white. The top
section of the module is lit
with RGB LEDs and the
colors are notably distinct
and rich.
Corsair’s iCUE software
deserves a mention. Of
course it controls the RGB
effects of the Vengeance Pro
kit and it can control other
Corsair products too. It also
offers additional
functionality such as
monitoring and timing
information, useful if you’re
overclocking.
Speaking of overclocking,
the Corsair kit was the

equal best of the bunch, able

to hit DDR4-3866 with 1.4V

at its XMP timings. This

would point to Corsair using

a premium or binned IC in

this kit and would go a long

way to explaining its

relative price premium.

Since vendors are known to

change IC, we’d be wary of

saying that all kits will

perform like this.

The Corsair Vengeance

RGB Pro is a great blend of

stock performance, RGB

good looks and overclocking

ability. Throw in the

excellent functionality of

the Corsair’s iCUE software

too. While it costs a bit more

than some of the other kits

in the roundup, the whole

package makes this a top

quality kit.

Verdic t

Blends strong performance with

fantastic looks and iCue ecosystem

compatibility.

CorsairVenggean
DDR4-3200CL16-18-18
support;Lifetimewarranty.

CrucialBallistixS )

DDR4-3200CL16-18-18-36at1.35 V; XMP 2.0

support; Lifetime warranty.

geanceRGBPro;16GB(2x8( GB))

818 at 1.35 V; XMP 2.0