Ballistix Sport LT 2666MHz DDR4 Memory Review – 16GB (4x4GB)

Introduction & Closer Look

When it comes to reviewing Ballistix memory and closely inspecting what’s on offer, this certainly isn’t our first barn dance. We have seen many different flavours across many of their different model types across the range of Crucial, Ballistix and Micron memory modules, but today is certainly some of their best looking in my opinion. Today is the turn of the Ballistix Sport LT 2666MHz 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 memory in a striking and low profile white themed design.

Micron who manufacture and produce the Ballistix range are no stranger to the industry with over 35 years of experience; older than I have been alive! The Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 memory range comes in a multitude of different colour options, with today’s coming in white. The 2666MHz modules feature Microns own memory ICs and the heat sinks themselves have a digital camouflage design on the stickers. This not only looks pretty sweet, but the low profile nature of the Sport LT heat sinks made them technically low profile which allows for maximum compatibility with the larger and more space restricting tower CPU coolers.

To go with the white heat sink design, Ballistix has actually gone with a full white PCB which not only looks incredible but means that they will fit in well with motherboards such as the ASUS Sabertooth Sabranco, the MSI Z270 XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM and boards which follow a similar colour scheme to those mentioned.

As you can probably have noticed by the title, this kit is for motherboards that support DDR4 and speeds of PC4-21300; DDR4-2666HMz to translate that easily. The modules do come with an official X.M.P 2.0 profile which allows for a pre-defined and applicable spec of 2666MHz on the memories core and latency timings of 16-18-18-38. Sure, these aren’t the fastest speeds available, but unlike similar specs, this kit only requires a DRAM voltage of 1.2V to operate at this specification.

Touching quickly on the packaging before we move onto the specifications and the testing parameters/benchmarks, the modules come encased in a neat and translucent blister pack; one that can be resealed if you so wish via 2 plastic push-in clips. Not the greatest way to receive memory, but it’s better than no protection at all!

Specifications

Test Setup & Performance

Testing Setup

• CPU: Intel Core i7-6700k @4.2GHz
• CPU Cooler: Cooler Master TX3I
• Motherboard: ASUS Z170 Maximus VIII Hero Alpha
• PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 1000w 80PLUS Platinum
• OS: Windows 10 Professional 64 bit

Benchmarks

• MaxxMem
• SiSoftware Sandra
• Cinebench R15

MaxxMem

SiSoftware Sandra

Cinebench R15

Conclusion

While it’s no secret that I love a good kit of DDR4 memory, not everyone has the same take I do when it comes to selecting new modules for my system. Over recent years and more notably towards the end of DDR3’s desktop reign, the main focus seems to have shifted over from performance to design. With certain game titles actually scaling pretty well with memory speed and AMD’s new AM4 socket (Ryzen) entering the market, memory performance is more important than it has been for a long time.

Performance

The Ballistix Sport LT 2666MHz doesn’t exactly perform as I would expect it to (not going to sugar coat it) and sits pretty much middle of the road in our graphs. It even goes onto produce the 2^nd lowest score we have ever had in SiS Sandra’s Cache Bandwidth benchmark; it performs average at best in the rest of the benchmarks/tests. That being said, it’s not the worst and although one might think average is bad, it’s still not ‘bad’ and that’s at least something to take positive in.

Design

This is where the Ballistix Sport LT excels and it’s probably the difference between no award and maybe one here today for this Micron based DDR4 memory kit. I’m a huge fan of the low profile heat sink design as it allows for much greater compatibility with different types of CPU cooling and the digital camouflage design does look impeccably nice in my opinion. The thing that makes me feel the Ballistix white kit shines ahead of the others is the implementation of the custom white PCB and this goes a long way to satisfying me…it’s true, it’s damn true!

Value

You can currently get the 2666MHz 16GB (4x4GB) kit for just under £170 on Amazon UK which doesn’t represent good value at all in comparison to some other kits on the market. I do know DDR4 pricing of late has been pretty sketchy, to say the least, but it still doesn’t bode well for a basic 16GB quad/dual channel kit of DDR4 with speeds of 2666MHz. Even a kit of Corsair Vengeance LPX at 3000MHz retails for over £35 cheaper which makes a pretty big statement here in retrospect to value; not good for Ballistix in the slightest and I would expect to pay £130 for a 16GB 4x4GB 2666MHz kit at the most, even with the price hike.

Final Thoughts

It’s been a pretty tough review in all honesty and not all of it has been as positive as I would have liked (no-one likes to score a product low), but unfortunately, it has to be done. The main saving grace for the Ballistix Sport LT 2666MHz 16GB (4x4GB) kit in white is the gorgeous and sleek design which still makes this a desirable kit of DDR4 memory for those looking for a specifically white kit to go with the rest of their white system, or even for those who want a contrasting/different colour to the regular black memory. Performance is average at best and value is certainly not great, but I still like this particular kit and if it didn’t tickle my fancy in terms of looks, it could have been a different kind of review altogether!

I would like to say huge thanks to Ballistix for sending the Sport LT 2666MHz DDR4 memory kit in for review.