At first we would like to thank Micron for sending a sample of their Ballistix Sport LT 16GB DDR4 SODIMM Memory Kit for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About Ballistix:

 

"Game. Destroy. Win. For more than a decade, Ballistix has injected speed and style into PC gaming in a way that can't be imitated. As the only major brand of gaming memory that builds and tests products from start to finish, Ballistix brings you the proven performance and reliability that pro gamers build with.”

 

Product Features:

 

Speeds start at 2400 MT/s

Faster speeds and responsiveness than standard Crucial DDR4 memory

Increased performance and frame rates for systems with integrated graphics

Ideal for gamers and performance enthusiasts

Black PCB design with digital camo features

Easy plug-and-play installation

Intel© XMP 2.0 profiles for easy configuration

Optimized for the latest Intel processors

Limited lifetime warranty

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

Mainstream gaming/productivity laptops are known to often arrive with RAM quantities around 8GB, which is simply insufficient if you are trying to run a modern game such as Forza Motorsport 6, are working with a lot of Internet browser tabs at once, but also when you have loaded a project in Adobe Premiere 2017. Of course that there are a lot of other usage environments you would get benefits from more RAM! In order to assist, Micron has offered us a set of their Ballistix Sport Gaming Memory (SODIMM DDR4 2666MHz) with an operating voltage of 1.2V; the modules from this particular kit are packaged individually:

 

 

 

To be more exact, each RAM module is carefully placed inside a transparent blister packaging, with and extra layer of cardboard inside:

 

 

 

The top area of the packaging does also expose a small sticker with the product technical specifications, but also its code name and serial number:

 

 

 

The back area of the packaging gives us more details on the Sport series of Ballistix memory modules (we do also have Elite and Tactical series available):

 

 

 

The interior of the cardboard material we have described before does also come with installation instructions (but these seem more oriented towards regular DIMM sticks):

 

 

 

In order not to get damaged during transit, the RAM is further packaged inside a transparent plastic mold:

 

 

 

The SODIMM memory modules aim to replicate the same design elements we have seen on their regular DIMM counterparts, so we can see a large sticker with the stealth digital camo on both sides:

 

 

 

The opposite side does also come with the product technical specifications, along with the full factory code name:

 

 

 

As it can be seen from the top area of the modules, the applied stickers are very thin and allow ventilation between memory ICs:

 

 

 

For testing purposes, we did have to our disposal the trusty Lenovo Ideapad 700-15ISK; on its motherboard, the memory slots are further covered by an aluminum shield:

 

 

 

With the shield out of the way, we could observe that the manufacturer has installed a single 8GB module, so we are not even talking about a dual-channel configuration:

 

 

 

The pre-installed 8GB module was manufactured by SK Hynix and runs at 2133MHz:

 

 

 

Its full code name along with the SN is available on its back and here we will also learn that it was made especially for Lenovo:

 

 

 

The installation of the new Crucial Ballistix Sport memory modules is pretty straight-forward:

 

 

 

The test setup is composed of the stock Lenovo Ideapad 700-15ISK configuration (Intel Core i7-6700HQ, Intel HM170 chipset, Nvidia GeForce 950M, WD 1TB HDD 5400RPM, FHD IPS display), to which we have previously added a Crucial MX300 M.2 525GB SSD as a boot drive.

 

We did run the AIDA64 Cache & Memory benchmark while using the factory RAM configuration:

 

 

 

In Cinebench R15 rendering benchmark, we have obtained about 678 points for the CPU and 72.83 FPS in the OpenGL test:

 

 

 

As a secondary benchmark program, we did use the HWBot x265 Benchmark v2, in both 1080P and 4K usage environments. Here we have got about 22.61 FPS for 1080P and 5.29 FPS for 4K:

 

 

 

 

 

 

After upgrading our laptop with the dual-channel kit, we could see a significant bandwidth boost in AIDA64; what needs to be mentioned here is the fact that the Ideapad 700-15ISK does not fully benefit from the rated RAM speed of 2666, so it will still run at 2133MHz:

 

 

 

Cinebench R15 does show a speed improvement to 682 points for the CPU and 78.87 FPS in the OpenGL test:

 

 

 

In the HWBOT x265 benchmark, the score went up quite a bit at 24.16 FPS:

 

 

 

A score increase could be also seen at the 4K resolution, so we have obtained about 5.6FPS:

 

 

 

Besides the small performance bump in the encoding/rendering productivity applications, we have also seen lower loading times in various memory hungry games such as Forza after the upgrade and the stuttering was gone. One other aspect is that by using a larger memory quantity, we will also decrease the wear from the boot drive (a usage example would be working with a larger project in Adobe Premiere). Even if the RAM did run at the same frequency as before, the speed bump is mainly due to the switch from a single-channel (stock) configuration to a dual-channel.

 

High-end laptops may benefit even more from this particular kit, if it is ran at its designed XMP of 2666MHz, while the mainstream offerings will have to settle with the usual 2133MHz, due to BIOS/chipset limitations.

 

The Ballistix Sport LT 16GB DDR4 2666MHz SODIMM Memory Kit is available online for about 158.58 Euros.

Ballistix Sport LT 16GB DDR4 SODIMM Memory Kit is Recommended for:

 

 

We would like to thank again to Micron for making this review possible!