Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2400MHz DDR4 SODIMM Memory Kit Review
2400MHz Memory In The Intel NUC NUC6i7KYK
After installing the modules into the Intel NUC NUC6i7KYK we were able to go into the UEFI/BIOS and select the 2400MHz Intel XMP 2.0 memory profile and we were off and running without any issues. You can also manually set timings in the UEFI if you like and can try overclocking the memory modules or tightening up the timings if you’d like to get better performance.
We ran a handful of benchmarks on the Intel NUC NUC6i7KYK and rather than making a chart for each specific test scenario we simply placed them into the table below. We ran Cinebench R15, 7-zip, 3DMark Sky Diver, Handbrake, Sandra 2016 SP2 Memory Bandwidth and AIDA 64 v5.70.
For comparison sake we will be the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT kit to the Kingston Technology HyperX Impact 32GB Kit (2x16GB) 2400MHz DDR4 CL14 260-Pin SODIMM Laptop Kit (part number HX424S14IBK2/32).
Performance Results
| Intel NUC6i7KYK | HyperX Impact 32GB DDR4 2400MHz CL14 |
Crucial Ballistix 32GB DDR4 2400MHz CL16 |
% Difference |
| Cinebench R15 OpenGL | 86.66 fps | 86.72 fps | +0.1% |
| Cinebench R15 CPU Multi | 713 cb | 709 cb | -0.6% |
| Cinebench R15 CPU Single | 149 cb | 146 cb | -2.0% |
| 7-Zip | 20,348 MIPS | 20,251 MIPS | -0.5% |
| 3DMark Sky Diver | 8596 pts | 8586 pts | -0.1% |
| Handbrake – 1080P | 45.04 FPS | 45.85 FPS | +1.8% |
| Sandra 2016 SP2 Memory Bandwidth | 28.4 GB/s | 28.22 GB/s | -0.6% |
| AIDA64 Memory Read | 44,498 MB/s | 41,712MB/s | -6.3% |
| AIDA64 Memory Write | 62,679 MB/s | 62,287 MB/s | -0.6% |
| AIDA64 Memory Copy | 56,679 MB/s | 55,566 MB/s | -2.0% |
| AIDA64 Memory Latency | 57.8 ns | 58.2 ns | -0.3% |
We were shocked to find that the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 32GB 2400MHz DDR4 memory kit with rather loose CL16 timings was able to perform better than the HyperX Impact 32GB 2400MHz DDR4 kit with tighter CL14 timings on a couple of the benchmark tests. The performance numbers were pretty much as wash as only the AIDA64 Cache & Memory Benchmark Read test had a significant performance difference of greater than 5% shown.
It should be noted that both modules are using similar PCB designs, but they are from different manufacturers with different brand components being used. More importantly, Kingston is using SKHynix memory ICs and Crucial is using Micron memory IC’s.