CRUCIAL 16GB DDR4

If you’re trying to save some cash on your X99 build, Crucial has you covered

       So, here it is. This is DDR4. Side-loaded into the new high-performance Intel X99 platform comes the next generation of system memory – and it’s a bit underwhelming on our desktop PCs. In the server space though it’s a different matter, because that’s where DDR4 gestated.
      The main benefi of DDR4 over its forebears is the combination of higher possible densities and lower power demands. In a server farm, where you can both cut the number of memory modules drawing juice from the grid and also make each of them drink less, you can create more effiient machines – and that makes the whole lot cheaper. In the consumer world, DDR4 has really just come along for the ride. Like DDR4, Haswell-E has come from the serverbased land of the Xeon, where it’s necessarily tied into the new memory system. For us, though, it’s not such a big deal. Quad-channel DDR3 memory already offers high speeds and huge bandwidth; more than most of us even need. The lower power demands don’t make a huge difference in a solitary machine, either.
      In an X99 board DDR4 is a necessary evil, but thankfully the premium generally attached to a new generation of memory can be skirted around if you shop carefully. Crucial has produced some really impressive, ultra-basic modules that don’t cost much more than an equivalent DDR3 kit. The plain green PCB and paucity of RAM chips (just four chunks of silicon on these single-sided DIMMs) won't make you want to Dremel out a ragged new window in your PC chassis, but they do perform impressively well in our test system. The fact there are so few memory chips probably explains the performance shortfall at the same frequency compared with the higher-spec Corsair kit opposite, but it isn’t a big gap.
      The Crucial set is rated at the X99’s starting point of 2,133MHz, which is pretty nippy in the fist place, but they also do pretty well with a little light overclocking. We managed to get stable performance out of the 16GB kit running at 2,666MHz – at that speed they posted a lower latency than anything the Vengeance kit could manage, even at 3,000MHz. With no XMP on this basic kit, though, you have to set the memory up yourself if you want to go any faster than the base 2,133MHz.
      At their standard, one-touch 2,800MHz XMP setting, the modules in the rival Corsair kit, perform much better in all our memory benchmark tests. But in the real world, that doesn’t account for a lot. It’s easy to fid the performance gap between different kits if you delve into synthetic benchmark numbers. In the real world, though, you will barely register a flcker of difference in the performance of your applications or games between this £150 kit and the £300 Vengeance sticks.
      When you’ve just spent £800 on a new CPU and £300 on a new motherboard, one of two situations will arise. Either you’re desperately trying to fid a way to cut costs in other areas of your build, or that sort of money doesn’t mean a great deal to you. This Crucial DDR4 kit is a good bet for those in the fist boat.