Crucial Ballistix Elite DDR4 Overview
Taking a first look at the Ballistix Elite we can see that Crucial has gone with an all black design here. So we have black heatspreaders that match the black PCB of the modules. This looks really great and makes it easy for system builders to match these modules with their build.
Crucial has completely redesigned the heatspreader on the Elite kit. The previous DDR3 elite modules featured larger heatspreaders that came up above the height of the modules pretty far. For DDR4 Crucial has reduced the heatspreader down to help out with clearance issues. Keep in mind the X99 platform is the only one that supports DDR4 and the motherboard configuration puts modules on either side of the CPU socket. So there could be clearance issues on each side when it comes to CPU coolers. This new design eliminates that, but don’t worry these are some heavy duty heatspreaders and you can tell by just picking up the modules as they have some good weight to them.
This is the BLE4K4G4D26AFEA kit, which is a 16 GB kit. That means you have four 4 GB modules. Each module is set to run at 2666 MHz with timings of 16-17-17-36 at 1.2V. Of course this can easily be set in the BIOS by enabling the XMP profile. The front part of the modules feature a large Ballistix Elite DDR4 logo on the right and a small Crucial logo on the left.
If you flip each module over there is a small stick on the back that gives you the model number, speed, timings and voltage.
Looking at the modules from the side you can see that the heatspreader only comes up slightly above the actual PCB. Again this makes room for larger air coolers for your CPU.
There is a surprise if you look at the top of the modules. At the center of each module is another Ballistix Elite DDR4 logo. So if you happen to have a window on your case everyone can see that you are rocking this memory.
