Crucial Ballistix BL2K16G32C16U4B 3200 MHz, DDR4, DRAM
Crucial Ballistix BL2K16G32C16U4B 3200 MHz, DDR4, DRAM, Desktop Gaming Memory Kit, 32GB (16GB x2), CL16, Black
Redefine Game Performance
XMP 2.0 support and pre-defined profiles let you overclock to extract maximum performance. Select the JEDEC default profile for standard performance.
Compatibility Tested
We work with AMD and Intel, as well as motherboard designers and system builders, to ensure our memory is optimized for high performance.
Precision Parts
As the manufacturer of memory components, we do more than bin parts. We optimize performance at the die level.
| Dimensions: | 13.33 x 0.72 x 3.92 cm; 100 Grams |
| Model: | BL2K16G32C16U4B |
| Manufacture: | Micron |
| Dimensions: | 13.33 x 0.72 x 3.92 cm; 100 Grams |
Fast and stable. Built in cases for better cooling are perfec
For the RAM to work at its advertised speed of 3200Mhz, the RAM XMP (eXtreme Memory Profile) must be enabled in your PC’s BIOS. Some reviewers don’t seem to have realised this, and complained the RAM only runs at 2666Mhz. All gaming RAM is like this, and needs XMP activated.
Had no problems installing or running the RAM at 3200Mhz for over a year before managing to (manually) overlock it to a whopping 3800Mhz. Completely stable. This was achieved based on settings I found from other users that had already achieved the same thing (16-19-16-36 at 1.4 volts). That the RAM is able to run an extra 600Mhz on top of its advertised speed with no problems is fantastic.
Items as described by seller, packed well and arrived before day on shipping order.
Good for gaming, would use agai
The title says it all. I’ve purchased crucial RAMS before and that always work straightaway without hassle.
This time I needed 32gb RAM upgrade for my gaming PC. These sticks worked instantly without even needing to switch on the XMP profile from the BIOS. I did check the BIOS and the XMP profile was already on, and running on the advertised speeds (2666MHZ).
To be honest this is my second RAM purchase. Three months ago I was going to get these Crucial RAM kit, then a friend recommended Corsair. So I found a Vengence model that was on the motherboard’s approved QVL list, but for some reason the PC kept going into blue screen every now and then. I couldn’t pinpoint why it didn’t work nor the every how often it did the blue screen. I trialed with many different games some CPU and some GPU heavy games. Also with just Discord or even without any application running. So I returned them.
And I regretted not getting my first choice aka Crucial. Now I got them and I can’t wait to get my next upgrade (SATA 6 SSD) from Crucial as well !
Took a punt on this RAM as i wanted Dual Rank and that is what i got.
Good price for fast memory.
Pity that Crucial has discontinued it.
Great Ram mine was Dual Rank Micron E Die (what i wanted for my server)
Dont expect much more than 16-18-18-36-CR1 @ 3600 1.35v though as this is about the limits of E die unless you want to run mega voltage through them
Selected the White for all recent builds, as it saves going to dearer RGB options and performs really well
It’s very good, needed some bios config to get it to 3600mhz but worked in the end and has been working since, no complaints
I bought this specifically to boost gaming ram. It was easy to install and integrated seamlessly into my system. I love the red housing as it matches the color of my motherboard and computer case.
I have the white pair of the same speed also, loving the ‘Duality’ build.
1. My son checked which one would be best for his PC online. This one was suitable.
2. I’m told it allows more RAM on your PC (space for data, to access quickly) whilst gaming for example. which improves gaming performance. -sons words (double checked via google).
3. Son installed easily by himself-clearly I’m zero use for this step!
4. Son reports they have been very useful and he has had no issues.
Gaming performance improved – check!
Happy son – check
I’m using older x370 chipset and running R7 3800x and it seems the infinity fabric can only run up to 1766MHz, so i cannot run the RAM all the way to 4000 in sync with infinity fafbric.
In ASYNC mode, i can get the ram run all the way to 4000Mhz, but that will have negative impact to the overall system performance as the system overall running in lower speed of 1766.
Overall, if you’re running recent chipset and can push your infinity fabric all the way to 2000MHz, then this will be optimal, otherwise, run it in SYNC with lower speed but you can set very tight timing for better performance at lower clock.
First set of memory didn’t work and just gave me a flashing debug light on my motherboard, but I was able to get next day delivery on a replacement set which worked perfectly straight away. Was going to get Corsair Vengeance but glad I saved my money and got this instead!
I already have a pair of BL2K16G32C16U4BL which are the RGB versions of this item which is part number BL2K16G32C16U4B. As far as I could tell compatibility wouldn’t be a problem and given these were 25 cheaper and I wasn’t bothered about having all of my RAM with RGB, I ordered a pair of BL2K16G32C16U4B to full the RAM slots on my motherboard. After installing them and running MemTest86 (all passed), I noticed that they didn’t show up in the HWMonitor utility (the RGB modules did show up) and after a bit of digging with a utility called ThaiPhoon, I was able to generate reports showing the internal details of the installed memory and it appears that the non-RGB DIMMs don’t have thermal sensors. This is a bit disappointing considering the Ballistix range are gaming-oriented and thus are more likely to be overclocked, so temperature reporting is important.
So beware – if you want Ballistix RAM with buit-in temperature sensors, you’ll need the RGB versions which cost more.
For me, I’m not bothered with overclocking my RAM and my existing RGB DIMMs tell me their operating temperatures, so these BL2K16G32C16U4B DIMMs are fine for what I want.
It’s a shame Crucial are discontinuing the Ballistix range as they’re great value, are compatible with a wide range of motherboards and perform well.
Works great xmp profile works, had no proplems at all. MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4, Core i5-12600K. 64GB – 2x 32GB Kits (4 x 16GB) 4x Crucial Ballistix BL2K16G32C16U4W 3200 MHz, DDR4 (BL16G32C16U4B.M16FE1). For the price of 165.98 for both kits I’m very happy with the purchase.
So far so good I am liking them very much, doing the job I bought them to do as extra set for memory upgrade. RGB features looks good as I already have rgb fans too. Remember to make sure you can match compatibility with your existing memory if your not buying full 4 sticks like I did and set up and your good to go. Now to see how long they last 52.06 thats all I could afford for now living on a budget, but I might get another 2 stick later when I can.
Why buy this memory kit specifically? While 3600 MHz might seem like only a slight upgrade to the cheaper 3200 MHz kits, you have to realise that the increase equates to 12.5% more cycles per second. That’s quite a significant difference. Also note the ‘CL’ number. The lower the number, the lower the latency. Lower = better. I’ve had no issues so far. This memory kit has served me well in my new build. I couldn’t be happier with my choices.
The rams can run easy at 3733mhz only using “memory Try it” from bios keeping it at 1.35v and will give some better performance/latency than xmp (3600mhz) profile, but here is the good part.
I currently got them set at 3466mhz, used the timings that dram calculator provided me for 3400mhz instead an simply kept the voltage at 1.35. No errors found by any ram stress test and very stable. The output of ram and latency are a way better than xmp profile or running them at higher speeds while on CPU benchmarks it’s making my cpu top of the ladder at default vs overclocked CPUs.
Basically I don’t think there could be any better rams for my system.
It has improved stability quite while gaming and I guess it’s because it’s making the cpu more efficient.
Use Crucial website to check for compatibility upgrades and if it tells you 100% I would totally recommend them.
Decent timings and a quick trip to the bios and enable XMP1 and running at 3600 MHz.
I already had 16gb in there but for seventy notes I stuck another 16gb in and the system absolutely flies.
I wont get into the argument as to what is really needed but I am firmly on the more ram is better side.
RAM was the one thing I never looked into properly, and was genuinely stunned how intensive even browsing with lots of tabs can be, let alone numerous programs etc. Coming from 16GB RAM, 32GB for me is the minimum I would recommend for anyone building a PC in 2021, but I decided to future proof myself further with 64Gb. 3600MHz really isn’t a big difference maker, but a welcome addition regardless.
A noticeable improvement in performance over my old RAM. Very pleased with these.
Popped into MSI Mortar Max B450 mobo, running a Ryzen 5. Switched on XMP in the Bios and I am running the full 3200Mhz. Will definitely get another 16GB to upgrade to 32GB in total.
Cannot complain at all. Would certainly recommend to anyone.
If it goes for any higher buy it, its better value that 3600MHZ with 18- timings.
At 65 for 2x8GB 3200Mhz sticks, you cannot argue with the value for money.
I plugged this straight into the 2 free slots of my new machine, bringing it up to a total of 32GB. The existing RAM was at slightly slower speed, but this still worked, so you don’t need to worry about existing modules.
Everything booted up straight out, and machine now seems a bit happier, running about 5 virtual machines each with a decent amount of RAM assigned to them. Very pleased!
Overall these are solid for the price and work great with my Ryzen 1800x. Have had no issue with them what so ever!
Update March 2021: Credit Card chargeback to Crucial successful after Crucial objected to chargeback having claimed I signed for the order (1 month before I placed the order! ). Crucial never refined me.
Compare the Amazon experience, ordered yesterday afternoon, and it arrived this morning. Clock speed adjusted in the BIOS to what the memory is rated at and it runs like a train.
Very pleased, good product, but remember, check TrustPilot for Crucial and then buy your memory from here as it comes quickly.
A word of advice. These memory sticks are quite wide and on my AsuS Maximus XII Formula with a Be Quiet cooler, you cannot fit these sticks in slot A1. The solution is to take the Be Quiet mounting off and grind off 3mm from the mounting bracket next to the memory and also from the horizontal bar and then it fits. I’ve now 4 sticks installed giving me 64GB.
So thank you Amazon, you saved the day.
You can tell from the packaging if it is, as the rumours have suggested, by looking for “M16 FE1” at the end of the code, the E here indicates it’s a dual rank micron e die.
Proof from CPUz above too.
If like me you’re trying to win the dual rank lottery, I think these units are the best chance! (In white at least).
I though to my self, it’s Christmas, sales are on and I’m yet to buy myself a gift.
Obviously I’m the build-on-a-budget kind of guy so I embarked on a week long research spree to find the best/affordable Memory upgrade for my PC.
As it goes I have a Ryzen 5 3600 and it seems that AMD CPU’s are more dependant on RAM to perform optimally.
While the Ryzen 5 3600 with my old RAM performed okay it didn’t utilise use the infinity fabric to its full potential.
The science talk claims that the optimal memory speed for my Ryzen CPU is 3600mhz in order to achieve a 1:1 ratio between your Memory and CPU.
In theory going from 3200mhz to 3600mhz should improve FPS in gaming but the difference would be almost unnoticeable in most cases. Nevertheless, since I tend to sell my old parts online, the upgrade didn’t cost me that much (about 15) which to me was a fare price.
The reason why I picked these Memory modules is because of their fairly reasonable latency CL16, especially for the price.
When it comes to RAM, low latency is preferable and if you want to best utilise your budget to buy a part it’s always worth comparing the CL number.
What I’ve come to realise is that virtually all 2x8Gb memory sticks that run at 3600mhz between CL17-CL19 cost just as much if not more, making the choice here rather obvious.
Obviously there’s the option of overclocking, but if you don’t know how to do that and want to spend as little money as possible the Crucial Ballistix are for you.
The installation was easy, they look good (I’ve the white colour version) and they perform as intended according to CPU-z and my Infiniti fabric ratio is now 1:1.
In other words, if you’re willing to sell your old Memory to buy a faster one even if slightly, then you might as well.
I’m happy.
This memory is excellent and worked at the XMP setting of 3600 CL16 @ 1.35V straight out of the box with no other tweaks needed. It scores very well against other 3600 kits, which most seem to be CL18 these days and not the tighter CL16 rating as with this kit. 100% stable, very good quality and good price. Highly recommended!
For anyone interested, I have this memory installed in an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 PC with an Asrock X470 Taichi motherboard on the latest available BIOS. No problems here at all.
1) Use A2/B2 slots as advised in the MB manual, you’ll not get XMP profile in the A1/B1 which is common mistake
2) Set Infinity Fabric speed to 1800Mhz to get best performance
You can easily tweak it to bit higher speeds or lower latency (using Ryzen DRAM calculator) for fun, but that requires voltage increase and performance difference is minimal, so after benchmarks I keep it daily on the XMP profile.
Also what has to be noted, it is best value for money in class – so very highly recommended!
I was using 2400mhz memory which was failing to overclock at all, up the voltage and you’d get a failed boot on stock.
So wanted to get the most out of my setup as I figured that the memory was the last thing that was letting my system down.
Installed, enabled xmp as it was running at 2666 on stock. Once xmp was enabled 3600hmz with out issue… I pushed the infinity fabric to 1800 and again no issues.
What I noticed right away was that my FPS was a lot more stable in games that are more CPU bound.
Overwatch used to jump around 150-250fps but since switching the memory out the FPS is mostly 250 with some slight drops.
If I was to be totally honest it’s about the only think I have noticed, everything else works as it did before… Just a little more stable.
If you are buying new id recommend this for a Ryzen build as others have pointed out.
These are crucial e-die, did try to overclock but gave up as I didn’t want to invest the time and was happy with the out of box performance, but I understand that 3800 or lower cas ratings are possible, but I just don’t think 1-2% improvements are really worth it.
MB: B450M Mortar MAX, CPU: Ryzen 7 2700 @ 4.0Ghz, 1.35V, SOC, 1.08V, CLDO_VDDP 0.7V
EDIT: A few things to note, my sticks are throwing errors at XMP stock voltage of 1.35V in HCI Memtest. Errors at XMP should be expected as it is an overclock profile, in most cases bumping voltages will get rid of the errors. Using Ryzen Dram Calculator and some manual timing tightening I ended up with this: 14-18-14-14-32-56-1CR-522TRFC, GDM OFF @ 3600 MT/S, 1.47V. In the calculator membench 0.8 i got a time of 109.6 on Easy.