Now let’s have a look at the modules in detail and under the heatspreader. For reference, the Crucial Ballistix (not MAX) 3200c16 DIMMs based on Micron’s RevE IC’s, from one of my first tests for Igorslab. The first noticeable differences are the weight, thickness and thus the perceived quality. The heatsink or heatspreader of the Ballistix MAX also looks visually heavier and more solid from the side due to the deeper embossing. The only slightly negative noticeable feature is the two pins on the top of the MAX modules that attach the lighting element, and somewhat detract from the overall look. But if it results in better and easier maintainability, you could definitely come to terms with that.
The differences become particularly clear when looking at the modules from the side. While the Ballistix Heatspreader only consists of a comparatively thin aluminum, the Ballistix MAX has significantly more mass and thus heat capacity. You can also see here that the pcb’s differ significantly between the product series, although both are single-rank.
Removing the two pins just mentioned is relatively easy if you know how. For this I use a H2.0 hex bit, which makes it relatively easy to push the pin out from the thinner side. Once both pins are removed, the acrylic element can be easily removed from the top. By the way, Crucial makes the CAD file of the acrylic element freely available on their homepage, so that hobby 3D printers can build their own lightspreader – neat!
With a view from above you can already see the circuit board with its 16 RGB-LEDs in pairs. Now follows as so often with the dismantling of RAM modules the call to the hair dryer, in order to weaken the adhesive between board and heatsink halves somewhat. While the thermal pad was comparatively easy to loosen, the foam part on the bare PCB side turned out to be a bit more difficult, but both were doable. For the absolute RAM nerds among the readers, I now have a few close-up pictures of the PCB on both sides and a direct comparison between the 4400c19 Ballistix MAX PCB from today’s review (top) and the 3200c16 Ballistix RevE PCB (bottom).
As we can see nicely here, the PCB layout is different just because of the size of the memory chips. While the regular Ballistix variant uses an A2 JEDEC reference design, the Ballistix MAX with RevB memory chips uses a heavily modified A2 board layout. Since this is a relatively new design, there are no schematics from public sources yet – so you’ll just have to trust me on this one.
It is also noticeable here that the capacitor layout differs significantly between the board designs. While the RevE design uses a lot of medium sized capacitors, also between the IC’s, the RevB design uses much smaller capacitors along the DIMM connectors and a few large ones at the edge and on the backside. To conclude the characteristics of such devices based on the physical dimensions is of course only conditionally meaningful, but it is nevertheless remarkable, also that the RevB PCB apparently gets along with less capacitance altogether.
While the traces for signal transmission near the ICs show significant differences, the layout in the middle of the module for power supply and control of the SPD is almost identical. Only the RGB controller has its additional power and data connection here and correspondingly in the upper section then the connections to the LEDs. A 6K5830UA0 from ENE is used for this purpose, a relatively well-known microcontroller for RGB implementations of this type, which can also be found on RAM modules from other manufacturers, for example, and thus indirectly ensures the best possible compatibility with control software as a de facto standard.
- 1 - Unboxing and first Impressions
- 2 - Dimensions and RGB
- 3 - SPD and Heatsink Performance
- 4 - Teardown and PCB Comparison (vs. RevE)
- 5 - Test Systems and Methods
- 6 - XMP Behavior and Overclocking
- 7 - Synthetic Benchmarks – AIDA64 und Geekbench 3
- 8 - Gaming – Cyberpunk 2077 in UHD, QHD, FHD
- 9 - Summary and Coinclusion
14 Antworten
Kommentar
Lade neue Kommentare
Moderator
Urgestein
Mitglied
Urgestein
Urgestein
Urgestein
Urgestein
Urgestein
Urgestein
Veteran
Urgestein
Urgestein
Alle Kommentare lesen unter igor´sLAB Community →