By: Jonathan Kwan
April 11, 2025
How can we communicate well? As obvious as it may sound, the best way to communicate well is to start off by making sure what you originally intended was received by the party you are trying to communicate with. We call this signal integrity in engineering. In Fall of 2023, I was lecturing an electrical engineering class at the University of Calgary after recovering from a few days of sickness. The only thing that has not fully recovered was my voice. Every time I opened my mouth, I would cough, which could be an issue if you are trying to speak in front of a hundred people. As I tried to figure out how I could manage the rest of the hour, one of my students raised his hand, told me he had some awesome cough candy, and asked if I wanted one. Well, what could go wrong in accepting food from the crowd? I said yes, and he chucked it down to me from his seat in the middle of the lecture theater. I took it, and sure enough, it worked like magic. I was able to lecture the rest of the class without coughing at all, and whatever that cough candy was, I still do not know what was in it to this day. When it comes to RAM, having good signal integrity is necessary to maintain stability at high speeds. The latest Clocked Unbuffered Dual In-line Memory Module, or CUDIMM, adds a clock driver to regenerate the clock signal used by the memory chips to achieve exactly this. But what if you want it in laptop form? The Crucial CT2K16G64C52CS5 DDR5-6400 2x16GB is the CSODIMM equivalent of the CT2K16G64C52CU5 DDR5-6400 2x16GB, which I looked at last month. Read on to find out more about what Crucial has to offer for the latest Intel mobile platform!
Our review unit of the Crucial CT2K16G64C52CS5 DDR5-6400 2x16GB arrived in a medium-sized brown corrugated cardboard box alongside its desktop counterpart from Hotayi Electronics, a contract electronics manufacturer, all the way from Seberang Perai, Penang, Malaysia. Everything arrived in excellent condition to us here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for our review today using the FedEx International Priority service. If one were to travel from Calgary to Seberang Perai, the fastest flight will take you close to 24 hours, having the first connection in Vancouver and the second in Singapore.
Crucial uses OEM-grade packaging for their OEM-grade retail memory products. I am quite a fan of it, because it cuts down on waste. The clamshell package is simple and held closed together at the top by two friction buttons. I found this quite appropriate for a mainstream consumer product. Both memory modules can be seen through its clear plastic exterior placed vertically next to each other, where its specifications can be found on the label in front. The label has Crucial's logo on top, as well as information such as memory capacity, configuration, model number, speed, voltage, and CAS latency. The same information can be found on a sticker on the memory modules themselves, which can be seen from the back of the package.
Before we move on, let us take a look at the specifications of the Crucial CT2K16G64C52CS5 DDR5-6400 2x16GB, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
Technology: DDR5
Module Type: CSODIMM
Density: 32GB Kit (16GBx2)
Kit Quantity: 2
Voltage: 1.1V/(5V ext)
Dimm Type: CSODIMM
Die Density: 16Gb
Default and performance recovery profiles
default(jedec): 52-52-52-103
Speed & timing
Speed: DDR5-6400
CASLatency: 52
Extended Timings: 52-52-52
Warranty & returns
Warranty Description: Crucial offers different warranty levels for different products.
The Crucial CT2K16G64C52CS5 DDR5-6400 2x16GB, being a part of the latest consumer laptop DDR5 line from the company, has no heatspreaders at all. This should come as no surprise, as extra thickness on laptop RAM can cause compatibility issues with some systems, and heatspreaders in this context offer no benefit at all -- not even visually. The last time I reviewed any laptop RAM with heatspreaders was over 10 years ago with the Patriot Viper SODIMM DDR3-1600 2x8GB.
As you can see in my photo above, the Crucial CT2K16G64C52CS5 DDR5-6400 2x16GB has a very nice black PCB. We can also spot the power management integrated circuit, commonly abbreviated as PMIC, near the center. These are CSODIMMs, so next to the PMIC is a clock driver used to regenerate the clock cycle for improve stability, especially at higher frequencies. You probably do not need it at DDR5-6400, and mobile platforms are typically not designed for overclocking, but it does not hurt to have it.
A specification label is found on one side of both DDR5 memory modules. It lists the CT2K16G64C52CS5 model number, bandwidth, CAS latency, voltage, and the DIMM's memory capacity. The Crucial CT2K16G64C52CS5 DDR5-6400 2x16GB is made in Malaysia, hence why it was shipped to us from there directly.
Here is a shot at the back of the Crucial CT2K16G64C52CS5 DDR5-6400 2x16GB. It is completely blank, because the modules are single-sided. There is nothing else to really talk about here, so let us zoom in on the memory chips on the next page.
A closer look at the memory chips on the Crucial CT2K16G64C52CS5 DDR5-6400 2x16GB dual channel memory kit. The photo above should be quite clear -- it says "D8DKT" on each IC. These are Micron-manufactured chips identified as MT60B2G8RZ-64B:D decoded from the FBGA inscription, with eight 2GB chips on one side for a total of 16GB on each DIMM. These RAM modules run at a frequency of DDR5-6400 with 52-52-52-103 latencies, which are exactly the same as its desktop counterpart. They operate at the base DDR5 voltage of 1.1V. Here are the listed features for the ICs, as obtained from Micron's website:
• VDD = VDDQ = 1.1V (NOM)
• VPP= 1.8V (NOM)
• On-die, internal, adjustable VREF generation for DQ, CA, CS
• 1.1V pseudo open-drain I/O
• TC maximum up to 95°C
- 32ms, 8192-cycle refresh up to 85°C
- 16ms, 8192-cycle refresh at >85°C to 95°C
• 32 internal banks (x4, x8): 8 groups of 4 banks each
• 16 internal banks (x16): 4 groups of 4 banks each
• 16n-bit prefetch architecture
• 1 cycle/2 cycle command structure
• 2N mode
• All bank and same bank refresh
• Multi-purpose command (MPC)
• CS/CA training mode
• On-die ECC (bounded fault)
• ECC transparency and error scrub
• Decision feedback equalization (DFE)
• Loopback mode
• Command-based non-target (NT) nominal, DQ/DQS park, and dynamic WR on-die termination (ODT)
• sPPR and hPPR capability
• MBIST/mPPR capability
• Per-DRAM addressability
• JEDEC JESD-79.5 compliant
As far as performance is concerned, I do not own a compatible laptop for testing the Crucial CT2K16G64C52CS5 DDR5-6400 2x16GB. However, I have previously benchmarked the Crucial CT2K16G64C52CU5 DDR5-6400 2x16GB, which is the desktop version of the CT2K16G64C52CS5. Both models have identical hardware and specifications. The only difference is the form factor. As such, there should be no difference in performance between the CT2K16G64C52CU5 and CT2K16G64C52CS5.
Crucial provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
The Crucial CT2K16G64C52CU5 DDR5-6400 2x16GB is a quality set of CSODIMMs to get you going on the latest Intel laptop platforms for about $120 at press time.
