By: Jonathan Kwan and Aaron Lai
May 24, 2024
In the book "Good Strategy/Bad Strategy", author Richard Rumelt in one of the chapters discusses that good strategy requires someone to choose one path over another, which often requires difficult psychological, political, and organizational work. One example given was Intel leaving the DRAM business in 1984. At the time, Intel was known as a leading DRAM manufacturer. However, they were losing a lot of money. because its rivals were able to produce the same thing at a lower price. In the book, an interaction between Intel CEO Andy Grove and chairman, Gordon Moore, was presented. "If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you think he would do?" Moore immediately replied, "He would get us out of memories." Grove recalls that he went numb and then finally said, "Why shouldn't you and I walk out the door, come back and do it ourselves?" The end result was after much internal struggle, Intel finally got out of the memory business to refocus on microprocessors, which propelled the company into one of the largest semiconductor manufacturers by 1992. In modern times, I doubt many people would even associate Intel with DRAM, and over thirty years later, Intel continues to dominate the microprocessor scene. But this does not mean American manufacturers are out of the DRAM business. Idaho-based Micron continues to be one of the biggest DRAM suppliers in the world, and we have covered pretty much all their retail products since the close of the last decade. Today, we have yet another product from them in our labs, the Crucial Pro Overclocking White DDR5-6000 2x16GB. This DDR5 RAM kit, as its name suggests, is the white version of the Pro Overclocking DDR5-6000 2x16GB we covered a few weeks back. Is it a good strategy to change the heatsink color to appeal to a wider audience? Are there any other changes under the hood? Read on to find out!
Our review unit of the Crucial Pro Overclocking White DDR5-6000 2x16GB arrived in a medium-sized brown corrugated cardboard box from Brownsville, Texas, which is nowhere near any Micron offices. However, this is where Avant Technology is located, which Micron partners with. Using the FedEx International Priority service, everything arrived in excellent condition to us here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for our review today.
There was another box inside the shipping box, which is large enough to contain a lot more than one or two packs of RAM. After taking out a large chunk of brown packing paper, I eventually got to the Crucial Pro Overclocking White DDR5-6000 2x16GB's retail packages. The company sent us two kits. Crucial's retail package designs have always been about business, and the Pro Overclocking White is no different. The simple, environmentally friendly hang packaging features the latest design identical to the black version, which should not be a surprise to anyone.
As you can see in our photo above, the predominantly silver and purple template has Crucial's logo at the top left corner, while a Pro series badge can be seen at the top right corner. Occupying the majority of the room are both memory modules in clear plastic placed vertically next to each other. On the left, you can see "DDR5" clearly displayed, with the "Overclocking" designation underneath it and an indicator this is desktop memory. On the right, you can find its specifications, including capacity, configuration, speed, latencies, and system requirements. Two badges at the bottom indicate its Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD Expo compatibility. The RAM's product description in various languages can be found at the back.
Before we move on, let us take a look at the specifications of the Crucial Pro Overclocking White DDR5-6000 2x16GB, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
General tech specs
DIMM type: Unbuffered
Technology: DDR5
Density: 32GB Kit (2x16GB)
Module quantity: 2
Voltage: 1.35V/(5V ext)
Module type: UDIMM
Die Density: 16Gb
Default and performance recovery profiles
Default(JEDEC): 5600MT/s 46-45-45
XMP 3.0 Profile 1: 6000MT/s 36-38-38-80
XMP 3.0 Profile 2: 5600MT/s 36-38-38-80
EXPO Profile 1: 6000MT/s 36-38-38-80
EXPO Profile 2: 5600MT/s 36-38-38-80
Warranty & returns
Warranty: Limited Lifetime
Out of the box, you will receive each memory module in the Crucial Pro Overclocking White kit packaged in its own compartment in the enclosed clear plastic tray. There is nothing else included, but I am not sure what else you can expect from a DDR5 kit either, haha.
A screenshot of the memory tab in CPU-Z with Crucial's Pro Overclocking White DDR5-6000 2x16GB installed. The SPD timings table in CPU-Z reads standard JEDEC specifications programmed into the memory as well as XMP data for running the memory at various speeds. Our ASUS ProArt Z690-Creator WiFi motherboard used for testing had no issues detecting and working with the Pro Overclocking RAM right out of the box using the latest BIOS revision. Each kit of the Crucial Pro Overclocking White DDR5-6000 2x16GB retails for approximately $105 at press time.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 CPU
4. Benchmark: AIDA64 FPU
5. Benchmark: AIDA64 Memory
6. Benchmark: PCMark 10
7. Benchmark: 3DMark
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 10
9. Benchmark: SuperPI 1M, Cinebench 2024
10. Overclocking and Conclusion
