Tech Review | How much does high-end memory improve Performance?

Over the past week I had the opportunity to review the MX200 1000GB SSD and Ballistix Elite 4X(8GB) DDR3 – 2133 UDIMM from Crucial on behalf of the site. Due to the fact that I’ll be covering to components I decided to forgo the traditional review format I usually use and replace it by a editorial piece detailing my experiences with them.

To begin with, the upgrade, and installation for both the memory and SSD were pretty much your standard affair of put memory in DDR3 slot, make sure they’re fastened securely, then screw SSD into a drive slot in the case, and connect the SATA power and data cables. After that all you need to do is reboot your system, configure the memory modules in your Bios, set the SSD as your main drive (if you plan to use it for that purpose), then install Windows and you’re finished.

See Easy!

OK so let’s get to the important questions you’re all thinking.

How does this upgrade improve my PC performance and are they necessary?

To answer the first part of the question, I’ll first have to tell you about the components that I replaced in my PC, and then compare the new ones to those.

My Previous SSD and Memory:

• SSD: Sandisk Z400s 256GB
• Memory: G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

So, I pretty much had a solid setup before. Had the upgrade been an HDD to SSD along with standard memory to high performance memory, there would have been some noticeable performance gains, however due to the closeness in performance between the parts I was swapping out and the ones going in, I didn’t notice any huge performance improvement. Now this is not to say that I didn’t gain any improvement, just that they weren’t leaps and bounds apart in terms of performance.

When cold booting the system it was about 4-8 seconds faster at getting to the login screen after the upgrade. A statistic I didn’t find to be very important as I barely ever switch off my machines, and that includes my laptops. They’re more often than not running 24/7 until I have to do maintenance or upgrade them. What this means is that the SSD only showed its usefulness after installing the applications I regularly use like Photoshop, Vegas Pro , iTunes, Audacity, Steam and a couple others. With application load times just a couple seconds faster than the Sandisk, It didn’t really change much for me, but that added 700 plus Gigabytes (average) of storage did matter a lot. It meant that I could install more of the games I had to play for review onto the SSD instead of the HDD I use for storage which greatly improved my load times.

From my experience an SSD is most useful for those of us that want to get better load times on our applications and games. Over my time with them I’ve noticed that almost any SSD is better than having a HDD, just as long as you have enough space on it for your operating system and your applications, and this SSD fulfills that requirement in spades. I was also informed about the possibility of using one on a console to improve it’s loading time during an interview with a Crucial representative. 

As for the memory It affects more of the system performance than most other components, because it works closely with almost everything on your MB. The GPU, and CPU both rely on memory and if the the memory has lower performance it can cause bottle-necking which lowers your overall fps in games, and can result in the system locking up under load. One particular application that everyone uses that is a huge memory resource hog is the Google Chrome browser. This application can sometimes be single handedly responsible for poor system performance, which is why most gamers either close all it’s running processes via task manager or just don’t install it at all. That being said, I didn’t have to do any of that with the addition of more accessible memory at my disposal. I don’t think my system has gotten to use more than 40% of the memory yet, and mind you I regularly have Vegas Pro, Photoshop and chrome with multiple tabs all running at the same time. As for gaming performance, I’ve noticed a frame or 2 gained in some titles while in others there have been no changes to speak of.

Should you consider upgrading your memory and SSD?

There really isn’t an unequivocal answer to that question. The answer really depends on what your current PC build has in it and what you use it for. If you’re an office worker that just works with google docs, then no this is not an upgrade that you should consider, no matter how alluring faster boot times may seem. If you’re a gamer that already has an SSD and high end memory, then the answer is still, no. You’re not going to experience enough of a boost in performance to justify the cost, especially the memory upgrade. Now if you’re using standard memory, an HDD, and you game on your PC then you’re gonna want to get an SSD and that memory upgrade, as they are certainly going to improve your gaming experience a lot.

Why you should consider Crucial over other brands for your upgrade?  

Well, the first and probably the most impressive thing about them is that they have a very helpful, user friendly tool that gathers information about your available expansion slots, models for your components, along with suggestions for which components are compatible with your system. This can be very helpful for the less tech savvy among and it can be of great assistance to those of us that may have forgotten what components we have inside our systems and would prefer not to open our case just to check. Crucial also benefits from being a part of Micron Technology, Inc. one of the few semiconductors producers in the world, which allows for them to set the pace with newer memory technologies, while at the same time improving older ones. There’s a bit more I’d like to say based on our interview with them, however I’ll save that for another article I have planned and for some discussions on Buttonsmashers Podcast.

In conclusion I have had a good experience with this upgrade, especially thanks to that 1TB SSD which allows me to store games and applications for improved loading times. I hope that this article was helpful, and should you have any unanswered questions about my experience with both products, please feel free to leave them in the comment section below.