There is much to say about these Crucial DDR4 sticks. First and foremost, as a company, Crucial provides an absolutely unique experience—they make these products from start to finish, silicon included. There are only a few other companies out there that can lay claim to such a grand feat, nevermind when it comes to memory. Crucial knows its products better than most because they control the production of these devices from start to finish, which gives them the ability to ensure a level of quality that is second to none.

DDR4 technology has been around for some time, and yet at this instant in time, it is still an infant in many ways. Prices are high, speeds are somewhat low, and there are only a limited number of devices that use it. Since we're currently talking about a single platform from a single OEM with just three SKUs on offer, none of this pertains to you if you aren't buying an Intel i7-5820K, i7-5930K, or i7-5960X. However, as this is also an investigation into what the future can offer, I am definitely a bit excited.

This kit in particular, since it is comprised of sticks with a dual-rank configuration, offers higher performance in nearly every instance than a kit that is built in a single-rank configuration, like all 16 GB DDR4 kits are. So to get the biggest performance impact, you really want to grab a minimum of 32 GB. At $400, that is $100 a stick, a pretty hefty price for 8GB of memory. No one said DDR4 was going to bring price savings, though, and the ability to simply plug this kit in and have it work without ever having to enter the BIOS and muck around with its settings is great. Its green-only color might not be so pleasant to look at if you're concerned about a matched esthetic, but did I mention it beat out that 16 GB kit? Bought a set and need some help setting it up? Let me know in the forums!!