Upgrading RAM is always one of the quickest ways to improve the performance for your laptop or mini-PC. But not all of them possess the ability to apply the XMP profiles of the SO-DIMM kits in their BIOS. Thus you will leave a lot of capability on the table if your new kit is automatically down-clocked by the computer since it can’t run at anything above 1.2v.
To avoid this, make sure that you are getting a ‘native’ JEDEC 1.2v rated kit for maximum compatibility. One such solution comes from Sabrent with their SO-DIMM Rocket series.
Sabrent’s commitment is to offer the latest technology and the highest quality consumer electronic products at an affordable cost to everyone. Since its founding, Sabrent has consistently delivered to market a full line of computer peripherals and accessories that incorporate style, quality and the latest technologies available.
Prices and Availability
You get plenty of value for $150 considering you are effectively maxing out almost any DDR4 SO-DIMM machine, with this 64GB dual channel, dual rank 3200 MHz kit from Sabrent. Its main competition comes from Kingston’s Impact Fury kit, which offers even better timings out of the box but understandably, costs $20 more.
Presentation and Specification
*Courtesy of their website.*
Specs:
* Model: SB-DDR32X2
* Module Type: 260-pin SO-DIMM
* Capacity: 32GB x2
* Frequency: 3200 MHz
* CL-Value: CL22-22-22-52
* Voltage: 1.2v
* Heat Sink: Copper-lined heat-spreaders
* Warranty: 1 Year standard / 5 years with registration
Visual Inspection
They come fully sealed in individual packs, with excellent branding, as we are accustomed with any product from Sabrent.
These are the maximum option that you can get from Sabrent regarding SO-DIMM DDR4 RAM, as in 32GB 3200 MHz CL22-22-22-52 CR1 per stick.
The sticks are safely nested inside this padded sleeve, which even features a magnet for the flap.
You get one quick user’s guide and that’s about it for accessories.
Sabrent choose an interesting way to apply their copper lined heat-spreader, as in it wraps around the top of the sticks as well.
The only problem we might encounter is that we need to fully press on the heat-spreaders to make them flush, when installing the memory modules horizontally, on top of each other.
As you can see, that corner on the left, the latch can’t engage properly to the stick.
Testing
Hardware used:
– Mini PC: Intel NUC 11 Enthusiast Phantom Canyon
– Boot SSD: Samsung 970 PRO 1TB M.2 Gen3x4 MLC PCIe NVMe 1.3
– Competition RAM 32GB DDR4 SO-DIMM Kingston FURY Impact 3200 MHz CL20 2Rx8:
Software:
– OS: Windows 10 Pro x64 Version 22H2
– NVIDIA Drivers – 531.79
– CPU-Z v1.95 – To verify the CPU’s and RAM’s statistics
– 7-zip v19 – A popular file archiver with a built benchmark tool
– AIDA64 Extreme v6.60 – Memory analysis and Benchmark suite
– Cinebench R23 – Great CPU benchmark tools
– 3D/Game(s) – Assassin’s Creed Valhalla set at FHD, with everything at Max quality Settings, no V-Sync
Testing, Results and Analysis
In a multi core test from Cinebench R23, we get similar results between the kits, albeit with a small gain for the 32GB kit. This is because of its better timings, over the Sabrent one.
Next up is the integrated memory benchmark from AIDA64 so we can inspect the overall read, write and copy bandwidth. We get similar results to R23, where as the lower timing spec’ed kit offers marginal better bandwidth but helps greatly with latency.
7zip is a popular file archiver with a built benchmark tool. It will give us an overall performance index measure din MIPS (million instructions per second) which measure the compressions and decompression capability. The results are almost identical.
Now for a gaming session, one benchmark run in the latest Assassin’s Creed title, Valhalla. There is a small gain for the Sabrent 64GB kit regarding the low 1% and Max FPS numbers.
Conclusion
Since laptops and mini PCs are even more sensitive to RAM than a full desktop PC, it’s very important that you get the best combo of specs that you can. Consequently, these kits from Sabrent offer great value for money if you need 64GB of SO-DIMM DDR4 RAM. If you want tighter timings at 64GB for example, you need to spend a bit more, since tweaking and OC’ing is limited on these machines. Nevertheless, you can’t go wrong with these Rocket sticks!
The good:
+ Truly plug and play – JEDEC 1.2v specs out of the box
+ Dual rank 2Rx8
+ Excellent specs and thus overall results
+ 5 Years warranty (with registration)
+ Black PCB and copper lined heat-spreaders
The bad:
– The sticker will interfere if not properly re-seated
– Competition has better timings
Glob3trotters “Great Value!” Award 4.5 out of 5
A lot of thanks to Sabrent for supplying us with this kit!
