what memory brands to avoid

[pharoah]

thinking about upgrading from 1gb of ram to 2gb ddr400 is what i need
my ? is what brand names to avoid

 

[1Tanker]

Apacer :?

 

[nobly]

Any brand that doesn't have a website...

I avoid Kingston, but that's a personal grudge... hehe nothing really to do with their RAM, just their marketing.

 

[Ycon]

Corsair (Im dead serious!)

 

[easymoney9]

OCZ. For sure!

 

[TurricaN_BEL_]

:lol:

And I'm dead serious youre not not dead serious 8O

I'm using CMX1024-3200 (dual channel ,pair total 2GB)
and I havent got any problems with em' , they are rated at cas 3.0 but I run them at cas 2.5 and o/c to around 220 rock stable.
PS dont laugh at me for having cas3.0 mem , at the time I bought my A64 3500 (Newcastle) , I didnt really find much faster ram for a reasonable price.

 

[Covered_in_bees]

Corsair (Im dead serious!)

Why :?:

I personally am very happy with the Corsair modules I have (2x1GB 3500LL Pro running at 220MHz with 2-3-2-6 1T timings on my main pc & another 4x512MB PC3200 in my other pc). Certainly better than the Kingston I used to have.

However, you're not the 1st person on this forum to advise against Corsair. As I'm no expert in this area, I'd be interested in understanding more about why you think this brand should be avoided.

 

[mesarectifier]

I wouldn't bother asking these sorts of questions - one person gets a bad stick of Corsair once and Corsair are the sons of satan, another gets a bad stick of Kingston once and suddenly Kingston are campaigning for bigger African debt and are pro world hunger.

OCZ, Corsair, Kingston, Crucial (?)....I don't really think you're going to see a difference unless you overclock. This is from someone who has almost exclusively used generic RAM and has never had a bad stick (that I can remember)

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

I agree. There really isn't a big difference in performance between brands, since for the most part, they're just rebadged Samsung chips. Crucial does for the most part use Micron chps, which tend to be more reliable, but it's really a non sequitor.

Just out of curiosity, are you planning to use your already installed RAM or are you going to buy completely new?

 

[Jak_Sparra]

I wouldn't bother asking these sorts of questions - one person gets a bad stick of Corsair once and Corsair are the sons of satan, another gets a bad stick of Kingston once and suddenly Kingston are campaigning for bigger African debt and are pro world hunger.

OCZ, Corsair, Kingston, Crucial (?)....I don't really think you're going to see a difference unless you overclock. This is from someone who has almost exclusively used generic RAM and has never had a bad stick (that I can remember)

LOL!. I laughed so hard you made milk come out my nose!

 

[pharoah]

it will be totally new i have 2x512 in it now i know what the good brands are but some of the brands im unsure of like patriot,gskill,and a couple others ive seen got lucky on the ram i have now 2 sticks of rosewill <i know :lol: but they are matched the name on the little chips and they do bench well and pass memtest but im lookin to go to 2 gigs because ive read here and other places that for games 2gb is better

 

[steckman]

Hopefully you read that 2GB for games is better when running at the highest settings. If your CPU and video card will not allow you to run at the highest settings, you aren't going to see a noticeable improvement going from 1GB to 2GB of memory.
I've seen benchmarks for games like Battlefield 2, and adding another 1GB of memory didn't add a noticeable jump in average framerate. However, it may have improved the minimum framerate, which would mean a smoother playing experience.
Anyway, post your CPU and video card and tell us what games you play and then see what everyone else thinks about an upgrade from 1GB to 2GB.

 

[blue68f100]

Look at your MB manual and see what they recommend, as per slots. Then avoid what not on the list.

 

[casewhite]

thinking about upgrading from 1gb of ram to 2gb ddr400 is what i need
my ? is what brand names to avoid

every manufacturer has hadi ts great memory and its bad memory. Are you running DDR or DDR2. If you are running DDR you will be much better off bandwith and latency wise to get an identical pair of 2x512 if you are running the very best quality DDR. That would be something like Winbond original BH-5 or the newer UTTin Mushkin or Gskil or OCZ. If you have Samsung TCCD and maybe TCC5 memory you are also better off using 4x512 and living with the 2t command line. Samsung UCCC which is about the best modules in the 1gb+ per stick range is decidedly inferior to any quality 512 memory module in latency and timing. . Don't let anyone tell you that the good stuff isn't out there it is , you just have to 1. know what you are looking for and 2 be persistent. I just bought 2x512 of OCZ433512ELGEGX last month for $124 for the pair from newegg. It is UTT BH-5.

 

[moparman390]

Avoid:

ULTRA = Generic RAM (usually seen at Tigerdirect.com with a rebate that you will never recieve).

Anything with a name you have never heard of before, unless it's for nothing more then a web/word processing box.

Under Rated:

G-Skill, usually better then middle of the road preformance at a great price for quality RAM. Good Bang for the buck.

Safe Bet:

Major name brands (sometimes you are paying more for just the name though).

 

[TurricaN_BEL_]

Anyway , if you think about playing Oblivion or Fear or any other demanding game....
2 gigs are no luxury , it doesnt have to be the fastest or best timings , if your budget doesnt allow alot of headroom for mem , every brand will do exept no-name , just for the sake of god, get 2gig.
Next PC i build next year will have 4 gig and by then, when the nextgen games arrive it wont be a luxury or overkill anymore , even if it means skimping on timings/speed ,I dont have a big budget , so I know my priorities.
Just my two cents.

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

If you're overclocking, get some decent DDR500 RAM, like G.Skill's with the black heatspreader. That will open up a lot of overclocking headroom because you can decrease the speed while CPU overclocking and not lose a lot of memory speed. You lose the tighter timings, but they don't make that much of a real world difference, anyway.

 

[cooler_power]

Corsair (Im dead serious!)

Are you drunk?

Corsair for ever! They make the best modules for overclocking and stability

 

[carpcmelee]

im using ultra right now, its fine.......... i see no diff between the diff types of rams on the market, justthe prices and brand names. uktra is just cheap, and its not suitable for a gaming machine. but i got 1gb pc2100 ram from ultra, and it does wat it does. period.

 

[Final8y]

Corsair (Im dead serious!)

Why :?:

I personally am very happy with the Corsair modules I have (2x1GB 3500LL Pro running at 220MHz with 2-3-2-6 1T timings on my main pc & another 4x512MB PC3200 in my other pc). Certainly better than the Kingston I used to have.

However, you're not the 1st person on this forum to advise against Corsair. As I'm no expert in this area, I'd be interested in understanding more about why you think this brand should be avoided.

The corsair`s rule. I have the Corsair modules (2x1GB 3500LL Pro running at 250MHz with 2.5-3-2-5 1T timings on set up i went upto 260 but chickened out as the heat of my cpu was hitting the limlit, but that will change with the water cooling.

 

[julius]

if you guys think that any one company makes the best ram, you are deeply mistaken. corsair, kingston, ocz, g.skill etc... dont make ram. very few companies actually make the ram they sell, like micron, and even then they still use some ram from samsung or infineon. all that corsair, ocz, etc do is bin the ram they get. it all depends on the batch you get, so one week ocz might get the best, other week corsair. its stupid to be biased towards any one manufacturer, as theyre all the same exact thing.

 

[dvdpiddy]

Corsair (Im dead serious!)

Cause your an idiot!

 

[HedgeHocker]

if you guys think that any one company makes the best ram, you are deeply mistaken. corsair, kingston, ocz, g.skill etc... dont make ram. very few companies actually make the ram they sell, like micron, and even then they still use some ram from samsung or infineon. all that corsair, ocz, etc do is bin the ram they get. it all depends on the batch you get, so one week ocz might get the best, other week corsair. its stupid to be biased towards any one manufacturer, as theyre all the same exact thing.

julius:

some RAM companies will and do hand pick their RAM for thier sticks.
seems like you'd know that. mushkin used to and theyre doing it again (or soon to) I personaly dont understand the buying of ram with horrible timings to oevrclock with but it's my tech knowledge lacking...

anyone have a good link? why not get RAM with tight timings and overclock with that?

I need two 1GB sticks myself both to overclock AND game with.... recommendations on a choosey cherry pickin company? G.Skill is recommended by DFI for their board I have but why the one with the crappy timings... I dont know yet.

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231019

G.Skill's DDR500 line is recommended for DFI systems. Get that.

 

[1Tanker]

if you guys think that any one company makes the best ram, you are deeply mistaken. corsair, kingston, ocz, g.skill etc... dont make ram. very few companies actually make the ram they sell, like micron, and even then they still use some ram from samsung or infineon. all that corsair, ocz, etc do is bin the ram they get. it all depends on the batch you get, so one week ocz might get the best, other week corsair. its stupid to be biased towards any one manufacturer, as theyre all the same exact thing.

The mem chip itself, isn't the only consideration, just as with processors.

If you put an awesome CPU, in a crappy mobo...it makes a diff.

If you put great Mem chips on a crappy PCB, won't O/C as well., or handle
the heat, and voltages as well.