Mushkin Redline 1866 or Crucial Ballistix Sport 1600

[listener011]

I am building custom PC (high end, but not for gaming purposes) and am choosing-n-picking components for the same. I snagged 2x8GB of Mushkin DDR3-1866 (9-9-9-27, 1.5V) @ $105 when it was on sale (link). A few days back, I ordered ASRock 990FX Extreme3 and to my pleasant surprise I got a single 8GB stick of Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3-1600(9-9-9-24, 1.3V, model BLS8G3D1609ES2LX0) with it for free (link).

I figured this is a relatively new model and most Newegg'ers seem to have gotten it as part of promo with their motherboards. There isn't much on the web either, reviews-wise. Performance-wise, the Mushkin 1866 vs Crucial 1600 isn't going to make a world of difference to me.
While I generally believe Crucial makes good RAMs, I'm not sure how good/reliable/lasting this particular model of theirs is.

Would really appreciate your thoughts here...
What do you guys think is my best option here...
1. Keep the Mushkin 2x8GB kit I already have and try to sell the Crucial 8GB stick
2. Keep the Crucial stick, get another stick @$67 of the same model (so pair becomes 16GB) and try to return the Mushkin (assuming I can return at all, I haven't used it and it's not 30-days since purchase yet).
3. Something else? (of course, sticking mismatched Mushkin 16GB + Crucial 8GB onto the same board isn't an option! Nor is donating it )

 

[Legohouse]

Hello,

1. Yes, you can sell the crucial memory and stick with Mushkin. Mixing brands and speed is not a good idea. So I would stick with the 16GB kit.
2. This is also a good option. If you are sure that your memory is on warranty then you can submit an RMA and ask for a refund.

Speed wise Mushkin's 16GB kit is better than the crucial kit. Since you have an AMD CPU I would get the highest speed possible. IMO, selling the crucial module and sticking with the Mushkin is a better idea. Both Mushkin and Crucial are good brands. Hope that helps. Cheers, mate.

 

[Tradesman1]

1600/9 is basically entry level and while 1600 is entry level, performance 1600 is normally CL8 or CL7....my guess (others have done this) is they are testing the waters to get feed on low voltage sticks or maybe to see how things are with low voltage as DDR4 will be running more like 1.25 as a standard compared to the 1.5 of DDR3

 

[listener011]

So I hear that keep the "Mushkin" modules, thanks for your tips Legohouse and Tradseman1.

...
Speed wise Mushkin's 16GB kit is better than the crucial kit. Since you have an AMD CPU I would get the highest speed possible.

Curious as to why do you recommend fastest possible RAM with AMD cpus?
Would your recommendation be different if it were an Intel CPU? You have got me curious, Legohouse

 

[Tradesman1]

Think it might be a mis-nomer, AMD's APU love fast DRAM and uses it primarily for it's graphics, the AMD CPUs are a different ballgame, realistically the 8150 and 8350 are suppose to handle up to 1 stick per channel of 1866 (the testing was done with 4 GB sticks)..Most can do that some can handle 2 8GB sticks of 1866...Here's AMDs own freq guide, the high's are generally based on the top two CPUs in each of the families

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ddr3memoryfrequencyguide.aspx