
Most of our readers are familiar with performance memory, yet many still don’t understand that the vast majority of it is rated at overclocked settings. Standard DDR3 runs at 1.50V, and components rated at higher voltages are likely to have slower, standard memory under those heat spreaders. When you pay extra for performance RAM, what you’re really paying for is a guarantee that the modules will operate at a speed beyond the ratings of its components.
Performance guarantees are nice, but paying someone else to validate an overclock can put a big dent in the value a mid-priced system represents. After all, most builders don't pay extra for a CPU that has been validated by a third party to run at higher speeds, yet very few overclocking enthusiasts seek better value by risking the chance of a “poor yield” in exchange for a lower price. We willingly take that small risk with processors, so why not apply the same principle to RAM?

Unfortunately, finding the right overclocking RAM isn’t as easy as finding the right processor, simply because there are so many more choices. While many hardcore folks maintain a list of the best memory ICs, manufacturers don’t normally tell you which parts they use (they often change from one week to the next, depending on supply). Further complicating matters is the fact that many manufacturers routinely swap-out components without changing the model number on the package. Thus, the best way to find the best-value overclocking memory is to test everything.
We don’t expect our readers to go out and buy every available low-cost kit, while relying on manufacturers to provide samples could result in specially-prepared or hand-picked parts that inaccurately represent the retail product. But putting the words “budget” and “overclocking” in the same sentence makes it hard to arrange a truly-representative comparison, so we instead logged on to Newegg.com and bought the six module sets that were available for less than $80 as of October 1.
As memory prices continue to trend upward, some of the parts we bought now cost over $80. Yet surprisingly, some have gone down in price. All of these are still inexpensive, so let’s take a closer look at what our limited funds bought.
Ed.: We're giving away nine 4GB DDR3 memory kits to go along with this story; six of which you'll find on the following pages. We've tried to simplify the contest process (we've done a ton of them lately, in case you've missed them) with a Google form, the link to which you'll find right here. For the contest details, check out the last page of Thomas' round-up.
pity it ain't available in Australia :S
These kits totally deserved the Tom's award for best hardware of '09.
3GB modules don't make a lot of sense due to the way memory chips are organized. In order to do it "right" (same physical organization), you'd have to use different chips on each side of the module, such as 1gb chips on one side and 2gb chips on the other, and I'm not even sure such a module would be compatible with current memory controllers.
I was always leery of buying value RAM because I figured it failed a spec somewhere along the line and got thrown in the "sell it to Mikey because he'll buy anything" bin at the virtual store.
Glad you found this as well. I, and others on newegg who ordered that set of sticks, got DOA memory. Gave me errors and couldn't OC at all. It's crap RAM.
From the samples Tom's purchased it appears that there are two grades of memory: "Everything Else" and OCZ Gold.
If we could get a small sample of benchmarks with real apps (e.g., one or two games, an encoder or two, a file compressor or two) I think readers would have a far better understanding of what "Super-Value" means for them (and their apps/games/etc.)
I have an AM3 motherboard with 8 gig of ram and I could run memtest86+ for hours and not have any problems, boot into windows and have unpredictable crashes from minutes to hours later.
If I boot into windows and run the memory tester in the link below, the problem shows up within seconds or minutes.
I have no idea why this memory tester appears to be better than memtest86+.
After you get the system working reliably, run one of the CPU stress programs at the same time as the memory test to heat up the CPU and ram and see if the system is still reliable.
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/download.html
I agree with those who stated it would have been informative to see some applications used in the test. Also, it would have been more informative if they had included one or two of the performance RAM for comparison.