Need guidence for buying new RAM

[Captain Bill grace digger]

• Do RAM sticks from well known manufacturers like G.Skill tend to perform better than other not so well known RAM stick manufacturers.
  
• Do RAM sticks from well known manufacturers come with any additional features than a heat sink.
  
• Does a heat sink on a RAM stick accelerate performance.
  
• Is type and speed of RAM your system board can accept sufficient when selecting a new RAM.
  
• Does processor compatibility need to be taken into consideration when buying new RAM.

[RAMSELECTRONICS]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

> It's depend with the motherboard configuration and QVL (Qualified Vendors Lists) to match.

> Heatsink does not help performance as much.

> Brand name have lot good names.

> Try look up at www.newegg.com

[SteveNielsen]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

• Do RAM sticks from well known manufacturers like G.Skill tend to perform better than other not so well known RAM stick manufacturers.
  
• Do RAM sticks from well known manufacturers come with any additional features than a heat sink.
  
• Does a heat sink on a RAM stick accelerate performance.
  
• Is type and speed of RAM your system board can accept sufficient when selecting a new RAM.
  
• Does processor compatibility need to be taken into consideration when buying new RAM.

1. Not generally speaking, but lesser quality RAM tend to have higher failure rates.
2. Other than being higher quality, no.
3. If it allows you to over-clock it due to it running cooler then yes, otherwise no.
4. Yes, that's all you need to spec out RAM for the board.
5. Not directly. The compatibility is determined by the chipset and the chipset is matched to the CPU. In other words by the motherboard as a unit.

[Captain Bill grace digger]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

Thank You.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

Is G.Skill a "good" RAM module manufacturer?

I cant believe I got a *shorted* RAM module from G.Skill (bought from NewEgg). Fortunately I got RMA and a new set of modules, but I would have thought shorts should not get past QA.

[stj]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

i dont care who makes the module,
i pay attention to who makes the chips.

my prefered chips are samsung.

[Captain Bill grace digger]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

How can you know the maximum amount of RAM that can be installed in your system also the maximum amount of RAM that can be installed in each slot.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

How can you know the maximum amount of RAM that can be installed in your system also the maximum amount of RAM that can be installed in each slot.

Look it up in your motherboard owner's manual.

Sometimes you can go beyond what is written but usually they're spot on.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

i dont care who makes the module,
i pay attention to who makes the chips.

my prefered chips are samsung.

The board does make a difference sometimes, with these high speed signals, one mishap wiring a signal can mean marginal timing problems...

[ratdude747]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

IIRC gskill has a policy where if there is only one or two bad locations on a module they will still sell it as "good." I'd avoid it.

[c_hegge]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

Corsair is another one to avoid IMO. I've never had one that didn't either cause instability and/or fail memtest since DDR3 came out. Kingston are my preferred brand nowadays, although Crucial/Micron seem to be OK too.

[Captain Bill grace digger]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

Look it up in your motherboard owner's manual.

I have a branded computer from Dell so maximum RAM capacity is not mentioned in any of the product documents. Is there any other way of finding it out.

[SteveNielsen]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

Go to Dell's website and look up the model specs.

[lti]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

Cheap RAM has lots of compatibility issues. They sometimes cut costs by making high-density RAM (fewer chips) or using chips that require higher supply voltages to pass testing (either because they're defective or being overclocked).

[diif]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

I have a branded computer from Dell so maximum RAM capacity is not mentioned in any of the product documents. Is there any other way of finding it out.

Go to crucial.com they have two ways to tell you what memory is suitable for your Dell.

[shovenose]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

Avoid Corsair - JUNK! G.SKILL is not so great either. Seen lots of dead G.SKILL memory that was never overclocked. They use fancy heatsinks to cover up generic crap memory chips. Crucial is your best option for quality RAM. Have bought 100+ sticks 0 DOA or coming back bad. That's in servers, desktops, and laptops. Kingston is also very good but usually not cost effective. Mushkin is good too just not very common.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

Avoid Corsair - JUNK! G.SKILL is not so great either. Seen lots of dead G.SKILL memory that was never overclocked. They use fancy heatsinks to cover up generic crap memory chips. Crucial is your best option for quality RAM. Have bought 100+ sticks 0 DOA or coming back bad. That's in servers, desktops, and laptops. Kingston is also very good but usually not cost effective. Mushkin is good too just not very common.

man i've been using nothing but gskill and have gotten like 2 bad sticks out of like...50, one ddr2 one ddr3. Its really the best bang for your buck, and yes, i've even overclocked it too (but those were more expensive sticks)

and as an answer to your signature, what happens is you get blood on your toast

[eccerr0r]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

I have gotten a lot of crappy noname modules in the past, of the ones that were branded or recall the brand, I think I have nothing but praise for Crucial (including HP rebranded and Ballistix) and Kingston, no bad modules yet - I somehow have a lot of these two brands, maybe for good reason.
I think rounding out the rest,
PQI - 2/2 good modules
Spectek - I think I got 1/1 good module
G.Skill 3/4 good modules (RMA one set of 2)
These probably compose most of my DDR/DDR2/DDR3 modules.

Most of the other modules I have (mostly SDR, 72-pin EDO, FPM modules, etc.) I don't remember what brand they were if they weren't Kingston or Crucial branded. The bad modules were mostly from the nonames.

I have one noname 256MB PC133 module that I stuck into a P5 "TX" chipset board. Running at PC66 speeds, it still fails memtest86 just like how it fails on another SiS board at PC133 speeds. Fail.

Oddly enough the first RAM module I've ever had known fail on me was a 64Kb x 1 16-pin IC. I was so mad at that chip that it caused random parity errors. It ran hot too, much like the others in that bank. It had "MT" printed on it and I had sworn never to buy from that manufacturer...

But today I guess I did an 180 degree turn, still buying chips from them.

[lti]

Re: Need guidence for buying new RAM

PNY RAM is also good. However, some of their modules cost twice as much as similar RAM from another company.

I consider Mushkin to be one of the cheap brands. They're one of the companies selling RAM that requires higher supply voltages.