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Best Brand

kevineugenius said:
I've had good and bad Kingston and OCZ, nothing but good from G.Skill. I'll stay with G.Skill until they do something foolish and make me change; I'm not even really enticed by the other stuff (except when they put LEDs on the top... lol)
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G Skill is hilarious, for some of their stuff on Newegg, they respond to EVERYTHING, even people saying how great it is. I love when they randomly drop tips on overclocking and shit on a 5 star review and make sure to make known where they can be found JUST IN CASE. It's great.
 
socK said:
G Skill is hilarious, for some of their stuff on Newegg, they respond to EVERYTHING, even people saying how great it is. I love when they randomly drop tips on overclocking and shit on a 5 star review and make sure to make known where they can be found JUST IN CASE. It's great.
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Yes nothing like a manufacture pumping there reviews up. Makes me want to puke every time I read them.
 
Mushkin, Crucial, gskill, and Kingston value haven't given me any problems. OCZ isnt as good as it use to be. Corsairs rma is pretty quick and painless. RMAd a dead stick of ddr recently. patriot seems to work well but i havent used it very long.
 
Used to be 100% Corsair for me (TwinX XMS always made me warm on the inside). Corsair made a friend for life as well when I RMA'ed one stick of XMS 512MB DDR and they sent me back a 2GB kit to replace it. I still pick up Corsair for DDR2 when I upgrade friend's machines and such.

Since DDR3 though, I've gone to G.Skill for a lot of my modules. The 4x ripjaw 1600's in my main are fantastic and I just grabbed another 16GB of the 1333's for another box. It's pointless as hell but, I really just like the way they look too. The ripjaw heatsinks add a "badassery" vibe just with looks alone.

Kingston ValuRAM gets a bad rap (justifiable sometimes, I think) but, I have 8GB of DDR3 ValuRAM in a box that works just great. Just an FYI is all.
 
larrymoencurly said:
From what you've seen of signal intergrity tests, how much did PCBs differ, net of the DRAM chips, both for modules made with no-name chips and with major brand chips?

I thought everybody's PCBs were either JEDEC reference design, BrainPower, or in the case of chip makers and maybe Kingston, their own designs. I couldn't tell who made the PCBs for Crucial modules containing Micron chips, but I have some Crucials with Samsung chips, and they were made with Samsung PCBs. The Corsair 1GB PC3200 ValueRAMs I bought this year all have BrainPower PCBs (no-name chips, 1 module failed MemTest86), as does a 2GB PC5300 Patriot from Dec. (Hynix chips).
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While most layouts seem to be very close to the JEDEC reference designs, I do think there is a difference in the PCB materials used by different manufacturers, and overall the quality that the assembled modules seem to have. I have to be honest and admit I haven't done an "autopsy" on a module, so I can't comment on the exact materials in use....but I still stick by my statement that chips alone do not a module make. And, I'll stick by the brands I mentioned above....:cool:
 
hmz said:
Whatever is cheaper.
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I have a different perspective, based on the experiences we've had where I work. When it comes to RAM, whatever is *most reliable* is the key. Bad memory can have far-reaching effects on stability, and as the numbers I quoted before show there is a lot of variance from one brand to another... and even among different product lines from a single manufacturer.

Some of the others in this thread have broken that down further into discussion over what memory chips are used, and even what PCB is employed, which are all factors in the reliability equation. Don't cut corners, though: if a more trust-worth module is $5 more then go for it, lest you waste hours of work testing later on.
 
WilliamMGeorge said:
"if a more trust-worth module is $5 more then go for it, lest you waste hours of work testing later on."
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I am SO in agreement with this statement. However, most people's point of reference on failure rates is entirely from their own experience. For some people that might encompass a couple hundred GBs worth of varying modules but, for others, only a few sticks of the same stuff.
 
I've had good luck with Corsair, Crucial, Kingston Value Ram, OCZ, etc. while not so good experiences with others like PNY for example.

I currently have no issue with paying a small premium for some good Corsair modules as long as I don't feel gouged.
 
whatever is cheapest for the required speed. Currently have a set of corsair but wouldn't mind buying gskill or something else
 
WilliamMGeorge said:
Kingston ValueRAM: 0.91%
Kingston HyperX: 10.29%

It was the above numbers that caused is to keep using Kingston's standard line of RAM, but switch to Patriot for our performance memory. We haven't used them long enough for me to have any significant report on overall quality and reliability, though... but I have high hopes :)
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Do you have similar statistics for the other companies you listed comparing value to performance.
 
Our sample sizes on Corsair and OCZ memory are going to be smaller and older, so they may not be applicable to the current memory being produced by those companies, but here is what I have:

Corsair memory failure rates (data based on memory purchased between 2005-2008):

Value: 7.03%
XMS: 8.88%

OCZ memory failure rates (data based on purchased from 2004-2005 and 2007-2009)

"Platinum": 16.24%
"Gold": 27.44%
"Performance": 8.52%
"Reaper": 10.35%
"Premier": 7.73%

OCZ has had lots of memory lines over the years, and I think we had some memory from them which didn't fit into any of the above categories as well (which might have lower failure rates, given these numbers vs the overall OCZ failure rate).

Please also keep in mind that we are very picky about RAM: even a single memory error in MemTest86 will get a module RMA'd, and thus count as a failure here. Failures later on in the field are also included, assuming a customer reported them to us - though as systems age I imagine folks might just get new RAM rather than coming back to us if there was a sign that memory was acting up.
 
Corsair is usually my number one, but I have to be wary of price and ensure that if it costs more its actually worth it. Dominator is really some awesome stuff, and if Vengeance is at similar quality then Corsair will be able to compete on price as well.

Gskil and Patriot are next on my list, providing really nice quality for good prices. I hear Mushkin is great, but I've not used anything of theirs for ages.

I tend to stay away from Kingston and Crucial as they tend to be really, really expensive for what they're offering. A.Data is budget but sometimes there's a reason for that. OCZ has really gone downhill.
 
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