which ram brand is best?

M

MzL

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 9, 2007
Messages
281
hi im building a comp and was needing advice on the ram

should i go cosiar 800mhz 2x1gig

or other brands

im gonna be using abit ip35pro

imma abit tight on money ;)

thanks for any advice
 
IMO, there's not really any "best" brand these days... Pretty much anyone and everyone makes their parts from essentially the same goods. The more expensive ones being higher binned speeds, have maybe more o/c room, etc.

What it really comes down to then is: a) price, b) warranty/support, c) looks - do you like no heatspeader, 'regular' or some fancy ones like OCZ has been using?

Anyway, you haven't given us enough info to make a good recommendation [edit] other than the Crucial sets below]. You say [deciphered text] I AM [/deciphered text] a bit tight on money, but give no price range. Are you overclocking or no? If yes, how much, minor or balls to the wall (or something in between)? What's the system specs this will being going into (besides Abit mobo)?

I'm not so sure Corsair is the choice, they really are overpriced for what you get these days, unless you get in on one of the usual mail in rebates (I HATE HATE HATE their fulfillment company 'On-Status' {I believe] though)... G.Skill, OCZ, Team, Patriot, Crucial/Micron, and so on. Crucal pc-6400 is popular though - $110 ($70 AR) for 2x1GB Ballistix. Also they have their pc8500 for $130 AR..Both very nice (and popular) sets of memory, well priced assuming you can wait (and end getting) the rebate check.

[edit] And one thing to note after seeing your sig... For the love of god do NOT build a new computer and put a shitty PSU in it. NO low end TT stuff especially (your sig). If you need some help there, we can be of assistance there too...Although you may want to start a new thread in the PSU section for that.
 
kush said:
I'm not so sure Corsair is the choice, they really are overpriced for what you get these days, unless you get in on one of the usual mail in rebates (I HATE HATE HATE their fulfillment company 'On-Status' {I believe] though)... G.Skill, OCZ, Team, Patriot, Crucial/Micron, and so on. Crucal pc-6400 is popular though
Click to expand...

Pardon the newbie question but is Corsair really that over priced? I'm composing an OC rig on Newegg and I didn't see any cheaper brands than Corsair that you would want to trust your OC with however I may have missed something.
 
Visec said:
Pardon the newbie question but is Corsair really that over priced? I'm composing an OC rig on Newegg and I didn't see any cheaper brands than Corsair that you would want to trust your OC with however I may have missed something.
Click to expand...

Well there is Corsair memory and theres Corsair XMS Series memory. The XMS Series is WAY more expensive then ther regular Corsair memory. There both distinct products.
 
MzL said:
i won't be ocing
Click to expand...

Then brand is virtually meaningless, just buy from somewhere that won't shaft you if you have to exchange it and use Memtest as soon as you get the new memory to make sure it's okay.
 
thanks guys for the advice

i will proably be getting the
CORSAIR TWIN2X-2048-PC6400C4 2GB 800MHZ#

and proably later on do a OC my Q6600 to 3.0+ghz
 
just dont expect corsair to honor their warrenty on thier ram.. its like pulling teeth.. what used to be a great componey to deal with has gone very much down hill
 
ok i will take note of the warranty

but the ram is ok for light OC'ers right?
 
MzL said:
but the ram is ok for light OC'ers right?
Click to expand...

Okay, probably. Preferable...probably not, unless there's a good enough price or availability reason to go with it, which there rarely is. Australia might make the price/availability factor different than it is for USA customers.
 
FYI - This was posted here by primet in another thread:

Originally Posted by primet: Well here you are...... I have an Abit IP35 Pro with a Q6600 GO running perfectly stable on air @ 3600 with 4 gig. You WILL need very good memory.
I Tried:
Patriot Extreme Performance PC2-6400 memory ...to slow!
OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 / 800 MHz / Reaper HPC Edition..to slow!
and found:
Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500 (DDR2 1066) @ 1000 (5-5-5-15) to be perfect..lights are kinda cheezy but that was what was on sale.
 
I've never had any luck with corsair myself...tech and warranty support are very dodgy. Never had a problem with g.skill, ocs or crucial for the fancy stuff (never had to use g.skill support so no comment) and of course, hynix, infineon or samsung for the cheapo's.
 
thanks all~

if i were to get the Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-1066 PC2-8500 1GBx2

does the abit IP35 pro support the 1066mhz cause on the site they don't test 1066mhz ram only 800
*(quote from abit website) - # Supports Dual channel DDR2 800/667 Un-buffered Non-ECC memory*

or am i wrong and its totaly ok?

or should i just get the 800hz model?
 
Crucial's good stuff. The DDR2 Ballistix tends to run hot, so make sure you have decent air flow in the case.

Even if the board doesn't "support" 1066 by taking the SPD settings and configuring it automagically, you can still do it yourself in the BIOS - "overclocking" it to the rated speed. The motherboard you're talking about seems to support up to 1333, so that's not an issue here.
 
ok thanks

i proably will get the 1066mhz cruical balliztic tracer then

ty all for the help
 
I would avoid Mushkin. They overrate their memory. It is poor value and over priced for what it is. The company does not stand behing their warranties. They have a number of shills that patrol these sites overstating the capabilities of Mushkin sticks and giving trumped up reviews.
 
thore said:
just dont expect corsair to honor their warrenty on thier ram.. its like pulling teeth.. what used to be a great componey to deal with has gone very much down hill
Click to expand...
Actually you are not correct. We have the best warranty policy in the business (IMO) and we honor it. We even have several really cool employees;) that monitor the popular forums to ensure that our customers get the best service possible.
 
I have within the last 2 months RMA'ed 2 seperate 1 gig setups from corsair and their service was excellant.. 5 days after they recieved my ram i had a replacement set on the front porch with 2 day air fedex...Ive never had any problem at all with corsair warranty replacement..over the years ive had very few reasons to return corsair ram..Ive never had a bad stick out of the box...Im sorry to say 1 set was not bad it was my misdiagnosis....I send it back to them after getting an rma # from corsair and send it off with a tracking number..I call 2 days later and its on its way back to me new and works perfect both times....They have been very helpful on the phone when checking on the status 2 days after corsair recieving mt package...Just my 2 cents on my recent experiences with them............................
 
wesleys_dad said:
I have within the last 2 months RMA'ed 2 seperate 1 gig setups from corsair and their service was excellant.. 5 days after they recieved my ram i had a replacement set on the front porch with 2 day air fedex...Ive never had any problem at all with corsair warranty replacement..over the years ive had very few reasons to return corsair ram..Ive never had a bad stick out of the box...Im sorry to say 1 set was not bad it was my misdiagnosis....I send it back to them after getting an rma # from corsair and send it off with a tracking number..I call 2 days later and its on its way back to me new and works perfect both times....They have been very helpful on the phone when checking on the status 2 days after corsair recieving mt package...Just my 2 cents on my recent experiences with them............................
Click to expand...
Thanks for the positive feedback :cool:

We do have the occasional glitch or problem but we work very hard to prevent them.
 
Bah, I'm putting my 2 cents in on the corsair. Out of the 10 gaming rigs I've built for myself, I've only had one of them work "alright" with corsair. And it's not for lack of trying, last build went through 3 sets of corsair dominator never getting to talk to tech support. Forums support? BAH answer your phones. I'm willing to give anyone a shot but the price to performance ratio is not there for corsair especially compared to those like ocz and crucial (and that the reason the shop i work for no longer carries corsair).
 
yeah corsiar is a brand well known to everyone

but the cheaper rams they sell have average timeings

and the 'better' ones are expensive and can be bought for almost half the price from other brands of the same specs

*pls correct me if im wrong
 
MzL said:
yeah corsair is a brand well known to everyone

but the cheaper rams they sell have average timings

and the 'better' ones are expensive and can be bought for almost half the price from other brands of the same specs

*pls correct me if I'm wrong
Click to expand...

I was just taking a peek considering getting another 2GB and at Newegg the PC6400 XMS 4 4 4 12 stuff has a rebate (bit of a pain I know, but it counts) and makes it cheaper than most.

Here is the PC6400 high performance with cl4 timings sorted by price.
(unfortunately it does not take the rebate into account but if do the easy math

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...477 1052416064 1052508081&bop=And&Order=PRICE

About $58 bucks (and that with a rebate too) is the cheapest. Corsair is $64 with rebate.

So pricing in USA is very competitive.

I cannot comment about the warranty or RMA in building over 100 machines from office drones using inexpensive Corsair ram, several servers and high end CAD/Pro-Engineer workstations using the premium Corsair stuff, and most having been in service over a year, I have never had the need to find out about the warranty (lifetime) or the RMA.

/INCOMING RANT WARNING.

I don't know what the hell people do to kill ram, it just baffles me. The individual chips are tested, the sticks are tested (100%). Now occasionally a bad batch of stuff gets out, it has happened to every manuf. , but in general it is one of the most tested and least likely to fail component in the machine. Personally, and it is just my opinion, worth nothing, I would guess more than 3/4 of all ram failures are due to the end user. One thing to keep in mind is that people seldom post, "I bought my ram and it worked great" We see only the issues.

/End useless rant.

My ram installation tips.

LEAVE IT IN THE ORIGINAL PACKAGING UNTIL 10 seconds before you are ready to install.

Have the PC's power supply installed into the case and plugged into the wall on a grounded (3 prong) outlet with the power supply turned off with the switch in the back. Do this even if you are assembling the board/CPU/heatsink/memory out of the case. Touch with both hands some metal surface of the case, exposed metal not painted. Do not wear fuzzy sweaters when installing ram. Unpack the ram. Do not let your dog or cat or goldfish play with the ram. Touch the case again, install the ram immediately, do not go take a piss and come back and touch the ram. Start drinking AFTER the machine successfully boots and recognizes all basic hardware. If the manuf specifies a voltage range of 1.8-2.1V do not set the voltage to 2.15. Vdroop mods kill all kinds of stuff by bypassing the built in protection from voltage spikes due to overshoot of the voltage regulation circuits.

Ram I tried in order to save a couple of bucks but instead lost tons in wasted time and eaten sticks. PQ Rosewill.
 
MzL said:
yeah corsair is a brand well known to everyone

but the cheaper rams they sell have average timings

and the 'better' ones are expensive and can be bought for almost half the price from other brands of the same specs

*pls correct me if I'm wrong
Click to expand...

I was just taking a peek considering getting another 2GB and at Newegg the PC6400 XMS 4 4 4 12 stuff has a rebate (bit of a pain I know, but it counts) and makes it cheaper than most.

Here is the PC6400 high performance with cl4 timings sorted by price.
(unfortunately it does not take the rebate into account but if do the easy math

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...477 1052416064 1052508081&bop=And&Order=PRICE

About $58 bucks (and that with a rebate too) is the cheapest. Corsair is $64 with rebate.

So pricing in USA is very competitive.

I cannot comment about the warranty or RMA in building over 100 machines from office drones using inexpensive Corsair ram, several servers and high end CAD/Pro-Engineer workstations using the premium Corsair stuff, and most having been in service over a year, I have never had the need to find out about the warranty (lifetime) or the RMA.

/INCOMING RANT WARNING.

I don't know what the hell people do to kill ram, it just baffles me. The individual chips are tested, the sticks are tested (100%). Now occasionally a bad batch of stuff gets out, it has happened to every manuf. , but in general it is one of the most tested and least likely to fail component in the machine. Personally, and it is just my opinion, worth nothing, I would guess more than 3/4 of all ram failures are due to the end user. One thing to keep in mind is that people seldom post, "I bought my ram and it worked great" We see only the issues.

/End useless rant.

My ram installation tips.

LEAVE IT IN THE ORIGINAL PACKAGING UNTIL 10 seconds before you are ready to install.

Have the PC's power supply installed into the case and plugged into the wall on a grounded (3 prong) outlet with the power supply turned off with the switch in the back. Do this even if you are assembling the board/CPU/heatsink/memory out of the case. Touch with both hands some metal surface of the case, exposed metal not painted. Do not wear fuzzy sweaters when installing ram. Unpack/open the package so you can get to the ram. Do not let your dog or cat or goldfish play with the ram. Touch the case again, install the ram immediately, do not go take a piss and come back and touch the ram (this makes the ram smell funny). If installing more than one stick, touch the case before you pickup/install each stick. Start drinking AFTER the machine successfully boots and recognizes all basic hardware. If the manuf specifies a voltage range of 1.8-2.1V do not set the voltage to 2.15. Vdroop mods kill all kinds of stuff by bypassing the built in protection from voltage spikes due to overshoot of the voltage regulation circuits.

Ram I tried in order to save a couple of bucks but instead lost tons in wasted time and eaten sticks. PQ Rosewill.
 
BillParrish said:
Do not wear fuzzy sweaters when installing ram. Unpack/open the package so you can get to the ram. Do not let your dog or cat or goldfish play with the ram. Touch the case again, install the ram immediately, do not go take a piss and come back and touch the ram (this makes the ram smell funny). If installing more than one stick, touch the case before you pickup/install each stick.
Click to expand...

Also, I hear many stories of people jamming their sticks in the socket hoping for it to fit but instead scratching the delicate pins. First off, ram should be the LAST thing you connect when building a computer, before that you leave it untouched in its original case. Here is the correct and least damaging way of putting your ram in:

When you are ready to put the sticks in, get a piece of masking tape and glue (DO NOT under any circumstances use crazy glue-- it is too strong and can damage the ram if pulled out) ready. You squeeze a small amount of glue on the pins and firmly place the stick in the socket. Then take the masking tape and gently tape it to the edges of the motherboard about 3" across on both sides. You don't have to cover the whole stick, just mainly the top and bottom.

TIP: The masking tape can also be used to prevent scratches so if you want, you can cover the whole thing (besides the pin connectors).

Like what the previous poster said, if your ram has a bad oder, you can boil water in a metal pot for about 3-4 minutes and place the sticks in it for a good 5-10 mins, depending on the smells strength. This will also clean and disinfect any disease or growth on the sticks themselves.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top