So why should I buy branded RAM?

[TheEn|gma]

It is fairly obvious from the title but nonetheless I'll explain.

I have always bought value RAM and never really had a problem with apart from 1 defective stick out of like 6 I've bought. However I often see people on here going on about makes like OCZ, Corsair and other brands so why should I buy these brands that much more expensive over unbranded RAM?

I usually buy a 512mb PC3200 DD400 non branded value RAM. I really can't see any major advantages of spending extra money for what I can see is a marginal advantage.

Convince me.

EDIT: Oops, I meant to put this in Tech Center. Mods move it there please.

[Heavy552 AWG]

Re: So why should I buy branded RAM?

It is fairly obvious from the title but nonetheless I'll explain.

I have always bought value RAM and never really had a problem with apart from 1 defective stick out of like 6 I've bought. However I often see people on here going on about makes like OCZ, Corsair and other brands so why should I buy these brands that much more expensive over unbranded RAM?

I usually buy a 512mb PC3200 DD400 non branded value RAM. I really can't see any major advantages of spending extra money for what I can see is a marginal advantage.

Convince me.

EDIT: Oops, I meant to put this in Tech Center. Mods move it there please.

I have 4x512 mb of PC3200 Hyper-x Matched Sets from Kingston and they are approaching a total three years of service on my machine without any problems. I paid about 300 for the first gig when they came out and about 130 for the second gig last year. I tried to buy them around spring time of a year so that the week that they are manufactored is within a month or so. That number can be identified on the RAM.



The board is a ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe, the cooler to the back is a Thermaltake Series 7 on top of a 3 gig 1mb cache, 800 FSB equippted Prescott Socket 478.

Because of the reliability of the ram, I will not hesistate to equipt my next build with the same Hyper-x or the new Hyper-x2 RAM, this time in a 4 gigabyte configuration.

[mlkmnz]

Re: So why should I buy branded RAM?

I wont convince you. Most RAM chips only come from a handful of manufacturers, then rebranded. The guys selling the "high performance" RAM love heatsinks as it means you can't see that the chips are made by samsung or hynix, etc.

I feel branded memory is probably 30% more expensive than no name DIMMS for marginal performance increases.

[Supermario]

Re: So why should I buy branded RAM?

I have 4x512 mb of PC3200 Hyper-x Matched Sets from Kingston and they are approaching a total three years of service on my machine without any problems. I paid about 300 for the first gig when they came out and about 130 for the second gig last year. I tried to buy them around spring time of a year so that the week that they are manufactored is within a month or so. That number can be identified on the RAM.



The board is a ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe, the cooler to the back is a Thermaltake Series 7 on top of a 3 gig 1mb cache, 800 FSB equippted Prescott Socket 478.

Because of the reliability of the ram, I will not hesistate to equipt my next build with the same Hyper-x or the new Hyper-x2 RAM, this time in a 4 gigabyte configuration.

i got same exact ram expect i got 2 x 1 gig PC4300 branded name last longer and faster and i love it

[akburst510]

Re: So why should I buy branded RAM?

i buy a lot of no name ram. Asus A7N8X-x screwed me with not having Dual Channel...so id doesnt matter

[Merlin]

Re: So why should I buy branded RAM?

It is fairly obvious from the title but nonetheless I'll explain.

I have always bought value RAM and never really had a problem with apart from 1 defective stick out of like 6 I've bought. However I often see people on here going on about makes like OCZ, Corsair and other brands so why should I buy these brands that much more expensive over unbranded RAM?

I usually buy a 512mb PC3200 DD400 non branded value RAM. I really can't see any major advantages of spending extra money for what I can see is a marginal advantage.

Convince me.

EDIT: Oops, I meant to put this in Tech Center. Mods move it there please.

Taken from THG:

"For memory, enthusiast memory vendors buy hand-picked high-grade components that outperform mainstream devices. High-grade memory tends to be capable of sustaining a frequency greater than its rated value or running at better memory-timing settings. Both paths lead to increased memory performance, which is imperative to improved system performance."

[imported_Mrt1989]

Re: So why should I buy branded RAM?

Yes manufactors like OZC, GSkill, Crucial, mushkin are all good brands. Usually they all overclock way more than the default freq is .
Some of the PC-3200 rams can do 260-270mhz with 2.5:2:2:5 1T timings. With PQI you can only dream of it.
Overall its pointless to buy good brand memory if your not a overclocker and wont take advantage of it. Running default speeds is waste of money.