Difference in Quality of Memory?

[BabyBlueSlinky]

Is there a difference qualitywise between different memory brands. There is quite a bit of price difference between say Kingston and Corsair. Is the latter really that much better and if so, in what ways?Thanks.

[dfroom]

Now that is a great question! I hope someone knows and will let us all in on it. The only thing I do when getting memory is to check out the motherboard's web site and make sure it has been tested to work, then I buy the least expensive brand at the speed I am looking for. So far no problems though

[owel]

My take on this is usually there's only a few dollars difference between a generic brand and Kingston or Crucial or name brand. I'd go with the name brand. Peace of mind is a luxury I don't mind paying for.

Is there a difference between Kingston and Crucial? Yeah, the price. In terms of build quality, I've tried them both and nothing SIGNIFICANT noticeable.

[bassman]

My son's shop builds custom PCs....His hobby is building the fastest/ best PC he can. Then challenges people around the world with said PC.

He recently bought 1Gb of Ram and paid £230 per stick, he tells me there is a major difference, oh and he got a 10 Year guarantee. ( My thought was I should b***dy hope so for that money.

[BabyBlueSlinky]

One thing I have heard, but do not know if it is true, is that the cheaper brands don't always live up to and stand behind the specs posted(mainly speed). Has anyone else heard this or dealt with problem brands? I don't understand why anyone would need such a lengthy warranty(10 year or lifetime) when the product will likely be outdated and need to be upgraded by then. Thanks.

[dfroom]

Could be that long warranty is from marketing? Even if you don't plan on keeping something more that 5 years without mutch thought you are going think that the one with a lifetime warranty is better than one with only a 5 year warranty

[kernmount]

Although part of me thinks that all memory is made by the same labor pool in Taiwan, I tend to stick with name brand memory like Kingston and Crucial.

What's more important than the memory brand, and this is really important, is who you purchase it from. What you need more thanbrand, is a good return policy. As a general rule, memory usually fails immediately after installing. If it works for more than week, then it will probably work for 10 years.

Do NOT buy memory from questionable online retailers. Also, stay away from large retailers like BestBuy. Companies like BestBuy have decent return policies, however returning computer products can be a nightmare with these operations.

[chdude3]

Stick with the cheapest name brand you can find. All of these "ultra special" sticks of RAM are for dorks who are overclocking the living crap out of their systems in order to get another few FPS in UT2003 or 3dmark02. You don't need "OCZ Gold EL PC3700" or whatever the hell they're calling it now. You just want something solid that works. Kingston or Crucial would be great names to go with, as you should be able to get a stable stick of RAM for a reasonable price.

I wouldn't even worry about CAS latency that much - the difference between CAS2.5 and CAS2 when you're talking about PC3200 RAM is a mere 2.5 nanoseconds! Not a giant performance hit.

In short, get something reliable, but don't go overboard - you'll have more money to spend on your other gear.

[MediaMonster]

Chdude3 is right about the generic RAM....I have always used bargain RAm and never had any problems. You might check out www.mushkin.com for their bargain bin...great deals.

Now that CAS latency thing can be an issue. If you go with an nForce 2 board and an AMD Barton core processsor like the XP 2500, the board will support DDR400 (PC3200) and the CPU will run at 333MHz. That causes an asynchronous relationship between the memory bus and the CPU bus. Testing at several sites (Toms Hardware Guide, ExtremeTech, AnandTech) has shown that nearly all mobo/CPU combos perform better when run synchronously, therefor you will actually get better performance with PC2700 memory or PC3200 clocked down to DDR333.

Now is where the latency come in. CHdude3 is right about the difference only being 2.5 nanoseconds (2.5 millionths of a second), but thats 2.5 nanoseconds per clock cycle (XP 2500 has 1.83 Billion cycles per second).
That results in a latency of 45.75 nanoseconds per second. When processing large files that will result in a difference of 1 to 3 thounsandths of a second per minute of render. It doesn't sound like much but it is noticible. And that is a theoretical number based on 100% efficiancy that no real computer will ever reach. Further you should be able to get CAS 2.0 DDR 333 modules for the same price as CAS 2.5 DDR 400 modules.

[BabyBlueSlinky]

Thanks for all the input. I really appreciate it .

[alterboy]

some bargain brands dont live up to their specs but for the most part do. there are only 2 companies that make the modules for ram so all the modules are the same. its all in the labor costs and what vendor you happen to be going through. i went to pc club once and got a stick of "generic" brand. turns out it was NEC which i dont consider generic. your also paying for the packaging thats a pain to open and shipping costs added to that.

[Aaron]

Spending the money on good ram makes a difference... Like 2 months ago there was a huge article on it in Maximum PC... Crucial is the best to go with right now... What happens with most companies is they purchase RAM from one manufacturer... The RAM is tested and if it lives up to the rated spec it gets their sticker... If not it gets a different sticker... With Cruicial they do get RAM from different manufacturers but the pick the best performing RAM to put their sitcker on... If you run any benchmark programs you will see that Cruicial constantly out performs other brands of ram... It used to be Kingston to go with... Now-a-days I won't buy anything but Crucial...

[chdude3]

Now is where the latency come in. CHdude3 is right about the difference only being 2.5 nanoseconds (2.5 millionths of a second), but thats 2.5 nanoseconds per clock cycle (XP 2500 has 1.83 Billion cycles per second).

Be careful. Yes, the CPU runs off of a multiplier of the front side bus, but that doesn't change the fact that your RAM is still only running at 200MHz (assuming you're running your PC3200 at full speed). That means only 200 million clocks per second, or a maximum of 400 million transfers from memory due to its double data rate nature. And, the column address strobe line doesn't necessarily have to be re-asserted with every single transfer from main memory.

In short, memory bandwidth and latency, taking the subsystem as a whole, is completely independent of your CPU speed. (For example, a slow enough CPU or system bus might not be able to take full advantage of available memory bandwidth).

Further you should be able to get CAS 2.0 DDR 333 modules for the same price as CAS 2.5 DDR 400 modules.

Most PC3200 modules, if rated at CAS2.5, will be able to run CAS2.0 at 166MHz (333DDR). The Samsung chips on my memory are spec'd that way from the manufacturer.

[kernmount]

The above posts have lots of good information, however it's getting a little nerdy around this thread. Not that I have anything against nerds.

CAS latencies are important, sorta, but what more important is having a good relationship with your RAM vendor. (I repeat myself when under stress. I repeat myself when under stress. I repeat myself when under stress. I repeat...)

PC2100 RAM (or even slower) is fine for a DAW. There's more than enough bandwidth there for some serious recording. You'll run out of CPU cycles before you run out of memory bandwidth. Now doing video production is a horse of a different color when considering RAM and a topic for another thread.

Is squeezing out an additional 1-5% of performance worth spending an extra $20, $50, or whatever? Personally, I'd rather go to the movies with that dough. If I had the time.

[nmodi]

Is squeezing out an additional 1-5% of performance worth spending an extra $20, $50, or whatever? Personally, I'd rather go to the movies with that dough. If I had the time.

Are most movies these days worth an extra $20, $50, or whatever? But I guess that question is for another thread...heck, for another forum!!

[MediaMonster]

That's true Chdude3, but you have to be careful of some manufacturers labeling RAM as CAS 2.0 333 or 400MHZ when in fact it is really 266 MHz than can be overclocked to 333 or 400 MHZ but at CAS 2.5 or even 3.0. So you have to read the labels and specs a little more carefully when dealling with bargain/value RAM.

[kernmount]

Are most movies these days worth an extra $20, $50, or whatever? But I guess that question is for another thread...heck, for another forum!!

Heh, you're right. I'll take my wife out to dinner instead.

[kernmount]

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.html?i=1839

[nmodi]

Are most movies these days worth an extra $20, $50, or whatever? But I guess that question is for another thread...heck, for another forum!!

Heh, you're right. I'll take my wife out to dinner instead.

I would suggest a romantic 3-course dinner: very large coca-cola (be sure to sample it first), extra butter on the popcorn, and of course, Reeces-Pieces for dessert.

[neisseria]

anyone knows the difference between ddr 400 and ddr 533? i don't mean the technical numbers.
Any idea of a system with intel 925 chipset with ddr 533 could be better (and expensive) than a i865 chipset with ddr 400?????
Is it worth it?

[Va_hotrod]

anyone knows the difference between ddr 400 and ddr 533? i don't mean the technical numbers.
Any idea of a system with intel 925 chipset with ddr 533 could be better (and expensive) than a i865 chipset with ddr 400?????
Is it worth it?

The 925 uses newer DDRII Memory while the i865 uses DDR. Also the 925 supports the newer P4 Processors (LGA775) while the i865 uses the older Socket 478. That is the reason for the price difference. The 478 will most likely be phased out. You are paying for future upgradability with the 925x.

Now for your question on the two types of memory. Right now there is not much difference when it comes to performance when you look at 400MHz DDR and 400MHz DDRII. You only start to see a difference when comparing 400MHz DDR to 533 MHz DDRII. Using DDRII for system memory is fairly new but, will most likely lead to the phasing out of DDR. This will happen because DDRII will be able to reach higher speeds than DDR.

[acrid]

i know this thread is a little old, but i felt it was neccesary to post up...

1. quality ddr 400 memory is the fastest available on the market, past that the cas latency starts to hit 3's and 4's (ddrII 533 and 667), which is stupid.... the reason being is that the bandwidth is higher, but the actual speed of the memory is slowing down.

2. running in sync with your CPU is definitely one of the best ways to improve performance....

3. Intel is tricky, they aren't fools, they know that people have been overclocking the heck outta P4's for a long time, hence the move from Northwood's to Prescott's, now the fazing of socket 478 for that 775?? socket and others.... to come, the 775's are not as easy to cool, now if you overclock or not, why would you want something that runs hotter per mhz, and pay more for it??? Intel has done some of this to curb the ability to overclock, they want people to pay for it, it was way too easy to overclock a P4 2.4c even with stock cooling to 3.0 and higher, hence the shortlived lifespan of the 478 socket.... they want something they can keep people from overclocking, because they are in business to make money...

4. it's a fact that different mobo's actually run different stock fsb speeds, so, for instance company a says that there board performs at xxxx speed, and company b says there board is performing at yyyy speed, but what they don't tell you is that, company a is cheating by altering the fsb by 1-5 mhz so that the results show a "faster" system. So, even in the end the mobo companys do it to a small degree also.

5. overclocking ability is mostly reliant upon your motherboard's ability to remain stable, great cooling fast memory , that's great, but if your board can't stay stable, your wasting your time and money.... if you're goin to overclock, do your research first, unless you like to burn money.

6. everything in moderation, goes for computers and overclocking too.

i hope some of this info straightens out the whole overclocking dilema for someone.