Memory Questionnaire

[Maleko]

Generic RAM is cheap for a reason....enough said I belive

[Vitalix]

It depends what you use memory for. If you consider having a computer for a long bout of internet explorer, followed by some Excel workouts, and then a strong finsh with Solitaire, there is nothing wrong with generic Value-Ram.

As soon as you try to raise your FSB/HTT to like 205, your generic RAM will fail. For those who do not game, and timings and/or bandwidth are not issues.

To the person who posted about Samsung being good and everything else being resold, I disagree. Samsung makes rebranded RAM for other manufacturers. Ever buy a Wal-Mart or Target brand bottled water? It's still made by Dasani. Awful comparison, I know, but it doesn't mean that Target bottled water is contaminated.

In addition, Samsung's TCCD and TCC5 chips are well known, but Infineon and Winbond make excellent chips (in particular Winbond's BH-5, which rock the Geil ONE W series and Mushkin's legendary Redline series). You can talk about UTT's weaknesses and what they are all you want, but bottom line, feed them 3.4V and they sing at 2-2-2-5 at 280FSB! U just need an A8N or SLI-DR board to do it. Try and take your Samsung to 2-2-2 at 280FSB and get ready to turn off your fire detectors.

For my money, I buy only OCZ an Mushkin, although I have a pair Crucial Ballistix PC4000 (sweet deal on Ebay) that are rocking 270FSB at present, so ultimately YMMV, but so far I had good success with them personally. The name brands tend to have better support teams as well.

Bottom line: If you game or have AMD, you need fast timing RAM (e.g. PC3200 at 2-2-2-5). If you do apps or have Intel, you need high bandwidth RAM e.g. (PC4000 at 2.5-3-3-7). You need to go a step further when buying RAM and get the right type. Crucial's 2-2-2-5 PC3200 is better than OCZ's Premier PC3200 @ 2.5-3-3-7.

[ripken204]

and to add what vitalix said. if you are going to get bh-5 and run it at least 3.2v, you will NEED some active cooling on the ram or there is a large chance of it dying.

[Vitalix]

I've actually been hunting BH-5 for a good part of the last 2 months (now that I got my DFI board), but can't find anything for under $200 on ebay for a 2x512 kit.

The Mushkin Redlines, OCZ Gold Vx, even the Twinmos Twisters are at a crazy premium right now, b/c they are no longer made.