RAM vendor recommendation

[dalcross]

Hi,
I'm going to get 8gb of ddr3 for a new build, but haven't done this for 10 years. Are there any brands it's recommended to look at or avoid?

[jag272]

Generally speaking, the big brands tend to be Crucial, Corsair and Kingston, with G.Skill also being popular for people wanting to overclock. The prices between brands tend to be very similar for same specced RAM, as I was saying on someone else's thread yesterday, I personally find 1600MHz CL9 to be the sweet spot, and I personally went for Corsair XMS3 as it doesnt have the ridiculous heatsink but isnt completely unshielded like a lot of Crucial stuff is (They have started adding heatsinks to their Ballistix series).

You don't really need a heatsink on RAM unless you're overclocking, but for me it adds an extra sense of safety picking up XMS by the heatsink rather than the RAM underneath, just adds another risk incase of static.

Also if you dont mind the extra £2 or so it was when I built my PC, go for 2x 4GB for dual channel. I personally came extremely close to my budget and benchmarks suggest there actually isnt TOO much difference, but for the price difference between the two you may as well get that slight increase anyway.

[Ttaskmaster]

isnt completely unshielded like a lot of Crucial stuff is (They have started adding heatsinks to their Ballistix series).

And the Ballistix Tactical Tracer range has pritty pritty lights that flash in patterns sped by RAM usage... No, really, it makes all the difference in your gaming - I bough an extra 8GB just to have a full DIMM bank of flashies and suddenly I'm much better... honest!!

But no, the Crucial stuff is pretty good.

[shaithis]

I can recommend the Kingston Hyper-X. It's being sold at very good prices recently as well.

[Thorsson]

One of the good things about Crucial has always been the ballistic lifetime replacement policy. I replaced all the sticks twice FoC in my previous build.

[dalcross]

Thanks - went for the 2x4GB Corsair vengeance CL9 1600 as dabs are knocking them out at under £40 for the pair. It is a ridiculous heatsink on them though!

[Marcvs]

To be honest most branded memory is solid anyway .

[Bambooz]

It is a ridiculous heatsink on them though!

... which is why I went for Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP in my own build. I hate RAM with unnecessarily large heatspreaders or other stupid gimmicks. All those massive heatspreaders do is cause CPU cooler problems due to the height anyway..

[Marcvs]

I am currently rocking TeamGgroup 2400Mhz DDR4 and has been solid as a rock .

[OutcasT]

Pny ones look nice aswell

[crossy]

And the Ballistix Tactical Tracer range has pritty pritty lights that flash in patterns sped by RAM usage... No, really, it makes all the difference in your gaming - I bough an extra 8GB just to have a full DIMM bank of flashies and suddenly I'm much better... honest!!

But no, the Crucial stuff is pretty good.

+1 for the Tactical Tracer, although in my case it's not just pretty - I find the light patterns quite useful for diagnostics. So has the machine crashed or is it thinking hard?

Personally I think all the major brands are pretty safe and the trick is being discerning with the vendor you buy from, get one with a good returns policy.

[Ttaskmaster]

I find the light patterns quite useful for diagnostics. So has the machine crashed or is it thinking hard?

Yeah... that's what I tell everyone, too!!

[crossy]

Yeah... that's what I tell everyone, too!!

Next on my list ... an SSD with a piezo-electric buzzer so I can listen in on it like I can do with normal hard disks. Maybe Samsung can do that as the 850 EVO SE ("Steampunk Edition").

[Psycownage]

Next on my list ... an SSD with a piezo-electric buzzer so I can listen in on it like I can do with normal hard disks. Maybe Samsung can do that as the 850 EVO SE ("Steampunk Edition").

would it be possible to hook up a standard pc buzzer to the hdd-led pins? (I do not recommend this try at your own risk)

[Bonebreaker777]

Maybe not directly but just feed the signal I would say.

EDIT: also +1 for Crucial

[Biscuit]

I have got into the habit of buying direct from crucial purely due to never having to return a single stick, unlike many other popular brands.
I'm not saying there is an epidemic of bad sticks from other companies but crucial are always competitive on pricing and so far (touch wood) completely reliable.

.... The 1866 kit I have also has an awesome massive heatsink... Baller