Memory reliability

Memory is one of those things you forget about - until it fails!

The only memory I have ever had fail on me has been more expensive named brand (Corsair) memory - one stick was incompatable with the cheap unbranded stuff I already had installed, and recently two sticks failed after a year of use. On both occasions it was replaced under warranty - but it was inconvenient.

I'm looking at memory for a new machine - nothing bleeding edge, basic AMD AM2, no plans to overclock, I just want reliabilty. It'll have 2GB ddr2 - probably 6400.

The main mfrs seem to be Corsair, Kingston, Crucial, Major and Geil. Although I'm sure thousands use Corsair without problem, I am a little wary, and I am tending towards Crucial.

Anyone any thoughts on these mfrs?

i've seen a few complaints about corsair recently (high failure rate on newegg, people here not liking their returns procedure) and a lot of praise for geil / ocz / kingston value and as always crucial. personally i'd go crucial if money wasn't too much of a problem, but for me it is and i just bought 2 sticks of corsair xms2 for a system and just hope it works fine :)

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one stick was incompatable with the cheap unbranded stuff I already had installed, and recently two sticks failed after a year of use. On both occasions it was replaced under warranty - but it was inconvenient.

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This is always the case with high-speed memory. For example my pair of Patriot DDR2-800 would not boot at 1.8V. But if you feed 2.1V to the cheap ram it will probably die so they really don't mix.

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Originally Posted by pepsi_max2k

people here not liking their returns procedure

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I had a pair that carked it after a couple of weeks. I raised an RMA with Scan, sent it back, got a working set back. I fail to see what's not to like about that.

Personally peterb: I'm using 4Gb of XMS2, and since replacing the duffed pair it's been fine.

for a stock AMD AM2 i use Kingston Value ram as its std voltage is 1.8 volts
for a Intel i tend to use Corsair ( xms2 as i have had problems with value ram ) @ 2.1 or 2.2 volts

but i will always check mobo's compatability list first

I'd second Kingston Value for no frills-work-a-day memory. (well none of it's ever died on me - seems stable enough). Crucial for something a bit more fancy with a great returns track record if anything goes wrong.

I've used kingston which is good stuff the reasons stated above. It was also used in the industrial PC's my old work built and never gave any problems.

I personally use geil in all of my PC's which are intel and AMD. I've not had any problems with it overclocked or not. It's also very well priced for what you get so I would give both Kingston and Geil my thumbs up.

Crucial.

Low failure rates and super-fast RMA if it does go.

Thank you all for your inputs.

I have just ordered 2 GB of Geil from OCUK as it was on offer and has a lifetime warranty.

I looked at the Crucial and was tempted!) , but it was quite a bit more expensive for the same spec. Kingston's site was just too confusing, as were thgeir resellers (and huge price variations)

ocuk? i'm not sure ocz would sell you that ;)

Geil are a good bet imo. Very reliable. You can run it around 2.1v and it will stay kool and work seemingly forever. Got some 5 year old stuff from them and its still going nicely :)

It seems to be the lower priced high performance RAM using Micron chips where the manufacturer is recommending the RAM is run at 2.2V that is unreliable. When I looked at reviews (users experiences on newegg) for the crucial Ballistix £44 dabs and Patriot PC6400 4-4-4-12 £29 aria specials I was suprised by the high failure rates for what is deemed to be a premium RAM with heat spreaders.

Here are some alternatives which I think use the Elpida 64Mx8 chips and seem to require less voltage and are rated 6400 4-4-4-12
HyperX KHX6400D2LLK2/2GN 1.95v £55 kikatek
G-Skill 1.9v-2.0v £44 memoryC
Cell Shock 1.9v-2.1v £40 memoryC
Geil Black dragon 1.9v-2.3v £37 Ginger6

I'm fairly sure the Geil Ultra stuff is the same as black dragon but with heat spreaders.

EDIT: Maybe corsair is the best choise but I'm suffering from brand bordom for the XMS2 stuff and the stickers/heat spreaders are ugly fonts & colours.

It's intresting to note that the eairlier corsair ddr2 memory was Micron chips but the later ones have moved away from them (although the high spec expensive dominator stuff still seems to use micron)

DDR2 RAM List

although it's a little out of date now and you#ll never know which revision you'll get from online retailers.