G.SKILL are they any good?

[Attila the Bun]

Now I had basically decided that I was going for this as my new build's RAM:

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair Dominator DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), CAS 8-8-8-24, New Connector, DHX, BEMP, 1.65V

Because Corsair have a good name for reliability and this particular product seems to be aimed at AMD Phenom II Black Edition CPUs (which I HAVE decided upon) .

But then I chance across this

http://itshootout.com/r-338/core-i5-...-4gb-kits/p/3/

Now this looks to be a fine piece of kit and although this review was for it's primary use in 1156 boards, Overclockers UK have commented that they have used it in AMD3 boards.

It's also cheaper than Corsair but the problem is I don't know g.skill or ever to my knowledge used their products and their site only shows compatable INTEL mobos .

So...

What sort of reputation to g.skill have

and

Has anyone used this RAM on AMD boards and with what results.

[kalniel]

I only have experience of their DDR offerings, but yes - very good.

[Attila the Bun]

So would this be a good option to explore or would I be better sticking to the Corsair product as it's designed for AMD.

I'm just thinking that if anything goes wrong I'm more likely to find help for compatible products than with random pairings.

[Terbinator]

G.Skill are the flavour at the minute (have been since about September) for a variety of reasons, mainly as you've found they perform the same as Corsair and usually cost less. There are plenty of people who use them flawlessly on AM3 platforms so i have no reason to believe that they wont work for you.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Don't forget to factor in postage costs too. There may be little difference price wise with postage added. Don't trust the reviews are they are wiped if not complementary.

G. skill are meant to be fine. Check the warranties too; might help make you mind up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_latency may be helpful if you want to find to do some background reading on relative speeds.

[Mutley]

I have some G.Skill DDR2 RAM in my PC at the moment - admittedly its Intel not AMD, but I am very impressed with them. Before G.Skill I used Corsair, and was reluctant to go elsewhere. I changed because I couldn't get the Corsair RAM to work in my board at the stated speeds/voltages. No problem with the G.Skill. Rock solid, and well priced.

[Attila the Bun]

Don't trust the reviews are they are wiped if not complementary.

Sorry, this means what?

The g.skill are quite a bit cheaper than the best corsair price even factoring in postage.

As to warrenties the g.skill is "Lifetime", the corsair "Limited Lifetime"...I will check out what these actually mean later.

Thanks for the link.

[Queelis]

There's no reason why the RAM wouldn't work or would work less well if it weren't designed specifically for AMD.

That said, I have Corsair in my system, but it's just plain old CMS2 RAM, nothing special, and I've never had a problem with them.

Personally, I think designing RAM specifically for those or other CPUs is silly and the benefits are marginal, if at all there.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Sorry, this means what?

OCUK will wipe any negative feedback in the item's comments section.

[Attila the Bun]

OCUK will wipe any negative feedback in the item's comments section.

Ok...but the quote was from one of their replies to someone asking a similar question. I just thought that I would put it to HEXUS as I have had some great help so far.

[Wilip]

been using g.skill for over 4 years now. No problems what so ever

[scaryjim]

The one advantage of the Corsair is that it has BEMP (Black Edition Memory Profiles), which means that with a compatible processor and motherboard it's much easier to set up the memory speed and timings. But since it's a relatively easy job to set those up manually it's probably not worth spending more to get...

[Pob255]

The only other thing I can think of is that the original ddr3 dominator used the older ddr3 memory chips which required higher voltages (1.7-1.9v) which the intel ondie memory controller doesn't like, but the amd memory controllers can take.

Where thoes G-Skill chips are running the newer lower voltage ram chips.

[kalniel]

So would this be a good option to explore or would I be better sticking to the Corsair product as it's designed for AMD.

There's not really any such thing as 'designed for'. All memory manufacturers get their raw memory chips from one or two manufacturers. The quality of these raw chips determines how fast they can go, at what latency, and what voltage is required for that particular speed/latency combination. The better the chip, the higher the speed/lower the latency/lower the voltage. Memory vendors like corsair/g.skill buy a batch of chips, then test them thoroughly to sort (bin) them into different categories.

In older days different CPU designs preferred different characteristics - CPUs with onboard memory controllers did well with low latency ram, while CPUs with northbridge memory controllers did better with high speed ram (ie were latency tolerant). Vendors could then say 'designed for' by just including a default SPD setting (what the BIOS sees as the normal RAM speed) that limited the speed but kept latency low, or vice versa, despite perhaps using the same raw chips for both parts.

These days all performance CPUs have onboard memory controllers and there's little difference in the way they use memory, and you can set whatever combination of speed/latency/voltage you like in BIOS.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you can see all the characteristics of memory that are important (speed, latency, voltage required for those) and that's all you need to make the judgement of which RAM to use. DDR3 1600 CL8 1.65v memory will be the same regardless of whether it's designed for AMD or not.

[Attila the Bun]

The one advantage of the Corsair is that it has BEMP (Black Edition Memory Profiles), which means that with a compatible processor and motherboard it's much easier to set up the memory speed and timings. But since it's a relatively easy job to set those up manually it's probably not worth spending more to get...

The BEMP was one reason why I looked at these. As a complete n00b at overclocking I reasoned this would allow me to tinker in relative safety. Admittedly I haven't looked into overclocking in any great depth but I have found some easy to follow guides that I was saving for future perusal. However it's "relatively simple" I may go for the g.skill which looks to be a better product.

[Attila the Bun]

You really are an absolute gold mine of useful info.

DDR3 1600 CL8 1.65v memory will be the same regardless of whether it's designed for AMD or not.

The main thing that concerns me here is the 1.35v of the g.skill...do you happen to have a link to wher I can find out about ASUS mobo compatability or should I just toddle off to ASUS and have a root around myself.

Update no worries...I've found what I'm looking for.