Corsair value RAM - any good?

[Mutley]

Hi all,

I'm looking to upgrade the RAM in my ageing PC. I can fit up to 3Gb of PC2700.
I would normally go straight to Crucial, but looking at Scan I see they have this:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=217958

which is 1Gb Corsair Value Select at £58. THe same stuff from Crucial is £63. The Corsair name is a good one, but does it extend to its value range or should I stick with Crucial? Also does any one know if I can get more perforamant pc2700 RAM than this?

Thanks!

[Hans Voralberg]

Corsair Value is quite decent actually, I have seen sticks that perform well, some equal to the premium ones

[Mutley]

Do they stand much overclocking? The RAM I have currently is standard Crucial 2700, and it doesn't like being pushed, unsuprisingly.

[Max Tractor]

I picked up 2x512 corsair value select cheap and was surprised at what they could do, had them up to 250mhz 2.55v, would not pass spi 1m at that, passed at 248mhz 2.5/3/3/8. Have not had the time to see how far they will go, currently running 208mhz at 2.5v with these sticks less is more. I always went for geil value when I was buying lower spec ram, but these 2 sticks are great.

[Dark Horse]

The corsair value I have is fine, I would recommend it to anyone.

Its probably worth getting pc3200 stuff as it will downclock nicely to pc2700 with no trouble and will be much easier to sell when you come to upgrade to ddr2 in the years to come.

[taqies]

yerp...corsair value select performs exceptionally well for it's price

[MSIC]

I agree completely with the above.

I personally cannot understand why 'gamers' or 'overclockers' RAM gets so much attention when they may possibly give you a 3% difference at best, but one costs £60 per Gig and the other £120 per Gig (or whatever). For that to be proportionate in a balanced system, for £60 to be worth the 3%, you need a £2000 system.

OK, so some people do have this, but i'm sure it's the minority whilst the rest of us spend perhaps half that but chose components that give better value for money - such as the Corsair Value Select. They still do overclock quite well, and if you chose PC 3200 in a 333Mhz based system you'll have loads of ability to tweak, reduce latency or whatever you want.

For what it's worth however, I also like Crucial who have never let me down in the past

[Spud1]

I reccomend going for the Crucial myself, purely for the 'lifetime guarantee'. Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the corsair value select range - i have 2gig of value select in my macbook and its working great, couldn't ask for better - but I think that given the choice the extra fiver just in case it ever breaks is worth it...

[Carlh]

Spud,

The Corsair Value Select range has the limetime guarentee as well

[Mutley]

Interesting, thanks for all the helpful responses (as always!).

Dark Horse - I'm interested in what your saying about getting 3200 RAM - I've wondered about doing that, but wasn't sure if it wouldn't cause any problems. Would it simply be a case of dropping that RAM in the board or would I have to make some BIOS changes ?

Thanks.

[Spud1]

Spud,

The Corsair Value Select range has the limetime guarentee as well

Ah didn't realise that Well in that case its all much of a muchness really..

As for getting 3200 ram - it will just work @ 2700 speeds without any bios changes, just have to drop it in

[-ChEM-]

give you a 3% difference at best

that review was pretty pointless imo, its not why you would buy that ram, and the fact that theyre measuring using bandwidth tests makes me think theyre just trying to force a point

the only way to show it properly is to stretch the ram a bit, say up to DDR460 then tweak the timings at that speed and run low-res non-AA 3d and maybe things like superpi

in the end only the superpi test was done properly and that came out at over 5% quicker

i dont think anyone who knows enough to use good ram properly would recommend their same ram for people who arent OCing hard etc, for that i would always recommend crucial or corsair value

[kalniel]

True. I wouldn't even buy my g.skill again for myself. It wasn't that much more pricey than the value select, for much better timings, but it makes no difference in the real world whereas money does make a difference in other areas.

Anything with a lifetime warrenty is good.

[DavidM]

I like Corsair as well

[aidanjt]

I'm using Corsair Value RAM in this computer right here, works great, not a much use for overclocking, but then the chip batches picked aren't the cremé de la cremé.. Still, if you want stable, you could do a lot worse and pay more.

[Rabs]

Corsair Value Select is very good, more or less the same price as generic ram and a lifetime warranty - what more could you ask

Only problem I had with the stuff is 2 x 512MB sticks (or even a single stick) in an Abit NF7-S, apart from that works fine on all NF3/NF4 boards Ive tested.