3 choices for RAM..Corsair, Gskill, Patriot

[ModerateRepZero]

For a prebuilt gaming PC, I picked Corsair Vengeance memory but there's a backlog. I was given the option to wait or choose Patriot Viper or the GSkill Ripjaws memory.

Not sure but I believe it's 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1866MHz Dual Channel Memory.

What do you suggest? I need to contact a rep soon (prob Wed evening).

[masteryoda34]

IMO DRAM brand doesn't matter. It's a commodity.

[Soulkeeper]

Those are all good brands.
masteryoda34 is dead on

people usually tend to buy memory on a few factors:
price
they've had good luck with the brand in the past
friends, review sites, etc. said they were good

The performance/reliability between different brands in the same price/speed brackets are usually within the margin of error.

That being said, i've had good luck with gskill, mushkin, patriot and people I know swear by corsair

One point of advice: don't buy anything that is over 1.5v these tend to be overclocked(price premium) and/or older chips

[crazymonkeyzero]

Here's rough guide on how you pick memory

1. Make sure voltages are as low as possible, 1.5v is the trusty standard these days.

2. Select frequency, 1600mhz is standard for Intel, for AMD its 1866mhz. Going much higher you will not notice any major performance gains, so don't pay much more for it.

3. Look and compare their timings/cas latency. Lower the better, comparing across the same mhz of course. (so ddr3 1600 @ 8-8-8 faster than ddr3 100 @ 9-9-9) Again, not a major differentiator by itself, but all the factors add up in the end.


As far as manufacturers go
Gskill and Corsair are both great brands along with Mushkin and Samsung. Patriot however, is not that great imo; they aren't bad, but not that stellar either, its just~meh.

[Blain]

Originally Posted by ModerateRepZero

What do you suggest?

Originally Posted by Blain

If I were shopping for high quality memory, I would use the following parameters as a guide...

* DDR3 rated at 1.5v or lower
* DDR3 rated at the lowest CAS I could afford
* DDR3 rated at the highest clock speed I could afford
* Limit the scope of my purchease to G.Skill, Mushkin, Corsair XMS or Crucial (non-Ballistix)

While not wavering on the voltage point, I would balance the other issues with my budget.

Remember, my goal is not pure "benchmarking" performance, but simply finding the highest quality memory I can afford.

Originally Posted by Blain

The only reason I pay a premium for low latency, high speed, low voltage memory is...
Quality and quality alone.

Originally Posted by Blain

1.5v is the JEDEC DDR3 voltage standard.
Stay with 1.5v or less if you can afford it..

What he said

[Amnesia1187]

Originally Posted by ModerateRepZero

For a prebuilt gaming PC, I picked Corsair Vengeance memory but there's a backlog. I was given the option to wait or choose Patriot Viper or the GSkill Ripjaws memory.

Not sure but I believe it's 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1866MHz Dual Channel Memory.

What do you suggest? I need to contact a rep soon (prob Wed evening).

I've always used GSkill or Crucial, but any of the brands should be fine, and worst case, if you do have memory problems, you can always buy different RAM later. 2x4gb of DDR3 at 1866 is relatively cheap (like $30-40 on sale). I wouldn't really stress about the choice at all unless you are planning on trying to overclock your ram.

[ModerateRepZero]

not planning on overclocking, and I've already made the selections, so even if I wanted to I couldn't switch anything other than the brand of RAM.

I might shoot an e-mail tomorrow to the rep about the voltages and latency

[bryanl]

Brand matters. Just get Samsung and not worry about defects.

[poohbear]

Originally Posted by masteryoda34

IMO DRAM brand doesn't matter. It's a commodity.

this. all the big names that offer lifetime warranties are pretty much the same, they get their RAM from like 2-3 of the same manufacturers and brand them as their own.

patriot, g.skill, corsair, i've owned them all, no difference in performance at all. just look @ the voltage & specs.

[dawp]

Originally Posted by bryanl

Brand matters. Just get Samsung and not worry about defects.

that isn't an option, he was given a choice to wait for corsair or substitute gskills or patriot in it's place and get the system faster.


how long is the backlog? if it isn't too long, I'd get the corsair myself having used it for years without issues.