Are Kingston and Corsair turning into the OCZ of olden days?

[Ilmater]

My problem is this:

In this review of Kingston's PC3500 HyperX 512MB modules, Kingston was using 5ns chips on their sticks rather than 4.6ns chips. Basically, they were selling DDR400-rated parts in a DDR434-rated module. Isn't there something wrong with that? I checked Corsair and found out that they, too, use 5ns chips on their RAM, they just test them out for operation at DDR434 (which I'm sure Kingston does as well). Isn't there something wrong with that? Geil and OCZ (both their "Dual-Channel" Enhanced Latency Series and their regular Enhanced Latency Series RAM) both use 4.5ns chips in their RAM. Shouldn't there be a problem with the memory that Corsair and Kingston are producing or am I just crazy?

Isn't this the exact problem people had with OCZ so long ago?

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: Ilmater
My problem is this:

In this review of Kingston's PC3500 HyperX 512MB modules, Kingston was using 5ns chips on their sticks rather than 4.6ns chips. Basically, they were selling DDR400-rated parts in a DDR434-rated module. Isn't there something wrong with that? I checked Corsair and found out that they, too, use 5ns chips on their RAM, they just test them out for operation at DDR434 (which I'm sure Kingston does as well). Isn't there something wrong with that? Geil and OCZ (both their "Dual-Channel" Enhanced Latency Series and their regular Enhanced Latency Series RAM) both use 4.5ns chips in their RAM. Shouldn't there be a problem with the memory that Corsair and Kingston are producing or am I just crazy?

Isn't this the exact problem people had with OCZ so long ago?

i think only thing is that their rarely worked

has for these guys they do work a majority of the time.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

As long as they work reliably at the rated speed, who cares what kind of chips they use? The problem with OCZ is that many users couldn't get their RAM to work at their rated speed.

 

[MikeMike]

plus pc3500? wtf you gunna use that for? i mean come on not even pc3200 if certified and pc3500 is just plain fast!

 

[tbates757]

Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1
plus pc3500? wtf you gunna use that for? i mean come on not even pc3200 if certified and pc3500 is just plain fast!

not to mention GeIL's new PC3700 :Q

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: Ilmater
My problem is this:

In this review of Kingston's PC3500 HyperX 512MB modules, Kingston was using 5ns chips on their sticks rather than 4.6ns chips. Basically, they were selling DDR400-rated parts in a DDR434-rated module. Isn't there something wrong with that? I checked Corsair and found out that they, too, use 5ns chips on their RAM, they just test them out for operation at DDR434 (which I'm sure Kingston does as well). Isn't there something wrong with that? Geil and OCZ (both their "Dual-Channel" Enhanced Latency Series and their regular Enhanced Latency Series RAM) both use 4.5ns chips in their RAM. Shouldn't there be a problem with the memory that Corsair and Kingston are producing or am I just crazy?

Isn't this the exact problem people had with OCZ so long ago?

you are just crazy. the key thing you are missing badly is reliability and support. if something happens to corsair or kingston memory, you have guaranteed support and usually a warranty...

OCZ is crap

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan

you are just crazy. the key thing you are missing badly is reliability and support. if something happens to corsair or kingston memory, you have guaranteed support and usually a warranty...

OCZ is crap

First off, I never said that Corsair and Kingsotn were bad. I also never said that they didn't have reliable chips. The purpose of this thread isn't to point fingers, it's to raise awareness and questions. If the stability or reliability of these sticks come into question later on, we'll know why. I've always been a HUGE fan of Corsair's, so don't think for a second that I'm somehow biased against them. Just look through my post history. They're always at the top of my recommendations. Kingston, however, has never been known for its overclocking potential. So, when they brought out this HyperX series, I thought that they were going to try to cater to the enthusiast crowd. However, I have yet to see a review of Kingston's HyperX that says it's a good overclocker. In fact, its own latency ratings are rather high compared to other "enthusiast tailored" models from comparable manufacturers. So, when I saw that they were actually using chips that aren't rated for the speeds they're validating them for, it raised caution flags in my mind. I see that Corsair is doing the same, so again I'm concerned. If there are no problems, then I'm fine with them using whatever chips they want. However, while you will see Geil and OCZ sticks that overclock beyond the 434MHz limit, I do not believe that these Kingston sticks will show that kind of potential. I guess I should be saying the same about the Corsair sticks, but I really have a hard time believing that they're producing modules that don't overclock consistently well.

Now, a couple of you raised the question, why PC3500? Who cares? I can tell you that I just bought two sticks of Geil PC3500 Ultra Platinum (Corsair was just too expensive). The reason I bought them was so that, in the future, when the 400MHz FSB comes out for AMD Athlons, and overclocking them to 434MHz will be a breeze, I'd like to be able to match those speeds with decent timings. As for now, I can easily run those sticks at anything below DDR400 with the most aggressive timings available and be certain that they will run at those settings.

 

[MrDudeMan]

dude chilll

you said "am i just crazy?" so i said "yes you are crazy"


it wasnt a personal attack on you...shesh

 

[CraigRT]

Geil is the only garbage. I had that crap and it wouldn't run at rated speed, let alone any speed!!
worthless.

I am getting 2 sticks of the Kingston Hyper-X hopefully at the end of the week. I am sure it'll be good.

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: Yield
Geil is the only garbage. I had that crap and it wouldn't run at rated speed, let alone any speed!!
worthless.

I am getting 2 sticks of the Kingston Hyper-X hopefully at the end of the week. I am sure it'll be good.

I've used Geil in 4 systems I've built to date and all have been perfect. Great performance at a great price. I'll tell everyone how mine turns out. Did you even try to return it? You know, believe it or not, bad sticks do make it out the door sometimes...

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
dude chilll
you said "am i just crazy?" so i said "yes you are crazy"

it wasnt a personal attack on you...shesh

I didn't want to make that sound like I was ticked off, sorry. I'm tired and I'm not so coherent any more. I just like to expand on my points, that's all.

BTW, I also wanted to say that I was one of the loudest critics of OCZ (again, feel free to check my post history), but in the last month or two I've heard nothing but good things about their new owner and their products. I'm giving them a second chance - not because I think they deserve it, but because it doesn't make sense not to if they produce a quality product at good prices. So far, I haven't heard a single person complain about RAM they've bought in recent months.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

I'd say yes.

In my eyes, Corsair XMS = Kingston Hyperx = OCZ = Geil = smart business people making huge profit by selling re-marked memory.
Why not spend the same amount of money to get twice the amount of the regular memory and try your luck on overclocking?

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: Kingofcomputer

Why not spend the same amount of money to get twice the amount of the regular memory and try your luck on overclocking?

Because:

A) "regular" (and I assume by regular you mean generic) RAM could cause stability problems and is generally more trouble than it's worth.

B) getting more than 512MB of memory is a complete waste. I bought those Geil sticks at $98/stick. Not half bad. Why spend $62 (current lowest price for PC3500 256MB modules on Pricewatch.com) on sticks that I don't trust from a reseller I don't trust, when I could spend an extra $70 that will perform better, longer, without hassle. That's worth it to me.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

Regular means cheap Crucial or Kingston Valueram PC2700.

More memory is not a waste after DOS age, more memory = less virtual memory disk swapping = faster system.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Kingofcomputer
Regular means cheap Crucial or Kingston Valueram PC2700.

More memory is not a waste after DOS age, more memory = less virtual memory disk swapping = faster system.

Especially with WinXP. I have 512MB and I want a Gig :Q

Argument I would make for spending more up front on remarked RAM is the GUARANTEE on your memory overclock from the mfg. 'Cuz that's all your getting anyways, 'cept for some fancy armor for your RAM

Chiz

 

[Goi]

Well, 5ns DDR-SDRAM is just about the fastest you can get for main memory. The 4.x ns rated memory chips might not work as well. The Winbond BH-5 is perhaps the fastest too, and the most overclockable. Kingston use them for their normal "PC3200" ValueRAM, but their HyperX "PC3500" memory uses hand picked ones that they've tested to work at the specified speed and memory timings. There's nothing wrong with that, they aren't breaking the law or anything. Same thing with Corsair. They're just pushing the limits with current technology.