Crucial vs. Mushkin...Which one is really the best?

[ninjazed]

I'm upgrading my system and want the best CAS2 memory I can get my hands on. Both Mushkin and Crucial get great reviews with Mushkin being the enthusiasts favorite. Did I also mention I don't want to go straight to the poorhouse? Mushkin is absolutely, ridiculously priced compared to Crucial's current prices! Is one really better than the other? I'm looking to freak out with 512MB's of the best RAM. Does anyone have some input on this?
P.S. I know 512 is serious overkill so don't flame me about that, OK?

 

[ZeroBurn]

mushkin is definitely better IMHO. i've seen crucial before and from the benchmarks i'd say mushkin always seems to come out better, although at a much higher premium.

what i'd suggest is grabbing some mosel vitalic DIMMs from the F/S forum, jkdude was practically giving them away earlier at the prices he had. they're the same as mushkin and are the best i've seen, and at that price you're not going to have to bust the bank at all.

 

[AmbitV]

i just stuck in a crucial 256mb cas 2 in my system...does 150mhz 2-2-2, so it seems to be just as good as what mushkin claims

when i go up to 155mhz i have to lower it to 2-3-2, as 2-2-2 isn't completely stable. Dunno about mushkin tho

 

[Drifter]

Mushkin #1

 

[KouklatheCat]

I bought the Mushkin and am very pleased with its performance. Ive never tried Crucial so I don't know. Everyone I know that is as big or bigger computer nerd then I said "Mushkin Dude" when I asked. I think both are probably very good, they beat the heck out of the FRYS electronics stuff I had before.

 

[Plester]

been building alot of machines lately and have had the opportunity to test a bunch of different ram in my BX rig. my conclusion is this: there is so much good CHEAP ram floating around these days, that unless you are shooting for high fsb speeds (140 -145 @ cas 2), you have many options in addition to these 2 vendors. i bought a $48 (all these examples are 128mb sticks) of noname w/ micron -7.5 chips at a computer show - does 150mhz+ at 2-2-2. a stick of pc100 kingston value w/ infineon chips did 145mhz at 2-2-2. a $43 stick of noname pc100 w/ samsung GL chips from the FS/FT forums here - 133mhz 2-2-2.

the weakest stick i've seen recently was a stick of Mushkin pc133 cas 3 infineon - hit the wall at 133mhz cas 2 - not a mhz more.

not to dissuade you from mushkin or crucial because they are both outstanding and they have some great deals, but you do not need to pay a premium anymore!

ps. lookee here

 

[Compuguru]

I havent used Crucial, but my Mushkin mosel 1.5s (2 sticks) rated at 133 222 go up to at least 146mhz 222, buts thats as far as i can push them, im sure they go farther!

 

[Kingofcomputer]

Mushkin has basic, rev 1.5, rev 2, rev 3, hsdram, etc - so many different quality/performance chips.
it's hard to just compare the brand name "Mushkin" to "Crucial".

 

[Techie333]

This topic is like the AMD vs. INTEL one. People will only tell you whatever ram they are currently using is good, but they haven't yet tried the other kind. SO, just get ram w/ satisfaction guarantee and see which one is better.

 

[Vegito]

I think crucial = oem manufacture = quality.. Mushkin caters to overclockers... = most likely higher quality.

 

[Felonious]

Well here is a review of both Crucial and Mushkin

Check it out

 

[Def]

My 128meg stick of Mushkin Rev2 runs up to 155Mhz 2-2-2. Probably higher, but my CPU is at its limit there.

My friend has 2 single sided sticks of 128meg Crucial CAS2, and his can't run over 140Mhz 2-2-2. It can do 150Mhz 3-3-3, but that's it. Pretty weak IMO. If he had spent about $25-30 on RAM, he could be running his chip 75Mhz higher with greater memory bandwidth.

If you plan on overclocking, I'd definitely say look towards Mushkin. Their stuff really does deserve the reputation it gets. Very high quality.

If you plan on just running your RAM at 133Mhz with no overclock, just get some CAS2 Crucial RAM.

 

[yo2tup]

hmm...my mushkin infineon CL3, does 150 2-2-2, 4-way interleave...

 

[SeaHarp]

Felonius

Could you re-link that, I think that was pretty tripped out.

 

[elars]

I just installed a 256MB stick of Crucial RAM and my computer only registers 128MB. Not good!

Some info:
256MB 168-pin DIMM 32Mx72 SDRAM Registered PC133 CL2 ECC

#'s on the card: MT18LSDT3272G-13EB1 PC133R-222-542-B1

BX-6r.2
cel 300A
v550

Could I possibly need a bios update or did I get a mislabeled stick of RAM?

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[AcidHardware]

I have posted a couple of RAM reviews on my site which I think you would be interested in.

I have written a review of a 128MB stick of Rev3 Mushkin at http://www.acidhardware.com/reviews/Mushkin/mushkin.shtml however this review doesn't contain any benchmarks against the Crucial 128MB CL2 RAM.

You can view my review of the Crucial 128MB CL2 RAM at http://www.acidhardware.com/reviews/crucial/crucial.shtml , this review includes benchmarks against the Mushkin RAM.

The reason I didn't include benchmarks against the crucial RAM in the Mushkin review was because I dind't have the crucial stick at that time. You can see the two modules head to head in the crucial review. The crucial comes out just on top of the Mushkin in all tests and because it is so cheap, I recommend it to anyone.

 

[zzzz]

elars,
thats you BX chipset...

 

[NoreagaCNN]

Crucial AKA Micron

-Nore

 

[Renob]

Dude its easy the best ram is Mosel Vitalic hands down.

 

[Plester]

slightly OT.

i have a stick of noname w/ mosel v. 143 chips on it - same exact chips as mushkin rev. 2 - it is capable of 150+ at cas 2. bought a noname stick w/ micron -7.5 chips on it, performs the same - 150+ cas 2. both are outstanding, both came from computer shows for CHEAP. now here is the wrinkle. the mosel v. chips are reported as micron using dimm id and sandra 2000, and the micron chips are reported as mosel v. - this is the case when only one or the other is installed so it ain't the software getting confused. just an interesting tidbit that Mosel subs out manufacturing to micron and vice versa.