ok so G.SKILL is a good brand too. I never heard of them I thought they were some cheapo stuff.
Back in the day, when Crucial was popular in 2007, I wondered why so many forum posters were using G.SKILL, and I, too, thought they were "some cheapo stuff." A person can only absorb so much in review-reading, and I was in a hurry to get some low-latency over-clocking RAM for my 2007 build. Turns out, the Crucials we were buying were "some cheapo stuff."
Others report that G.SKILL uses Samsung "black parts" for some of their memory. I can also say that they've been wise about how they spec and market their RAM, without counting the use of product-differentiating heat-spreaders and other gimmicks. Their RAM models seem to overlap in SPD specs of latency and voltage at comparable speed specs for models of different speeds.
Here's an interesting model of their RAM ignoring minor differences in price with other examples cited here by others:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...m-_-20-231-461
Keep in mind I've never bought nor used these Sniper RAMs. But I can see that they're popular -- given the total frequency count of reviews, and they seem to merit an average 5-star across that count. Take a look at the 1-star reviews: you may or may not get an idea of any "risks," but they're bound to be inconsequential. People who get the s***-end of the quality control stick are much more likely to post reviews than those who are satisfied, so seven out of ~200 or about 3.5% is a pretty good outer boundary for a QC statistic.
Thing about these: they're rated at 1600 Mhz with timings 9-9-9-24 and voltage of only [ONLY!] 1.25V. You could check and see if G.SKILL posts a maximum voltage for their warranty, but since their 1.50V models are good to 1.60+V, I can imagine a cautious possibility of pushing them to 1.50V. Then see if the spec timings can work at 1866 Mhz. And then see how low you can push the voltage at that speed and timings before they become unstable.
Or apply a different but reasonable strategy to find the stable voltage.
If I felt like spending some money at the moment (and $40+ each for two kits or $80 isn't "big money" to me), I'd either look for the 2x8GB models or use two 2x4GB kits and hold back my used 4x4GB "-GBRL" Ripjaws as part of a plan to rebuild the (currently LGA-775) machines for the mainstreamer fam-damn-ily. Then I'd look for some decent motherboards . . . later on . . .
There are a lot of memory options out there, and the market is so competitive that price differences hardly matter . . .
What he said
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