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PSA on RAM, silly little rant. Brool story co.

Locut0s

Locut0s

Lifer
One thing that people always seem to think is that getting RAM to work with their laptop is going to be easy. It's NOT. They think ok I have a DDR2/DDR3 laptop, any DDR2/DDR3 ram will work, while it's true that a lot of different DDR2 RAM modules will work it's also true that lots will not, and not for any particularly good reason either. Laptop motherboards just aren't built to the same standards as desktop boards and can be WAY pickier about the ram they accept. Many times you can get ram that have all the right specs but your laptop might still reject it for some reason or another. This is why I always use a memory configurator on a company web site like this one from Kingston when choosing RAM.

http://www.kingston.com/us/memory/search/Options/

They have just about every device on the planet tested to work with at least one SKU or another. At least this way you get RAM you know is going to work and don't have to return it cause it doesn't work (with a restocking fee if the company you bought it from charges one).

Anyone have stories of getting ram that should have worked but didn't? Cheap laptops and netbook seems the worst at one end. At the other end you have server motherboards and the like that are even more picky about the ram they work with. You would think that server boards would be qualified to work with a lot of different RAM but the opposite seems to be true.
 
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Locut0s, do you want this moved to "Memory and Storage," since it's a more appropriate forum?
 
Yeah, RAM can really be a bitch sometimes especially if you cheap out and get the lowest price RAM you can find. It really becomes a game of Russian roulette at that point. Of course, for my needs, buying top of the line RAM is a waste of money.
 
rockyct said:
Yeah, RAM can really be a bitch sometimes especially if you cheap out and get the lowest price RAM you can find. It really becomes a game of Russian roulette at that point. Of course, for my needs, buying top of the line RAM is a waste of money.
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There are a few manufacturers I'd stay away from but so long as you stick to the big names like Kingston, Crucial, Corsair etc you are getting good RAM. The thing is that even using good RAM is often a game of Russian roulette when it comes to laptops, servers and a other devices. Desktop motherboards are usually designed to work with as broad a range of RAM as possible so usually they will work with anything you throw at them or close. Laptop mobos often choke on perfectly good RAM. This is why it's good to rely on qualified RAM, either qualified by the device manufacturer or the RAM manufacturer.

I always get customers who are surprised at this fact though. They think any ram should work just cause the specs are right. I always have to tell them. Well OK you can go with that but I can't promise it will work.
 
I've had problems with the Kingston and OCZ "value line" RAM before. Changing the timings helped with the OCZ RAM but that pair Kingston sticks was not liking my motherboard.
 
rockyct said:
I've had problems with the Kingston and OCZ "value line" RAM before. Changing the timings helped with the OCZ RAM but that pair Kingston sticks was not liking my motherboard.
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OCZ RAM is crap on average, they don't even make ram anymore. Kingston ram is usually pretty solid but it depends on the mobo as well. What motherboard were you using?
 
Locut0s said:
OCZ RAM is crap on average, they don't even make ram anymore. Kingston ram is usually pretty solid but it depends on the mobo as well. What motherboard were you using?
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Yeah, I found out really how crappy OCZ was later. I only really pay attention to computer parts when I'm looking to build a new computer. At one time I thought OCZ had quality RAM (like almost 10 years ago), so I didn't think much when I got it.

As far as the Kingston RAM went, I believe it was an Asus mobo right when the A64 chips came out so I blame it on that. I think the chipset was pretty picky with RAM. I put it in my parents computer and it worked fine, so it wasn't much of a loss.
 
Zim Hosein said:
See my point Locut0s?
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I remember the day when the board was scoffed at for thinking Zim could ever be a mod.

To Zim!
beer.gif
 
I've always been a fan of Corsair, Kingston, and Mushkin haven't had any troubles with any of those brands. But yeah I've always checked to make sure the specific sticks I am buying are compatible with the motherboard or laptop i'm putting them in.

Never had a problem myself but I've heard of others having the issues you're talking about.
 
I've never had an issue with memory unless I brought it on myself by messing with the timings or speed. I have recently started being cheap and buying brands other than Kingston and Corsair though, so I guess I might run into this at some point.
 
I've never had an issue on any laptop I've ever upgraded with more memory. If anything, the worst I've encountered is a bad DIMM, which failed across the board with other laptops.
 
I feel ram was way more inconsistent in the past. SDRAM and DDR1 days. I never bought much EDO so I couldn't comment on that. I never really had any problems with DDR2 or DDR3 as long as I ran it at rated speeds.
 
I try to stick to Corsair as much as possible. I've always had good luck with them, whereas I've had difficulty with G.Skill and some other cheap / flavor of the month/year/etc. brands.
 
You guys are less likely to run into these problems cause you only do this on occasion. Also some of you have mentioned desktop motherboards which usually DO take just about everything you throw at them, it's laptops that are much more picky. If you were buying and installing RAM in laptops on a daily basis you would notice this.
 
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