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Spendy memory versus "Value Ram"

Bartokomus

Bartokomus

Golden Member
So i've had my very spendy Kingston HyperX PC3500 for a few years now and i've always been happy with the O/C it and my CPU have afforded me. Depending on the season i can get between 500-700 mhz O/C, and all is flawless.

Yesterday, i picked up 2 x 1GB sticks of PC3200 Value Ram from Corsair; tried it in one machine which has a modest O/C and it was fine. So i took it to my big boy, threw it in and there it ran a nights worth of gaming (BF2 & WoW) flawlessly.

So now i ask myself, other than these tight timings, why do we buy this uber-expensive memory for double what this Value Ram costs, when there is no discernible difference?

Anyways, i was very pleased and i think i will upgrade now to this Value Ram and dump my HyperX...
 
Ah So

did you go from 1mb to 2 mb total and did it make any difference in which apps?
methinks the extra ram ( if that is the case) offsets the speed difference
do you run any apps which actually benefit from mega bandwith and not tight timings?

good info sort of mimics what the Athlon crowd finds

wyrmrider
 
yes the extra Gig helps; but that isn't really my point. Value Ram that costs 1/2 as much for twice the amount which handles the same O/C is my point!
🙂
 
Quite simply put, you pay for the TESTING of expensive parts (CPU's RAM etc). Frequently, value parts will perform as well, but alas, they also can give you absolute fits with odd-ball errors. I actually prefer to 'loosen' memory timings just a hair from the optimum. Running memory 'b@lls to the wall' is simply not my idea of fun, especially when you get file corruption, random re-boots, etc etc.
 
You get useful timings.

Corsair 2GB Value @ 3-4-4-8
OCZ 2GB EL Platinum @ 2-3-2-5

A fairly large difference there. Both in performance and in cost.
The OCZ set overclocks very nicely too.. (For a 2GB kit)
 
the patriots should be the same ic's as the ocz's, they have the exact same timings and are a little less
 
Originally posted by: Bartokomus
So now i ask myself, other than these tight timings, why do we buy this uber-expensive memory for double what this Value Ram costs, when there is no discernible difference?
Click to expand...

This is the third time I've said this this week, but I'm going to keep saying it until people start saying it for me.

Corsair ValueSelect RAM is made of chips from whatever source is cheapest at the time your module was made. There is not a batch label on the chips, or module. You cannot tell (and Corsair supposedly does not record) what chips are on what module. In effect, the overclockability of two seemingly identical Corsair ValueSelect DIMMs can very likely be vastly different due to different RAM chips being used.

There is not even a guarantee that two sticks in the same dual-channel pack are made up of the same kind of chips.

AFAIK this is only true of Corsair ValueSelect; Kingston's, Micron's, and Crucial's value lines all use chips that are labelled appropriately.

It'd be like if you were buying a P4 2.4 GHz chip, but you couldn't _ever_ tell if it was a Williamette, Northwood, Prescott, or even what stepping it was. One you get might overclock to 3 GHz+, another might not overclock 100 MHz.
 
Originally posted by: TerryMathews
Originally posted by: Bartokomus
So now i ask myself, other than these tight timings, why do we buy this uber-expensive memory for double what this Value Ram costs, when there is no discernible difference?
Click to expand...

This is the third time I've said this this week, but I'm going to keep saying it until people start saying it for me.

Corsair ValueSelect RAM is made of chips from whatever source is cheapest at the time your module was made. There is not a batch label on the chips, or module. You cannot tell (and Corsair supposedly does not record) what chips are on what module. In effect, the overclockability of two seemingly identical Corsair ValueSelect DIMMs can very likely be vastly different due to different RAM chips being used.

There is not even a guarantee that two sticks in the same dual-channel pack are made up of the same kind of chips.

AFAIK this is only true of Corsair ValueSelect; Kingston's, Micron's, and Crucial's value lines all use chips that are labelled appropriately.

It'd be like if you were buying a P4 2.4 GHz chip, but you couldn't _ever_ tell if it was a Williamette, Northwood, Prescott, or even what stepping it was. One you get might overclock to 3 GHz+, another might not overclock 100 MHz.
Click to expand...


we need to have an faq sticky on the top of this forum with this being in it
 
Originally posted by: Kensai
You get useful timings.

Corsair 2GB Value @ 3-4-4-8
OCZ 2GB EL Platinum @ 2-3-2-5

A fairly large difference there. Both in performance and in cost.
The OCZ set overclocks very nicely too.. (For a 2GB kit)
Click to expand...


Add in Crucial Value:
2 GB @ 3-3-3-8
 
Originally posted by: Kensai
You get useful timings.

Corsair 2GB Value @ 3-4-4-8
OCZ 2GB EL Platinum @ 2-3-2-5

A fairly large difference there. Both in performance and in cost.
The OCZ set overclocks very nicely too.. (For a 2GB kit)
Click to expand...

What is the ' large ' performance difference you are talking about ? And to what advantage ?
 
Originally posted by: TerryMathews
Originally posted by: Bartokomus
So now i ask myself, other than these tight timings, why do we buy this uber-expensive memory for double what this Value Ram costs, when there is no discernible difference?
Click to expand...

This is the third time I've said this this week, but I'm going to keep saying it until people start saying it for me.

Corsair ValueSelect RAM is made of chips from whatever source is cheapest at the time your module was made. There is not a batch label on the chips, or module. You cannot tell (and Corsair supposedly does not record) what chips are on what module. In effect, the overclockability of two seemingly identical Corsair ValueSelect DIMMs can very likely be vastly different due to different RAM chips being used.

There is not even a guarantee that two sticks in the same dual-channel pack are made up of the same kind of chips.

AFAIK this is only true of Corsair ValueSelect; Kingston's, Micron's, and Crucial's value lines all use chips that are labelled appropriately.

It'd be like if you were buying a P4 2.4 GHz chip, but you couldn't _ever_ tell if it was a Williamette, Northwood, Prescott, or even what stepping it was. One you get might overclock to 3 GHz+, another might not overclock 100 MHz.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:

it amazes me the amount of selective reading here. people champion themselves as "reporting the facts" and "saving you money" becuase "just look at Zebo's thread!!!" where did Zebo say to go buy the chittiest ram known to man??

i wonder how many of the people who link that thread even have taken the time to read it and apply it to what they are using their rig for.
 
I had very good overclocks with corsair value. I think one of the BIGGEST mistakes overclockers make is they spend so much more high end overclock components (psu, ram, mb, ect..) that they end up spending more on their system then what it would cost to run something that would run default at that speed.
 
Originally posted by: ncage
I had very good overclocks with corsair value. I think one of the BIGGEST mistakes overclockers make is they spend so much more high end overclock components (psu, ram, mb, ect..) that they end up spending more on their system then what it would cost to run something that would run default at that speed.
Click to expand...

Agreed. People spend waaaay too much on components.

The point I was trying to make, was that Corsair ValueSelect is more of a hit or miss proposition than other memory manufacturers. Hate to brag on myself, but the comparison I made about buying a P4 without knowing the stepping was dead-on. One stick might overclock like a mofo, and another not. The problem is that you have no way of knowing, or even correlating. We know, for example, that C and D stepping P4s overclock like crazy in general. The same can be true for RAM (BH5, CH5, TCCD, etc.)

You might even get a stick that's incompatible with your motherboard. There's a pretty well-known incompatability between certain ASUS motherboards and RAM DIMMs made up of Infineon chips. With Corsair ValueSelect, that might be exactly what you get, and you'd spend time trying to figure out why your new system won't POST.

Plus, in a situation like that, all Corsair tech support will do is swap out the DIMM, since they have a lifetime warranty. They have no way of pulling a VS stick that isn't made of Infineon chips, since they don't keep batch logs or label their chips. The next DIMM you get might be as busted as the one you've got now.

In general, I love value RAM, for the same reasons I love cheap processors. Most of them are made the same and just not tested as rigourously. I learned my lesson the hard way about Corsair VS though; never again.

As cheap as RAM is though, there's no reason to go too cheap with it. I'm currently in love with Patriot ATM. They overclock fairly well, have good timings out of the box, aren't too expensive, and have lifetime warranties. 2x1GB LL sticks for me, baby!
 
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