Trying to decided between Kingston and Crucial DDR Memory

[cyberock]

I ordered 512 mb DDR 2700 ram last night from Crucial last night. I really want to have a gig of ram so I'm thinking about ordering another 512. I saw Googlegear has Kingston 512 mb DDR 2700 ram for $99 which is $30 cheaper than Crucial. Is there a difference between these two? One better than the other? Thanks!

 

[mindwarp]

When in doubt I always go crucial. I have yet (out of over 20 systems) had any memory problems with crucial chips. Although kingston doesnt have a bad name, $30 for 100% assurance is money well spent to me.

 

[Shagga]

Originally posted by: mindwarp
When in doubt I always go crucial. I have yet (out of over 20 systems) had any memory problems with crucial chips. Although kingston doesnt have a bad name, $30 for 100% assurance is money well spent to me.

I have also had good experiences with Crucial. In fact the only Kingston RAM I bought I had to sell as it ws causing me problems. This was PC800 RDRAM though.

 

[newbiepcuser]

I've never had any problems with Crucial.

I've gotten a few Kingston sticks, no problems either. I've had better overclocking experiences with Crucial though.

 

[numark]

Crucial, by virtue of being part of Micron, tends to have consistent chip quality due to their use of mostly Micron chips (you occasionally get Samsung and Infineon, which are fine chips in and of themselves). With Kingston, you never know what you'll get. Most of what I've had are Hynix, which I find to be lower-quality and don't overclock as well. On the other hand, Micron chips on Crucial PCBs perform quite well for the price. I'd say go with the Crucial.

 

[hdeck]

i have 1 stick of micron and 1 of kingston (samsung chip) and haven't had any trouble in the mobo i have now. i did have trouble in an ecs k7s5a, but that was the mobo's fault, not any compatibility thing.

 

[NesuD]

I just recently bought 2 pc2700 512 meg sticks of Kingston. They were both built with Samsung chips and do 400mhz 7-3-3-2.5. The only thing is there are no guarantees on the chips they use. I have seenthem built with winbond, Hynix, Nanya, and Samsung. customer service and warranty is very good though just as crucials is.

 

[CraigRT]

Got some Kingston Hyper-X PC3500 coming soon... looks to be sweet memory!!!!!

I'd buy Kingston or Crucial... both have good reps....

 

[Insidious]

If you already have a stick of Crucial, I recommend matching it if you do a second stick.

Memory is getting much better about mix & matching modules... but I still avoid it when I can.

 

[ShowdOWN]

stick with crucial, tried and true.

 

[Darien]

Experience tells me Crucial. They make some great RAM.

 

[Davegod]

Some Samsung is a bit better at similar prices, but Crucial going to be no problems - especially isnce your current stick is crucial aswell, probably more likely to have problems mixing crucial and kingston/samsung than using 2 identical sticks of any of those brands. Saying that, unlikely to have problems when mixing those brands anyway. Personally I'd stick with crucial for aforementioned reason plus cant be sure what you get with Kingston, and even if you get some excellent chips on the kingston stick, well as i understand it the crucial stick would have to be able to match it in your system anyway - so no gain from a "good" kingston stick, and so can only lose from the possibility that the kingston stick be sub-crucial quality.

I have 3 crucial sticks of 256mb PC2100, most recent one has gone bad but got email they received my RMA so I'm expecting a replacement anytime now Had no problems with the RMA at all (presuming they actually do send replacement ) though it probably helps I bought it direct from crucial website.

 

[dbwillis]

Crucial, there memory selector app on the site is great, plus the warranty and service (and rep) is good as well

 

[cyberock]

Thanks guys! I'm going to stick with crucial. Might wait another week before I order another one with the way prices have been falling lately.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

Crucial - if buy thru memory selector, you get compatibility guarantee, no need to pay restocking fee if it doesn't work.

Kingston Valueram - no memory selector, no compatibility guarantee.

Kingston regular line - has memory selector, the memory itself is mostly same as Valueram but with different sticker, pay much more than Valueram or Crucial for compatibility guarantee.

Bought a Kingston PC133 512M ECC REG specified for Compaq Server, paid 3x of the price of Crucial PC133 512M ECC REG.