Which brand of memory is better for overclocking?

[Bad Dude]

I am trying to get some input on the brands Kingston, PNY, KingMax and Samsung. Which one is the best of the 4?

 

[LED]

IMO:
1) Samsung
2)Kingston
3)PNY
and this all matters on which grade of Mem you purchase from them

 

[BmXStuD]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_slc.asp?Id=1019
there you go bud..!!

 

[Bovinicus]

The Samsung memory will most likely overclock better. I think Kingston has some memory out specially designed for overclocking, but it is more expensive and no better than Corsair or Mushkin.

 

[Duvie]

I would take the samusng with a little more confidence, but I bet it can't compare to most of the corsair stuff....Corsairs only downfall is the premium price...

Where else can you buy pc3000cas2 (370mhz ddr) and do 442mhz ddr with only 2.7v...I could do cas2 all the way up to 400mhz ddr and this was back when the only pc3200 stuff corsair had was cas2.5...

One thing to remember and I have seen in my experience with up to 5 diff p4 mobo is...The memory controller on your board is a factor to be dealt with. Some boards didn't like high speed memory, high cas settings, or even a particular brand....

 

[Krk3561]

You have to be careful when buying Samsung memory and make sure that its Original Samsung because a lot of online retailers will sell you house brand instead of Samsung and say the house brand is Samsung.

 

[blackhawk]

Samsung is like ATI now, good parts but you dont know what they'll do on the pcb they're on. They've really diluted themselves but offer excellent quality if you look around and do your homework about what to look for.

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: LED
IMO:
1) Samsung
2)Kingston
3)PNY
and this all matters on which grade of Mem you purchase from them

LED is absolutely right about the list (I'd bet you won't find anyone in the forums that disagrees). In fact, they're almost exactly at the tops of their respective tiers. For example, the best RAM for overclockers are Samsung, Corsair, Mushkin, Geil, and OCZ. The next tier is the quality RAM that doesn't usually overclock as well, such as Kingston, Crucial, and TwinMOS (though they don't OC too poorly). The last tier is the generic RAM. PNY is about as good a brand as you'll find in the generic RAM corner. House brands and such are included in that tier.

So, if you're going to overclock, don't even consider Kingston or PNY, though Kinston isn't a bad brand at all, just not suited for what you need. Look at the other list of manufacturers that I have above and choose between them. I ordered two sticks of Geil PC3500 256MB CL2 Ultra Platinum last week. One was the wrong part, so I sent it back (we'll see how long it takes Directron to get it back to me!), but I'm sure they'll fly.

 

[Bad Dude]

How about Geil RAM for PC2700? I cannot afford PC3200 or above. I can get the 512MB PC2700 for $122 shipped is that a good price?
Thanks.

 

[MarkHark]

A few months ago, Corsair was the only brand to offer REAL PC-2700+, not overclocked PC-2100. Corsair sticks ran at the specified speeds on deafult voltage, while Geil, at the same time, needed 2,9 V to operate at those speeds. That, IMO, means you had a much wider range to tweak your Corsair stick.
Nowadays, things may have changed, I'm not sure about it, but I bet Corsair would still be the top quality RAM.

 

[majewski9]

Corsair!

 

[dakels]

if you can spare the $40 and really plan some aggressive OCing, This Corsair XMS rocks.
Otherwise something like this Samsung 2700 deal at newegg is pretty good.

 

[Bad Dude]

Anyone knows about KingMax and can vouch for it?