Best Brand of RAM

Just wondering what the best brand is. Corsair is a name I see alot, so is Rk-Bytes.

Anything to stay away from?

 

With notebook memory you aren't overclocking it so it doesn't really matter too much what brand you choose. Buy from a e-tailer like Newegg that you can return to if there is problems with it and most all manufacturers offer a lifetime warranty. Buy whatever is the cheapest. No need to pay more for a specific brand name.

 

Actually, I overclock my Acer. I use Corsair ValueSelect. Prime shows that its stable. My motherboard takes DDR333 166 MHz RAM, so I put in DDR400 200 MHz RAM. With an 11% overclock the RAM runs at 184 MHz, with an FSB of 889 MHz. So if you are into overclocking, get a reputable brand with a higher speed than your board takes.

Most brands are pretty good if you aren't overclocking. Just remember to read the reviews, so you can determine if many sticks from a brand were DOA

 

Gents, it looks like you are quite knowledgeable on this stuff, my respects!!
I ended up her while looking for help. I bought a Sony Vaio SZ18GP with 2GB 533 DDR2 TwinMOS in April-06. Last month (September), I turned it on and got the message "No O/S found". Took to Sony since it was under guarantee and they told me I was using a "Non Sony recommended RAM". I paid US$216 for the 2GB and Sony told me the recommend ones were US$650. They said that while that brand was compatible, the quality was not good and it had caused the O/S and the "Blue Screen" to go corrupt. I went back to the place I bought the PC and the RAM and told them what Sony Repair Center had said about junking the RAMs I had bought and buying the recommneded ones for US$650 and they laughed... They promised to get me replacements for the 2GB and said all brands were the same... Sony also mentioned something to do with low quality Silicone which with temperature, the RAM would degrade and cause the PC to run super slowly... My SZ18GP Duo processor was actually not faster than my old Vaio PCG FRV28... Any advise from you gents? THANK YOU!!

 

Don't listen to Sony.

I have 2X 1GB Patriot in my system and they work great. I would like to overclock this system, and then I could say how well it does, hehe.

 

In your case it wouldn't really matter what brand you chose because you're not overclocking your RAM. You bought a faster speed then what your laptop normally requires and it is actually running underclocked which any RAM rated for that speed should be able to do. And most notebooks are not overclockable. With some you are able to overclock them a little if you have a version of clockgen that is updated to support the PLL your motherboard uses.

If a popular brand like Corsair or Crucial is only a few bucks more then the cheapest brand of the same speed then go ahead and go with the better brand but if It's quite a bit more then i would go with whatever is the cheapest. G. Skill offers some of the lower priced SO-DIMM modules and they are a very reputable RAM manufacturer.

 

I agree that most ram should run fine if not overclocked. Of course there is the occasional incompatible brand X ram with notebook Y but it is really rare. Then there's the level of quality control where you are less likely to receive a DOA stick from the larger, well known companies. Like burningrave said, if the brand name sticks are only a couple bucks more, get those. Otherwise get the cheaper ram.

 

So, why would SONY tell me that my 2GB RAM caused O/O to get corrupt and "Blue Screen" to fail? Any idea?

Just for general culture? What is Memory overclocking? How do you do that and what do you achieve by doing that?
Cheers
LACRUZ1

 

Cause sony just want to make money off you dude. They told you that so you would buy there ram.

 

This probably isn't the best advice to give but my usual ram upgrades come from ebay. I find the cheapest compatible ram, make sure the seller will refund it if it's DOA and go for it. I've not had a problem yet with either dodgy ram or incompatible ram. As a result my latest upgrade from 512mb to 1GB ddr2-533 ram cost me £26. If I were to buy direct from Kingston or Crucial it would cost me £53.

 

It is very possible that the ram went bad and it corrupted the OS. I had this happen on my desktop. But the recommended ram bit was a marketing gimmick so that you would get their ram. Nothing more than that. Trust me. I do it all the time at work.

 

Lacruz1 try to change your rams just to see if you ram cozes the problem !! sony might be right .. install your friends ram just to try it .. then u can decide

 

I bought RAM off eBay once and yes, it was dodgy, and I had a hell of a time getting the shyster from NY to refund me. Always test new RAM with MEMTEST http://www.memtest86.com/