Debating over RAM for my m4600 on the way.

I have narrowed it down to 2 sets of ram:

Corsair vengeance

and

Gskill

I have been a big gskill fan for some time now and have never had an issue with their ram and has always performed well. But Im now thinking about the corsair as the timings are slightly better and the price is $2 cheaper(fixing to get 2 sets).

The only thing that worries me is the corsair brand and the "auto overclock" feature. I NEED stable and predictable RAM for this rig when it comes and I dont want to have to worry about reliability or it auto down clocking to a lower frequency. So my question is anyone use the corsair and if so how does it run on your system? Thanks yall!

 

Hi,
I put 16GB(4x4) of the Corsair vengeance 1600 in about 4 weeks ago and have had no problems so far.
I do not know what the auto overclocking is, think it means it sets the speed in the BIOS but I had to select the RAM profile for mine.

I think the Corsair vengeance is very good value as its only a small amount more than the value 1333 stuff.

 

Sphinx,

I am using the Corsair Vengeance's in my U24E at 10-10-10-27 1866. My cpu is the i7-2620M. I added timing profiles using Thaiphoon Burner successfully. Everything has worked without a problem since day one.

I've also used GSKILL 1333 ram too. Also worked perfectly without a problem. Can't go wrong with either or.

 

I figure either will work I just dont know if the slight timing improvement is worth ditching a brand I have been buying for years. I also dont know what ram settings I will have on the m4600 so I dont know if it will trully run at 1600 and 9 9 9 24. It looks like yall had to tweak to get the RAM to run at the advertised settings which makes me think more about the gskill that is a flat 1600 and 9 9 9 28.

 

I don’t know if I had to select the RAM profile, It may have done it automatically?
I just made sure it was set to 1600 before I ran memtest after installing it. Also I did not have to set any timings, it was just: select profile 2 then exit BIOS. Think Profile 1 must be 1333.

 

I dont know if the precision m4600 is going to have that setting in BIOS. Alienwares allow for alot of tweaking compared to other computers. As much as I want the fastest I can get, I really dont think in the grand scheme of things the timing will make any real difference.

 

Get the corsair, the timings although marginally better won't provide any performance gains at all, however the heat-spereaders on them can reduce temps by a considerable amount so i'd say they're more than worth the extra $2.

 

For a laptop heat sinks can be counter productive by reducing ariflow. For CAD desktops at work I use them religiously as well as desktops at home. But as far as these sodimms are concerned the heat sinks are really just stickers made to look like a heat sink. So that may play a part in holding in heat rather then dissipate it.

The m4600 is expected to be here on monday so Ill crack open the case and see if it has enough room and I MAY think about the gskill with heat sinks.

 

I have yet to see any SODIMMS with large restrictive heatspreaders, all of them seem to be low profile without any excess size at all.

My PNP Hyper-X sticks have proper heatspreaders on them, and they feel considerably cooler during use, plus it has decreased the internal ambient temperature ever so slightly.

I did however take a proper look at those corsair sticks and yes, they are just stickers placed over the top. That sucks. But to me personally the slightly lower cycle timing would still make the corsairs a better buy.

 

Think the "heat-spreaders" are stickers so will do nothing to cool. Both the RAM sets will need the same set-up and work well. I would get the Corsair vengeance but it is personal preference as I have had several Corsair sets and had no issues.

 

I have never seen sodimm heat sinks so I cannot comment. But if I do got for the gkill I have seriously thought about the $5 extra ones with heat sinks. The slightly faster timings wont be that great for me as I really only need the ram for VMs, but still on my mind. I need this laptop to last a long time so Ill do more CAS research and check out benchmarks.

The only fear I have with the corsair is reliability, the stickers holding in heat and them auto downclocking (despite having an 2860QM installed). From what little I have seen the m4600 has alot of configurations greyed out in BIOS so I worry if Ill even be able to configure them to 1600 manually.

But I will say yall are giving me hope on the reliability of corsair (Im pretty stubborn and use what I know is good). All in all the m4600 comes in on monday according to dell so ill check out the BIOS settings when Im tweaking and setting it up. If it looks good Ill probably go for the corsair. If not back to google for some research.

 

Why dont you get one set of 2x8 gb ram, you can add another set later for a total of 32gb ram.

 

I live in Western Australia mate, when my desktop Corsair PC8500 DDR2 sticks died, i jumped on the corsair website and absolutely FLEW through the RMA process because they actually have the option for "I am an IT professional, i have tested these RAM sticks and confirmed them to be faulty, they need to be replaced".

I sent them from Western Australia to California via registered post for RMA, within 5 days i had the replacement RAM sticks in my hand. That service alone has ranked Corsair very highly in my eyes, and i would absolutely recommend them.

 

Money and I dont think I need more then 16GB at this time. Plus the timing is better for the 4GB modules.

Thats good service.

 

Went with the gskill non heat sink RAM. Hopefully it will arrive today as 2gb that came with the m4600 is no where near enough. Reason I went with the gkill is zero need to configure or worry about what speed it runs with due to the m4600 having most of every option locked. Might not be as fast as the corsair (and Im considering trying it on a future computer) but I didnt want to chance getting the RAM and not having it run at the speed I need it to. Plus I dont have the time or money to fiddle with sending the RAM back if it doesnt do what I need.

Thanks again for all the responses.