What DDR3 memory should I buy?

The 16gb kit I have worked great for years. About a week ago, I noticed my laptop freezed briefly at intervals when gaming. Turns out one of my two 8gb memory modules was defective. The other module works fine though.

I know it's best to have matching memory, so I plan on replacing the entire kit. What kit do you think is best to buy? I see kits priced $60-80, but the prices don't make much sense. Eg, 1600 and 1866 MHz speeds cost the same.

 

You don't need a kit. The idea that memory manufacturers match sticks as a pair when they sell them is a load a crap. Ideally get one stick that's the same as the working one you still have. Even if you get one 8GB stick from a different manufacturer with different timings the performance penalty is minuscule and you would never notice it.

 

I've heard that a lot of the memory brands use the same chips anyway, except for Samsung. I could just get an 8gb stick of the same speed/timing and save $30. But my current stick is a couple years old, I wonder if it will last much longer. I don't know the typical lifespan of RAM.

 

Are you running the memory at 1.5V? I have noticed that some 1.35V memory will die over time at 1.5V, despite it also being rated for 1.5V. I had two G.Skill 8GB sticks die like that.

Typically memory sticks do not die. Those are the only two sticks I have ever had die on me, and I have used over a dozen DDR3 memory sticks across multiple computers.

 

1.35V. It's the humidity from living in Florida that killed it. I pulled the memory sticks to check them, and the bad one had a light spot of a sticky brown fluid on it so I knew it had issues. I cleaned it off thinking that might fix it. It helped a little bit, but it wasn't stable.

I should run a dehumidifier 24/7 but that uses a lot of electricity.