Your opinion on Crucial brand RAM

I've used it before on an older laptop and it worked fine, but I haven't seen much about it on forums. Its only like $115 for 8GB, so I was thinking about upgrading.

On a side note, the 1333 is like $4 cheaper than the 1066 for some reason. I only have an i5, but is there any reason NOT to get the 1333 if its cheaper? Thanks!

 

Crucial is fine, it's usually a fairly standard RAM company. And no, there's no reason not to get the 1333 MHz. It'll downclock, but it will make no appreciable difference.

 

the brand names in the us like ocz mushkin and crucial are not the manufacturers which are hitachi samsung nanyo
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what they do with their desktop brands is charge more for hitachis and less for nanyo,

in laptop ram there is no difference at all, ram is not overclockable and all brands are extremely reliable and almost never go bad.

So in short always get the cheapest there is no brand name.

 

G.SKILL RAM is $95 for an 8gb kit.

 

I don't doubt what you say, but it seems like that there are production runs that are problematic; given an equal number of users it does seem like cheaper memory sometimes has a higher failure rate reported.... then again, perhaps it's because more users buy the "cheaper" RAM and thus the common failure rate just gets reported with more people. I was always under the impression that memory does get clocked up when the FSB and memory bus are fixed together, and often the more expensive memory was rated slightly higher in testing, hence the greater cost for fewer yields, am I totally off here?

 

f0R desktops. and for those desktops all the brands use premium ram from the same manufacturer which is whichever is the best for that kind often hitachi.

For laptops ram never overclocks.

actually in this huge forum of notebook users very few have ever had a stick of ram go bad.

 

From my Tech Bargains post:

 

My laptop came with Crucial RAM, which performed without issue. However, for some reason, OCZ RAM is my favorite.

 

Crucial is the brand name for Micron. Crucial/Micron RAM is reliable and is usually about 20% more expensive than the other brands. Laptop RAM prices are down to attractive level at this time: $115 for 8G is a great deal.

Get the 1333 if you can save some money. It is compatible with 1066.

 

Thanks for the input everyone =] I still have 2 questions:

What is the difference between 9-9-9-20 and 9-9-9-24 timing?

Is there any reason at all to get a kit instead of 2 seperate chips if the seperate chips save me money? I know the sticks need to be the same type, I just want to buy one stick twice instead of a 2-pack.

Thanks again

 

The 20 timing is a little faster than the 24 timing.

 

Personally, I go for reliability as I want the RAM to perform flawlessly for years and cause no BSODs. Such a difference in timing is not perceptible. In the larger scheme of things, system/application load time is significantly reduced by the use of SSD (instead of rotating HDD) and, starting with Windows 7, resource access time is reduced by intelligent use of RAM by the OS: driven by the philosophy that "idle RAM is wasted RAM," Windows 7 caches resources in "Standby" RAM to minimize the need to fetch them from disk or through the network. Your 8GB will be fully utilized to improve overall system performance. (Take a look at Resource Monitor under the Memory tab.) At certain points, my system had less than 20MB of "Free" RAM.

If the 2 sticks are of identical specs (and by same manufacturer), you should be fine. This is to insure optimal performance. Suppose the sticks were different, the timings of the slower stick would be used.

 

Yeah I just got my SSD (which is still blowing my mind) and I wanted to finish maxing out my system with the RAM. Thanks for the explaination, I just wanted to be sure what I was doing before I bought anything. Thanks again everyone!

 

As someone pointed out, on desktops where the memory could oc'd, purchasing two sticks that were rated together meant more reliable oc'ing of the system. Since the bus is fixed you should have no problem buying two separate sticks and running them assming they are good yields.

 

The timings don't matter in a sense you won't see a difference between them. Even in synthetic benchmarks, it is difficult to tell the difference between "performance" and "standard" timings with the latest Intel platforms.

This is even more the case with notebook computers. Unlike desktops, you can't go into the BIOS and modify the timings. So, even if you buy the low-latency stuff, it might not run at that in the notebook (again though, you wouldn't see a difference anyway).

The bottom line is, get memory with a decent brand name and lifetime warranty. I personally buy Corsair due to good past experiences with them.

 

Crucial (Micron) memory is up there with the top RAM manufacturers. Though all RAM really only comes from a few sources, companies like Corsair, Crucial, GSkill get the highest binned memory (best to overclock, doesn't get as hot). Cheapo RAM (lowest binned) gets sold to other companies for cheaper.

Personally I'd stick with Crucial, Corsair, GSkill.

As for CAS Latency, it will play a role in overclocking, if you don't plan on overclocking your computer, then it will not make a significant difference.