RAM, Memory brand rating

[Khalil]

Over the almost 6 years of building systems and buying Memory in Volume I have tried about every brand of memory out there.
Every system we sell runs a Memtest86, this rating is based on DDR333, DDR400 and DDR2. We have not yet sold enough systems in DDR3 to form an opinion but I believe these trends will carry on to DDR3 for the brands. I can provide this information because I always buy memory in bundles of 100 or more so the testing have been done on many sticks.

These test results do not include ECC or registered Fully buffered memory modules.

Blue = 5% or less of the Modules have had errors, manufacturer has great RMA service
Green = 10% or less of the Modules have had errors, manufacturer has good RMA service
Purple = 10% or less of the Modules have had errors, Manufacturer has slow RMA Service
Black = More than 10% of the Modules have had errors, Manufacturer has good RMA service
Red = 20% or more of the Modules have had errors, Manufacturer has very poor RMA service

The following are the brands we have used and tested in our brand new systems!

Kingston Technology
Crucial Technology (but not Ballistix)
Corsair
ADATA


Mushkin Enhanced
Geil
Patriot

OCZ
PNY

PQI
Wintec Industries
Transcend
G.skill
Centron

Ultra
Viking
Rendition
Super Talent

[Dominic753s]

Thanks for the rating, Khalil.
What about Samsung? Don't you use them?

[David M]

Thanks Khalil, that's good to know.

[Khalil]

never used samsung. seen them on systems we repair only tested a few and they all passed but i can't rate them

[glc]

Thank you, and the thread is now a sticky. The only one that surprises me is A-Data, I never thought of them as top tier. Good to know, some of their ram is quite inexpensive.

Dominic, you aren't going to find much ram actually branded as Samsung - but a lot of the other module manufacturers use Samsung chips. Samsung is one of the largest chip manufacturers in the world. What modules that Samsung does make are generally sold only to major OEM's and there essentially is no end user support.

[Khalil]

At this stage I have narrowed down my purchasing to Kingston, Crucial and A-DATA. On high end gaming rigs I use Corsair.
A-DATA have been a good brand for us, the guys at their support center are very quick to respond in case there is a problem and will gladly cross-ship for us.

[larrymoencurly]

I don't see how most brands can be rated because the chips used on the modules vary vastly in quality and can come from many sources. I'm not referring to the chip brands but whether the chips are prime quality (marked with actual maker's logo or part number), UTT (UnTesTed, which actually means tested but failed), or home diced (larger non-chip companies, like Kingston). That wouldn't be so bad if module makers did reall good testing to screen out the junk, but apparently they don't but instead usually test with just regular mobos, and not at the highest temperature ratings for the chips (85-95C). When a memory module's non-overclocking voltage rating is nonstandard, higher than 1.50V for DDR3, higher than 1.80V for DDR2, it means the chips were found defective at normal voltage.

[glc]

We have been seeing problems recently in the forums with certain G.skill memory on certain motherboards - and as such, I think we should withhold recommending it at this time.

[jdeb]

Nice Sticky. I have uses a lot of Gskill in the past but something is has changed with them. I had a couple of bad sets of the ripjaws a few months ago and never looked back. Never had a bad ADATA or Kingston. I occasionally buy Samsung from Geeks for older systems and never have had a problem, not enough to say they are great though. I have seen remarked chips on Ultra as being sold "New" , I don't have to tell you where I bought those.

[AndyM]

I'm not one to post with the intent to denigrate a product but I have to report this. I have had to RMA Crucial memory from computers at my office 4 times since last August. Only 5 workstations have the Crucial Ballistix memory installed. It is a huge interruption to business when these failures occur, due to some of the random symptoms they produce. I've got to say though, that the flipside of this is that I check for bad memory first, and that is saving me some time. Most recently, I received replacement modules that were defective right out of the clamshell. I guess they don't even test it before sending it out. I'm losing respect for the product!

[David M]

Interesting...which sticks more specifically?

[larrymoencurly]

Originally Posted by AndyM I'm not one to post with the intent to denigrate a product but I have to report this. I have had to RMA Crucial memory from computers at my office 4 times since last August. Only 5 workstations have the Crucial Ballistix memory installed. It is a huge interruption to business when these failures occur, due to some of the random symptoms they produce. I've got to say though, that the flipside of this is that I check for bad memory first, and that is saving me some time. Most recently, I received replacement modules that were defective right out of the clamshell. I guess they don't even test it before sending it out. I'm losing respect for the product!

It's best to not buy any memory specified for a higher than standard voltage (over 1.5V for DDR3, 1.8V for DDR2, 2.5V for DDR) or if the actual chip manufacturer's logo or full part numbers aren't legible (either not printed on the chips or hidden by a heatsink). Ballistix are the only Crucials that violate these rules.

Samsung does sell memory directly to retail customers, as this link at its website indicates:

4GB 1333MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 Desktop SDRAM

And some of the last Crucial modules I bought not only had Samsung chips on them, but the whole modules were made by Samsung.

[AndyM]

Ballistix Tracer 240-pin DIMM (with LEDs) DDR2 PC2-6400. I bought 3 sets with mobos/cpu combos, then 2 others subsequently.

[glc]

Andy, Ballistix has had issues - I only recommend the standard Crucial stuff. Post edited accordingly.

[larrymoencurly]

I used to think Cruical could be trusted as long as their heatsinked Ballistix line was avoided, but now Crucial offers heatsink-free modules made with no-name chips (some say "Crucial", which isn't a chip brand), and I'm worried about these.