Good cheap memory?

[Dusty Chalk]

PNY? Centron? KByte? Some unknown brand? Should I buy two sets of two different ones and try them both out?

Background: I already bought some Centron, but can buy 4G of PNY for reasonably cheap. Should I? Or is it a move sideways? What are there often sales of? Kingston? Crucial? Are those the two best at this point? I don't need best (not for this computer), I need "Honda" -- cheap (or rather, reasonably priced considering its quality, not Kia cheap) yet reliable. For the one I build myself, then I'll want "BMW" performance.

[mirumu]

PNY? Centron? KByte? Some unknown brand? Should I buy two sets of two different ones and try them both out?

Background: I already bought some Centron, but can buy 4G of PNY for reasonably cheap. Should I? Or is it a move sideways? What are there often sales of? Kingston? Crucial? Are those the two best at this point? I don't need best (not for this computer), I need "Honda" -- cheap (or rather, reasonably priced considering its quality, not Kia cheap) yet reliable. For the one I build myself, then I'll want "BMW" performance.

I can't comment those brands or prices directly given most of those aren't available down here in the southern hemisphere but if possible I'd stick with a well known brand's "value" line rather than go for something made by a little known company. The reason I say this is that most computer instability problems I see are RAM related. I've even been stung myself by cheap Kingmax and Legend RAM that doesn't actually meet it's rated specs. There's a small flash-RAM chip on every DIMM of RAM called the SPD which holds the timing information for the memory. On many of the cheaper DIMMs this SPD chip is incorrectly programmed, usually with very optimistic timings (Why it's done, I have no idea). Big brands tend to have more correct SPD programming and you can be more certain that the RAM is actually capable of the rated speed. i.e. OCZ DDR2-533 will probably work at well over 533Mhz speeds whereas Kingmax DDR2-533 may only be 100% stable at DDR2-400. Personally I've been buying Corsair value RAM lately myself, it's reasonably cheap but very reliable. OCZ and Crucial are great but usually very expensive. Twinmos and Samsung seem okay although my experience with them is limited. Kingston is good RAM but here they have a policy that if the RAM is not compatible with your PC they will not give you a refund. As far as I know that's a worldwide policy and puts me off buying from them.

[Dusty Chalk]

Thanks, I actually found Crucial for not much more than the Centron, I think I'll buy it and return the Centron (it's as yet unopened).

[deepak]

I've always had good experiences with Kingston ValueRAM. Their customer service is flawless as well, I've had to RMA two sticks (they have lifetime warranty) and the CS rep was incredibly helpful.

[qazwsx]

Kingston--never had a problem with them. What I do know is that PNY is straight garbage.

[Dusty Chalk]

Oh, well, I went with Crucial. (And funnily enough, those 4Gb of memory were more expensive than the computer itself.)

Anyone know how to tell my Dell (Optiplex GX270) that I bought PC3200, not PC2700? They seem to be clocking in at 333MHz.

Thanks for the input, I'm just impatient.

[qazwsx]

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