Difference in RAM??? Brand? PC100, PC133, PC150?

[Trey]

I've been told different things about RAM. I've been told that generic RAM is just as good as any other brand. And that Kingston used to be considered generic. I've also heard that your more likely to have problems with generic brands because they are lower quality.

Now for the speed. Whether you get PC100, 133, or 150, does it really matter? Is there a noticeable difference? I heard from someone that PC133 and 150 is hardly any better than PC100, they were more of a marketing scheme. That person also said that PC133 is unstable.


Thoughts?

[Szech]

From what I have read, and have been told, Generic RAM sometimes has chips that are high quality. This allows good overclocking, and performance.

As for PC100/133/150, that is the speed that the RAM is rated to be able to run. So if you plan on overclocking, you'd want the faster RAM.

[RayH]

I've always used generic RAM and generic cases (I've never paid more than $20 for a case) and have never had bad results.

But I purchase them from local dealers and not pay shipping (especially to return). Also, I use Asus motherboards. They are more forgiving w/generic RAM. I won't use boards with VIA chipsets. They are tempermental and definitely want a better quality RAM.

BTW, I bought a generic $20 Made-in-China ATX case a couple of weeks ago and you'd be surprised at the finish. The materials are still a bit thin, but they don't cut your hands anymore! The $26 cases even shine a bit in the interior!

[Buji]

http://support.crucial.com/scripts/crucial.exe/solution?11=000830-0014&130=000967668396&14=&2715=&15=&2716=&57=faq&58=&2900=vN2Du1aJcD&25=-1 http://www.crucial.com/library/quality_Page1.asp http://support.crucial.com/scripts/crucial.exe/faq

[dosmastr]

all of the actual chips (the little black things on the module) are made by micron or a few other big memory companies, even the generic ones, but the module that they are mounted on, can vary in quality.

Pc133 is the standard now, it works with pc100 for a performance loss theoretically
as for how it pans out in the real world, i know that current athlon chips benefit from faster ram, pentium 4 definatly (which one reason why intel forces RDRAM on its boards) but the older pentiums and AMD chips i honestly don't know.

PC150 is really only for overclockers becuase you have to adjust motherboards to go that high, (almost all boards out now are set at 133mhz, but that can be changed by jumpers or the bios etc.)


as buji said, check that site, crucial has a first rate Question section. You can ask questions and they actually reply ( i got all my questions answered within 24 hours, some within 6 hours)

Dosmastr