cheap SDRAM or Brand Name SDRAM

[Sky]

what's the difference? besides price, how bad is cheap generic SDRAM?

[DAHUNT01]

Look for any PC100 SDRAM that is rated
as CAS2. One place I have gone recently
for this was computers4sure.com
Their Price Point memory works great
in my overclocked system.

[Andre]

I would try www.dallasmemory.com (http://www.dallasmemory.com)

Keep cool http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif

[kornholio]

what's wrong with CAS 3?
I had no idea what kind of ram I bought except that it was generic PC100 64mb. Sisoft sandra says that it is CAS 3 6ns. Is that good or bad?

[gERONIMo]

usually any pc100 is ok as long as the ns is right. sometimes people try to jip you ont he ns. the only problem with generic is when the new 133mhz chipset comes out it might not work on it. usually name brand stuff works higher than sposed to work like corsair pc100 cas2. its been tested by some people up to 147mhz bus.

[Roy]

With brand names you pay for advertising and such. Kingston Technology just announced a $20 million bonus to be split among the employees this year. The two guys who started the company are great, I wish Michael Eisner were so nice. Kingston can do that and stay in a very competitive business.

I'd recommend CAS Latency 2 because it is likely to work at 133, or higher. If you have doubts about a product, find the individual chip maker/number and go to their web sight and check the specs. I have a table of SDRAM tests, but it's getting out of date. It's time to do another search on "SDRAM Reviews" and "SDRAM Tests"

I like to shop at www.pricewatch.com (http://www.pricewatch.com) .

kornholio - PC100s with CAS Latency 3 are not bad, just won't go as far over 100. All true PC100 sticks MUST have a tAC of 6ns. Right now the only sticks with tCK=6ns are just hitting the market. They are called PC133, their tAC is 4.6ns and have a CAS Latency of 3 @ 133. That's not bad when you consider the processor is running 33% faster. I'm waiting for the P3-600. It features the new 0.18micron trace technology and 133MHz FSB. You can learn a lot about all this by doing some searches on "PC133 SDRAM" etc.

[This message has been edited by Roy (edited 05-22-99).]

[Sky]

Thanks for all the input, folks!