Is there a difference?

[LogainDiabolos]

Hi, this may seem like a simple question, but when ram is labeled "PC6400" and "PC2-6400" is there any real difference between the two? (Assume that both are labeled DDR2 800MHz.

My instinct says no, that some marketing dumbass didnt consult a tech when posting the product. Or am I just being retarded?

Thanks.

[Olo401]

They're the same - The 2 probably got left off the labelling for the first one..

[LogainDiabolos]

I did some more research into the specific product No.s provided by the company, turns out they in fact are the same (for the product in question). Now can anyone recommend one brand over the other between Corsair, Crucial, and Patriot?

[Gredival]

Corsair, Patriot, and Kingston are the big three memory companies that have had good reps forever. I know a bargain seeker who bought Crucial that has been satisfied; they were cheaper than Corsair value saver line and came with free heatsinks (the Corsair value series doesn't come with heatsinks, although their Dominator series has ridiculous ones).

I personally buy Corsair but all of those companies are decent.

[fishstix]

what do you think about OCZ?

[kuronosan]

OCZ has great customer service with defective product. I've never had a complaint and their RTV division has always sent me the new product before I shipped the old product back (if you don't send it back they will charge you).

OCZ is great for low-price systems and their equipment isn't bad. For ram and power supplies you should definitely look in their directions.

For motherboards and graphics I go with EVGA. For everything else I either stick with PNY (I have Corsair memory in my system now), Corsair, or OCZ. Crucial Technologies used to be really good.

[Minions]

OCZ has great customer service with defective product. I've never had a complaint and their RTV division has always sent me the new product before I shipped the old product back (if you don't send it back they will charge you).

OCZ is great for low-price systems and their equipment isn't bad. For ram and power supplies you should definitely look in their directions.

For motherboards and graphics I go with EVGA. For everything else I either stick with PNY (I have Corsair memory in my system now), Corsair, or OCZ. Crucial Technologies used to be really good.

This, OCZ's ram is great stuff, at a very reasonable price, never had any complaints with it, or their support.

EVGA makes great boards, and video cards. Other than possible DOA, which happen with all brands, their support is very good as well.

[SephYuyX]

No mention of G.Skill?

Ive been using them for the past few years in my client's PCs, as well as my own. Theyre usually much more inexpensive and offer on-par, and in a lot of cases, better performance.

[Pikarya]

Corsair > OCZ > Crucial (high end shit only)

Everyone else, I usually never find a deal that beats them vs. price and spec.

[mootsfox]

G.Skill, OCZ, Corsair are all great higher end brands.

I reserve Kingston and Patriot for cheaper builds, but it's still fine RAM. Corsair's value series (VS) is good stuff at it's rated speed, but it won't overclock much, and you can't tighten the timings much either.

[Amastacia]

OCZ is good for cheap, and has good customer support. Which they need, since their products tend to have a high failure rate. You get very solid performance for a low-end price, but most of their DIMMs are not the best overclockers (if you care about that).

Corsair is hit or miss. They tend to source from a variety of places, so there can be differences between products. Their Dominator series DIMMs are always built with hand-picked (top end of the top bin) ICs, so regardless of manufacturer, they tend to perform solidly. That's not to say they're all equal (the old Micron-sourced parts have both the highest overhead for extreme overclocking and the highest failure rate). The regular XMS parts are generally good, but it requires a little research to figure out which are the best buys.

Crucial is a brand name for Micron, so all of their good RAM uses Micron ICs. Micron has been THE name in RAM for ages. Many of their best products have been marked by moderately high failure rates (e.g. the DDR2 ICs mentioned above) but absolutely mind-bending performance when they work. I've never had any failures of their mainstream products, only the extreme performance stuff, but when it works its the best on the market.

Historically, even accounting for failure rates, I've been the happiest using Micron memory. Since Corsair rarely sources from Micron anymore, my next build is probably going to use Ballistix instead of Dominator, and I'll just keep RMAing until I have a good pair of DIMMs.

I've never used G.Skill, but people seem to be happy with it. Mushkin as well. I'd use either in a "normal" build, but for anything that I'm really gonna push, I'm not going to bet on anything but Micron.

[kuronosan]

Well, yea... given that you don't care about overclocking there are a lot of boards and systems that are good (MSI comes to mind).

I will say that EVGA has absolutely spec-fucking-tacular customer service and outstanding product for the price.

[mootsfox]

Micron does have some amazing stuff when they get their shit together. I had a pair of DDR2 modules (D9's) that would hit 1400MHz (with very relaxed timings).

Corsair just had a huge failure rate of the Dominator GT's, I believe the ones with Micron chips in them

[Amastacia]

The Ballistix DIMMs with the same ICs had the same problems.

For the Dominator DIMMs, Corsair did an update with Qimonda DIMMs after Micron stopped making the ICs they were using. You can tell which you have by checking the voltage - the Micron-based Dominator kits (always 2x1GB) spec'd 2.2V, while the Qimonda kits spec'd 2.1V. All the 4GB DDR2 kits were Qimonda as well, Micron never made ICs for 4GB kits.

My first Dominator kit was with the Micron DIMMs and worked great (until one of the DIMMs died). Second kit I ended up getting 4GB since it was going to be Qimonda either way.