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  1. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    What is your top quality choice these days -- irrespective of cost: Kingston, Corsair, Patriot, or ____ ? And WHY ? Or, is it all just commodity goods these days, with little to distinguish one from another ? Is there no "You get what you pay for" factor ?

    I used to lean towards Crucial, years ago at this point, but now I'm seeing that the vast majority of supply is labeled as being from China, and I'm naturally suspicious regarding the QC on anything coming out of China, for good reason. Is there any top-grade RAM still on the market that is not of Chinese mfr. ?

    [While we're at it, what about those armored or "beefed-up" form-factor sticks, with (at least at one time) names like Ballistix, Hyper-X, Ripjaws, Vengeance, and so forth ? Any added value to those ? They may have more heatsink, but also could be more of a challenge to fit, if they fit at all.]
    Last edited by Seeker47; 3rd Jan 2019 at 15:45.
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  2. Mod Neophyte Super Moderator redwudz's Avatar
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    I use Corsair RAM most times. But I have used most all of the other major brands in older PCs and no RAM failures in more than ten years, maybe longer.

    A lot depends on MB compatibility. Some of the AMD Ryzen MBs are very sensitive to the wrong versions of RAM and some Intel MBs may be similar.
    Should always check to see what the MB manufacturer suggests.

    No idea where the major RAM companies make their modules, but likely China.

    Another thing to mention is that RAM prices go up and down like the stock market and you may have to wait sometimes to get quality VS price.
    And you can read ratings from Internet sites about RAM quality or performance,
    but comments from retail customers (Newegg, Amazon, etc.), may not be very helpful or accurate.
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  3. AFAIK Goodram has assembly lines in Europe https://www.goodram.com/en/ - chips (i mean silicone integrated circuit i.e. memory device) are made in different places (not sure if they are made in US), PCB can be ordered in China (cheap labour), assembly i mean soldering IC's to PCB is also cheap labour area. So if your intention is to buy 100% US domestic memory modules then you may fail - maybe in next 2 - 3 years if president Trump policy will bias US companies to return production to US.
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  4. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    Your comments will be helpful, so thanks. I should add that some of the RAM I've bought in years gone by said it was made in Taiwan, or somewhere other than China. I think if you go far enough back, there was Crucial RAM that was made in the U.S. (?) Have also acquired a certain amount of used RAM on eBay -- major brands, some of which came with a used computer -- and I can't recall any conspicuous failures . . . .
    When in Las Vegas, don't miss the Pinball Hall of Fame Museum http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ -- with over 150 tables from 6+ decades of this quintessentially American art form.
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    I bought Corsair Vengeance for my last two builds. I considered Crucial Ballistix Sport for the most recent build, but the Corsair Vengeance LPX (labeled "Made in Taiwan") was on sale for a better price at the time.

    [Edit] I only looked at models with low-profile heatsinks, which add only a couple of mm to the height.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 3rd Jan 2019 at 18:52.
    Ignore list: hello_hello, tried, TechLord, Snoopy329
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    In the 30+ years I've been fiddling with computers, I've never heard of truly bad RAM. Incompatible yes, with some motherboards, especially proprietary ones from manufacturers like Dell, but it's not the RAM that's bad, it's the odd designs that Dell sometimes uses. Remember RDRAM which was supposed to be the future of RAM? *Plonk*

    That said, I have four 16GB sticks of Geil RAM that I tried on three different motherboards, before I finally narrowed it down to one of the sticks being definitely bad. Still have to get around to returning it for RMA.

    BTW, as I recall, Crucial RAM was made exclusively in the U.S. a long time ago.
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    Just remembered, the CAS and speed ratings on some low price RAM have been shown to be false. Doesn't affect reliability, just isn't as fast as they're said to be.

    When I built my new PC last year, I shopped mainly by reviews. I got the Geil sticks because they were highly rated (with a price to match) and I think I'm running two 16GB Ballistix sticks right now (which were just slightly cheaper than the Geils), but will swap them out with the Geil sticks when I get them back from RMA, just because I've already paid for the 64GB
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  8. Dinosaur Supervisor KarMa's Avatar
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    The only note worthy RAM producers are Samsung, Micron, and Hynix. So one way or another, you are going to be getting chips from one of these 3 producers. There are so few producers that allegations of price fixing between these 3 keeps coming up in recent years.
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  9. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by KarMa View Post
    The only note worthy RAM producers are Samsung, Micron, and Hynix. So one way or another, you are going to be getting chips from one of these 3 producers. There are so few producers that allegations of price fixing between these 3 keeps coming up in recent years.
    I don't know if it affected pricing in that way, but the very limited field of producers was also said to apply for flash drives. I'm a regular purchaser of flash drives, and I notice a range of mfr. warranty going from 1 year out to 5 years. (Just a few in the latter category.) As a consumer, one wants to believe that this reflects relative mfr. confidence in a given product line, and longer-term reliability, though perhaps that is only wishful thinking ?
    When in Las Vegas, don't miss the Pinball Hall of Fame Museum http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ -- with over 150 tables from 6+ decades of this quintessentially American art form.
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  10. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    I bought Corsair Vengeance for my last two builds. I considered Crucial Ballistix Sport for the most recent build, but the Corsair Vengeance LPX (labeled "Made in Taiwan") was on sale for a better price at the time.

    [Edit] I only looked at models with low-profile heatsinks, which add only a couple of mm to the height.
    This time, I took the path of least resistance and just got two more sticks of what came with the rig: in this case, regular Corsair XM3. I don't think any 'Vengeance' sticks were mentioned on the computer mfr.'s "Supported RAM List" for that model -- which may or may not have mattered, so long as the general specs aligned. (It was still Made in Taiwan, somewhat to my surprise.) But I will be needing to buy other RAM for other rigs, so this has been a useful discussion.
    When in Las Vegas, don't miss the Pinball Hall of Fame Museum http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ -- with over 150 tables from 6+ decades of this quintessentially American art form.
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