RAM: What's the best brand?

[JustANewUser]

So I think I'm going to get a G. Skill Ares Series 2x4GB RAM but I do wonder if I should go for other brands such as Corsair, Crucial...

 

[Deuce65]

G. skill.

 

[Jaxem]

I have G Skill, ADATA, and Crucial, and they've all worked fine...i'm kind of partial to the G Skill for the value and consistent performance (as per about every review ever)

 

[Hello man]

So I think I'm going to get a G. Skill Ares Series 2x4GB RAM but I do wonder if I should go for other brands such as Corsair, Crucial...

Corsair is good, I am using Team Elite right now, no problems so far.

 

[mf Red]

Kingston Crucial and G. Skill are all good brands. Pick one that's on your motherboards QVL

 

[JustANewUser]

How about G. Skill motherboards? Which are the best? Ares Series, Sniper, Ripjaws...?

 

[Tradesman1]

What are you going to run them on - for AMD rigs I'm partial to the Snipers and Ripjaws X line, 2011 socket, look at the Ripjaws Z and Tridents (Sniper also good), Haswell - Tridents are #1 and snipers.....let us know CPU and mobo can be more specific

 

[mf Red]

Never used one. I've had a few great Asus boards. Asrock and Gigabyte make some nice boards as well.

 

[Tradesman1]

Never used one. I've had a few great Asus boards. Asrock and Gigabyte make some nice boards as well.

______________

GSkill doesn't make motherboards - they are primarily DRAM and memory products

 

[JustANewUser]

Tradesman: The motherboard would be a Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H and the CPU an i5-3570K. I don't even know why I'd go for a 'K' CPU if I'm not going to overclock it, but I guess just in case I'd want to OC it in the future...

The use is gaming at 1080p with a R9 270X. I guess 2x4GB is fine for gaming, and that 16GB isn't needed unless I'd do video editing.

 

[jimpz]

Anything on your MOTHERBOARD 's QVL list!

 

[Tradesman1]

QVLs are pretty worthless, for your combo and not an immediate plan to OC would look at 1600 or 1866/9 in a 2x4G, first choices would be Ripjaws X or Snipers for Ivy Bridge....the Trident X line is great, but would be looking to OC before investing the extra in the higher performance sticks I run those in 2400/10, 32GB on my 3570K. If it's in the budget might consider 2133/9, OCing the 3570K is easy, can generally go straight to 4GHz with nothing more than a multiplier change

 

[jimpz]

"QVLs are pretty worthless" GREAT STATEMENT!

 

[Tradesman1]

Thanx, here's a info thread I wrote a couple or so years ago, most builders already know it:

http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=10566

 

[bryanl]

Samsung, followed by Crucial not in the Ballistix line. Everything else is significantly worse.

 

[jimpz]

While I regretted my tone right when I sent it, I still don't believe the QVL's are worthless. I don't argue with anything you say, but few people are going to do the work or research to see what memory is good, There is no easy way to do that.
I know what they test is only a subset of what will work, but everything NOT listed will work either.
Too many people on THIS site do the 'research' by asking What is good memory, Unless the responder has/had the same board, the information is not good.
Being on this site, it appears many builders do not know what you have written (as good as it is)
At least in my eyes, for many/most people, a QVL list at least give them some combinations that will work.

Jim

 

[Tradesman1]

Jimpz,

Too many people do look at the QVLs and end getting screwed, as was in my info thread for example say you see a set of 2666 - 16GB, it doesn' say anything about what CPU the sticks on the QVL was tested with, and if you want to run 2666 at 2666 you need a K model CPU, so where does leave you if you have a 4130 - it leaves out of pocket a fair chunk of money or the opprotuning to take these nice expensive sticks and run them at 1600....or for many novice builders it say that 1866 or 2133 sticks are good (because they 'tested' them, they don't say at the mobo default of 1333, so yes they work, again expensive sticks, at 1333......but the BIOS programming to handle XMP isn't ready, and again - you're stuck....unless you know something of DRAM, and too few people do....I've contacted tech support on occasion with some of the DRAM manufacturers and (in particular) asked about what's their preferred tRFC for various sets, many times they don't have any idea of what I'm talking about, and those that do know what the tRFC or tFAW or other advanced timings are don't know what to use.