Should You Buy OLOy RAM?

[Admin]

OLOy-branded RAM is some of the cheapest memory on the market, but is this largely heard-of brand reliable and performant enough to buy?

Should You Buy OLOy RAM? : Read more

 

[Sedare]

So this is freaky. I was researching this RAM 2-3 days ago b/c NewEgg was having a flash deal on it, and now this article comes up.

The comments showed the ram to be unreliable in terms of being compatible with motherboards and also the RGB working with various programs it's stated to support. I decided to go with the G.Skill RAM instead for 5 bucks more. Would have liked to test this RAM but just don't want to take the risk.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I feel ram is ram. I would take the risk if there was a good enough deal.

Personally, when you can spend $5 more and get better name brand g.skill/hyperx/corsair ram, why consider OLOy ram?

 

[g-unit1111]

I feel ram is ram. I would take the risk if there was a good enough deal.

Personally, when you can spend $5 more and get better name brand g.skill/hyperx/corsair ram, why consider OLOy ram?

I used to think that until the first gen Ryzen CPUs came along and there were so many reports of RAM incompatibility. Now I pay very close attention to the modules I buy and what's lurking underneath the heat sinks. Thankfully that's no longer a thing since AMD got those issues ironed out in the 2nd and 3rd gen Ryzen CPUs but it's always better to know exactly what you're getting before you buy.

 

[buzznut]

OLOy-branded RAM is some of the cheapest memory on the market, but is this largely heard-of brand reliable and performant enough to buy?

Should You Buy OLOy RAM? : Read more

Just yesterday I saw a couple of posts on a FB hardware enthusiast group where a couple of folks were bad mouthing Oloy memory, as if it was a given you are going to have problems. (Well duh, its Oloy memory, LOL)

Largely I would suggest many issues with compatibility can be attributed to operator error. Some people never want to go into the BIOS to set ram speeds. Even fewer will go to the mobo manufacturer to check compatibility lists before purchasing. As an AMD user and overclocker for 20 years, red team's motherboards have always been known for pickiness when it comes to RAM. Ya can't just throw anything in there.

As an Amazon reviewer, I get questions every week about RAM compatibility. I always advise people to check the compatibility lists--evidently people can not be bothered to read the Q and A section, because I have posted this same recommendation at least a dozen times for one motherboard. And with AMD, you cannot expect a mobo to apply XMP profiles out of the box. Basically people are lazy and get frustrated when plug and play doesn't work.

Comments I see online often mention the " cannot fill all slots" rule for DDR4 3200+ memory on 300 and 400 series motherboards. I will start adding this addendum to my QA's.

 

[toyo]

I'd recommend caution when it comes to buying this. I have Spektek RAM in my PC (from Adata), and it took me no less than a year of stresstesting to get it fully stable with XMP on Z370 with a 8700K.
The weird part was that the RAM was unstable at the full 1.35V XMP voltage, but is fully stable at 1.2V with XMP enabled. To actually get to the point where I found that out took hundreds of hours of Prime95 Blend and many more hours of mostly useless memtest type of stuff.
So yeah, be aware that there might be minor, yet incredibly annoying issues with ICs from Spektek.

 

[Crashman]

So this is freaky. I was researching this RAM 2-3 days ago b/c NewEgg was having a flash deal on it, and now this article comes up.

The comments showed the ram to be unreliable in terms of being compatible with motherboards and also the RGB working with various programs it's stated to support. I decided to go with the G.Skill RAM instead for 5 bucks more. Would have liked to test this RAM but just don't want to take the risk.

I carefully combed through the negatives of each brand and actually made a list of "type of problem" before writing this. By far the greatest so-called "compatibility issue" was caused by people not enabling XMP. As for the RGB programs, it is compatible with every manufacturer's program, the problem is typically that those programs are broken on some motherboards (we touch on that in motherboard reviews).

I feel ram is ram. I would take the risk if there was a good enough deal.

Personally, when you can spend $5 more and get better name brand g.skill/hyperx/corsair ram, why consider OLOy ram?

The difference was $20 a month ago, at least for the $100 32GB kit. Price drops on the other kits have made them more attractive.

I used to think that until the first gen Ryzen CPUs came along and there were so many reports of RAM incompatibility. Now I pay very close attention to the modules I buy and what's lurking underneath the heat sinks. Thankfully that's no longer a thing since AMD got those issues ironed out in the 2nd and 3rd gen Ryzen CPUs but it's always better to know exactly what you're getting before you buy.

We kept hearing Samsung B-Die, but our most compatible kit was the old HyperX DDR4-2933 with Hynix chips. And it overclocked well on every AMD board we tried. So we've little faith in those rumors.

Just yesterday I saw a couple of posts on a FB hardware enthusiast group where a couple of folks were bad mouthing Oloy memory, as if it was a given you are going to have problems. (Well duh, its Oloy memory, LOL)

Largely I would suggest many issues with compatibility can be attributed to operator error. Some people never want to go into the BIOS to set ram speeds. Even fewer will go to the mobo manufacturer to check compatibility lists before purchasing. As an AMD user and overclocker for 20 years, red team's motherboards have always been known for pickiness when it comes to RAM. Ya can't just throw anything in there.

As an Amazon reviewer, I get questions every week about RAM compatibility. I always advise people to check the compatibility lists--evidently people can not be bothered to read the Q and A section, because I have posted this same recommendation at least a dozen times for one motherboard. And with AMD, you cannot expect a mobo to apply XMP profiles out of the box. Basically people are lazy and get frustrated when plug and play doesn't work.

Comments I see online often mention the " cannot fill all slots" rule for DDR4 3200+ memory on 300 and 400 series motherboards. I will start adding this addendum to my QA's.

Useful, thanks. Getting the message across that two dual-rank 16GB DIMMs will likely have similar limits to four single-rank 8GB DIMMs is much more challenging however.

I'd recommend caution when it comes to buying this. I have Spektek RAM in my PC (from Adata), and it took me no less than a year of stresstesting to get it fully stable with XMP on Z370 with a 8700K.
The weird part was that the RAM was unstable at the full 1.35V XMP voltage, but is fully stable at 1.2V with XMP enabled. To actually get to the point where I found that out took hundreds of hours of Prime95 Blend and many more hours of mostly useless memtest type of stuff.
So yeah, be aware that there might be minor, yet incredibly annoying issues with ICs from Spektek.

I think some of this is about the timings table on the module. AMD boards have traditionally been even more finicky, which is why so many companies are now putting AMD badges on their memory.

 

[g-unit1111]

We kept hearing Samsung B-Die, but our most compatible kit was the old HyperX DDR4-2933 with Hynix chips. And it overclocked well on every AMD board we tried. So we've little faith in those rumors.

G.Skill Trident Z is usually my go to RAM because they use the Samsung B-Die, but lately I've been using Corsair Dominator Platinum which has the HK Hynix B-Die on it and I haven't noticed any major differences.

 

[zx128k]

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/help-ram-die-type.3563019/#post-21510311

Is there any more SPD images from thaiphoon for this RAM. Best guess so far, is it could be Samsung A-Die.

Their contact email is service@oloymemory.com
source

 

[CanadaGuy24]

TeamGroup’s NightHawk RGB ($80) showed three likely hardware defects out of 69 reviews (4% failure rate)

The math here is WRONG. 3 REVIEWS out of 69 reporting likely defects is NOT a 4% failure rate of the RAM. It is 4% of the REVIEWS reporting failures. The 3 bad reviews, nor the 69 reviews total indicate the number of SALES. Failure rate is actual_failures divided by sales---neither of which are present in the information you are working from.

 

[Crashman]

TeamGroup’s NightHawk RGB ($80) showed three likely hardware defects out of 69 reviews (4% failure rate)

The math here is WRONG. 3 REVIEWS out of 69 reporting likely defects is NOT a 4% failure rate of the RAM. It is 4% of the REVIEWS reporting failures. The 3 bad reviews, nor the 69 reviews total indicate the number of SALES. Failure rate is actual_failures divided by sales---neither of which are present in the information you are working from.

Please read the entire article, because I don't think it was necessary for you to reword the explanation 😉

 

[CanadaGuy24]

Please read the entire article, because I don't think it was necessary for you to reword the explanation 😉

I did, and nowhere did they state the actual failure rate as a statement from the manufacturer.

 

[Crashman]

I did, and nowhere did they state the actual failure rate as a statement from the manufacturer.

I believe it did explain that since people are more likely to fill out a review if they experience a problem, the stats from this public information should be artificially high.

 

[Dazngad]

I have a set of OLOy memory. Enabling the XMP (my 1st time doing this mind you) leads to all kinds of problems. The memory will not run at the stated speed / timingns. Instead fo 3600, I am at 2100. Spent a day total on this. will settle for 2100. Using MSI 570 MB.

 

[Crashman]

I have a set of OLOy memory. Enabling the XMP (my 1st time doing this mind you) leads to all kinds of problems. The memory will not run at the stated speed / timingns. Instead fo 3600, I am at 2100. Spent a day total on this. will settle for 2100. Using MSI 570 MB.

You should contact OLOy support and if that doesn't work, put a review at Newegg. That usually gets a company response

BTW, what processor?

 

[efernandezjr]

I have the 2-dimm Oloy Warhawk kit (32gb x 2 - DDR4 3000MHz) and it works great on my AsRock Z390 Phantom Gaming ITX/ac board. The only semi issue I ran into was that the AsRock Polychrome suite won't address the RGB as of UEFI ver. 4.20. That said, I was able to just download the Asus Aura software and control the RAM that way. No issues. Outside of that, it XMP's just fine and works fine otherwise.

TL;DR - I got a good deal on some RAM that looks solid when it's in my machine and works as advertised. I'm happy with it.

 

[vov4ik_il]

I run two sets 32GB@3200 in 2 Intel builds and it is running at the spec. It is not compatible with AMD APU (had to return 3 sets until their CS provided me with the info) so many buyers get frustrated.

 

[Crashman]

I have the 2-dimm Oloy Warhawk kit (32gb x 2 - DDR4 3000MHz) and it works great on my AsRock Z390 Phantom Gaming ITX/ac board. The only semi issue I ran into was that the AsRock Polychrome suite won't address the RGB as of UEFI ver. 4.20. That said, I was able to just download the Asus Aura software and control the RAM that way. No issues. Outside of that, it XMP's just fine and works fine otherwise.

TL;DR - I got a good deal on some RAM that looks solid when it's in my machine and works as advertised. I'm happy with it.

I am no longer shocked when a company releases a new firmware that breaks its software and then makes customers wait for a software update...