Someone gave me a link to this RAM: http://search.pricewatch.com/system_memory/ddr_pc3200_1gb-0.htm Take, for example, the very first one, for $13.23. That's super cheap! So my question is, is it worth it? Will this ram be worse than a name-brand stick of ram, like from kingston? Will this generic ram have higher latency, for example, or is it more likely to fail on me? Anything like that? Should I go for it, or go for name-brand?
is it more likely to fail, I'd say probably, especially if the processor might be overclocked which I doubt you plan to. Its also likely it will struggle more during intensive tasks or even fail and be slower. note: their sites seem to recommend the ram for VIA & SIS Chipset Based Boards. If the branded ram is few dollars more, then I'd go for that, as you usually get good warranty and you are more likely to find reviews on the internet.
the RAM maybe ok. it can depend on the chips on the stick. i wouldn't recommend it for overclocking tho. its kind of like different makes of a type of gfx card. you may get two radeon 4670 cards that look the same on paper but they use different memory, cooling and bios solutions that can make a huge amount of difference to reliability and perfomance
Big B once said worded it along the lines of "less strict quality control" That was in the context of seagate vs maxtor. If you get a good one your laughin' but there is greater risk of getting a troublesome product. To be honest ive had as much success with unbranded as branded products. But like sniper suggested.... its usually a couple of £/$ more for the branded stuff. Prices have dropped so much in the last 5 years or so that you might as well by the cheap corsair/kingston/crucial etc.
Ah. Okay well I'm not doing any overclocking... I just want to plow a bunch of memory into my old-ish comp so that i can play BF1942 w/o lag and w/o closing other apps. I'm definitely going for 2 sticks at once, as I have 2 dual-channel slots open. Getting 2 x 1GB (in addition to my single 512 stick already there in the third slot) would be overkill, i know, but it's so ridiculously cheap... 2 of those generic 1 Gig sticks at the very top cost exactly as much as 2 of the cheapest 512 sticks (plus shipping) from newegg... so it's very tempting lol.
Hey, after a bit more digging I found this guide which talks about high and low density RAM. It says that much of the generic ram is high-density ram, which is designed "for used in slower server chipset/segment (Registered) which are not designed for PC chipset/segment (Unbuffered)", and that it's likely that the high-density ram will be in-compatible with a PC. Is this stuff true? No one else mentioned anything about it on Hardforum.com either, one person said generic ram is fine if not overclocking. But if that stuff is true, I'll avoid generic for sure...
if you're planning on running in dual channel then go for a branded kit. OCZ do some good cheap matched sticks that would undoubtably suit your purpose. Other than that shop around. Most of the really good stuff has pointless metal attached to it - if you can find branded RAM without the armour then it'll surely cost a fraction of the price (kingston should be good for this) As to whether the memory is buffered or not should be in the description. If not, get the part No. and find out. Most boards want unbuffered non ECC RAM generic or not. You should be able to get budget matched sticks if you look around.
