My last RAM was from Crucial and the brand was crucial. Does brand name matter for RAM performance and what not?
Yes. While you may very well get away with some generic stuff, they don't always offer the best stuff. On the other hand, you don't need to spend $300 for 1GB of RAM either. You can get good RAM for a good price and still have some tweaking options. If you're not going to do tweaking or overclocking, Kingston ValuRAM or Corsair's Value series are pretty cheap. As a mid-range bridge between these lines and their HyperX and XMS lines, respectively, is GeiL. Performance is going to be more or less the same, depending on timings, however, don't go for something just because it's cheap. It is important to spend money on good RAM. If you decide to go cheap, you could end up paying for it with stability issues. Having one brand doesn't necessarily mean much, but not all memory is equal.
