Shopping and Comparing RAM

[MrZoraman]

I was helping my friend pick some RAM for his computer and I started making a spreadsheet with various details about various sticks of RAM. The supported column was for whether or not their motherboard spec sheet explicitly listed that specific model of ram as being supported.

 

I'm thinking about upgrading the RAM in my own computer, and I question if I feel like making a fancy spreadsheet like this again. Are there any websites that do this kind of thing already? Is this even a good way of shopping for RAM and comparing it? Are there other metrics I should pay attention to/may have missed?

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

[RONOTHAN##]

The way I always do it is look for the minimum speed bin I want (say 6000 CL32 for DDR5 terms), go to PCPartPicker, set the filtering options, and sort by price lowest first. Whatever comes up, I check if it's XMP or EXPO (there can be some weird behavior trying to enable XMP on AMD platforms and vice versa, though you can usually avoid these issues by just manually entering settings if you don't mind doing that) and add to cart.

 

Most of the time, QVLs are not all that relevant, especially on DDR5 where there's only currently a handful of PCB designs and a handful of memory ICs that could be present on the boards, hence why I don't bother checking it. They're only there to say what a motherboard manufacturer has check for themselves has worked, it's not designed to be an exhaustive list of kits that work. Plus there have been a lot of times that a kit is on the QVL and it doesn't work because the mobo manufacturer tests with a golden sample CPU. IMO you're better off either just going for a middle of the road speed bin where you're very unlikely to see instability or looking on board owners forums to see what the board is actually capable of, not what the manufacturer says it's capable of.