Does RAM manufacturer matter?

[Techstorm970]

Title says it all. 

[79wjd]

No (as long as it's not some fifth-rate no-name compnay)

[haloman1912]

 

Does RAM manufacturer matter? nope it does matter

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, techstorm970 said:

Title says it all. 

If you haven't heard of the company or you hear bad things about them if they are new, then I don't suggest them.

[Shiv78]

no not really as long as 

2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

it's not some fifth-rate no-name company*

basically some good ones include

Crucial

Kingston/HyperX

Corsair

Team

Geil

G.skill

and more

[QueenDemetria]

4 minutes ago, techstorm970 said:

Title says it all. 

For the most part, no, but stay away from cheap garbage(the 'too good to be true' cheap) and always read reviews(sometimes manufacturers have bad batches).

[Techstorm970]

Ok cool!   New question.  What is the difference between DDR3 and DDR3L?

[Rolfejc]

No not really but look at the warranty is my recommendation. I bought some cheap no name 8GB DDR3 RAM awhile ago on eBay for ~$20 back when DDR3 was around ~$45 brand new for 8GB. It never worked :(. After looking the memory up online it only had a 3 year warranty which is interesting. Any decent RAM should have a lifetime warranty. 

[Techstorm970]

1 minute ago, Rolfejc said:

No not really but look at the warranty is my recommendation. I bought some cheap no name 8GB DDR3 RAM awhile ago on eBay for ~$20 back when DDR3 was around ~$45 brand new for 8GB. It never worked :(. After looking the memory up online it only had a 3 year warranty which is interesting. Any decent RAM should have a lifetime warranty. 

Good to know!  

[Pittman90]

3 hours ago, techstorm970 said:

Ok cool!   New question.  What is the difference between DDR3 and DDR3L?

DDDR3L means that it is low power, the voltage is going to be lower than DDR3

[Techstorm970]

1 minute ago, Pittman90 said:

DDDR3L means that it is low power, the voltage is going to be lower than DDR3

Ok thanks!  

[Techstorm970]

Last question:  Could I put DDR3 SODIMM memory in a DDR3L SODIMM slot, or am I an idiot for even asking this question?

[Sakkura]

7 minutes ago, techstorm970 said:

Ok cool!   New question.  What is the difference between DDR3 and DDR3L?

 

4 minutes ago, Pittman90 said:

DDDR3L means that it is low power, the voltage is going to be lower than DDR3

More precisely, DDR3L is DDR3 that has been rated at a lower voltage (1.35V). There is no fundamental difference between DDR3 and DDR3L, if you set DDR3L to 1.5V it's the same as DDR3 at 1.5V, and the same the other way around.

 

It's just a question of what speeds they're capable of at different voltages, and what XMP profiles they come with (don't expect it to be simple to set DDR3 to 1.35V, for example, you might have to fiddle with setting it manually).

[Techstorm970]

3 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

 

More precisely, DDR3L is DDR3 that has been rated at a lower voltage (1.35V). There is no fundamental difference between DDR3 and DDR3L, if you set DDR3L to 1.5V it's the same as DDR3 at 1.5V, and the same the other way around.

 

It's just a question of what speeds they're capable of at different voltages, and what XMP profiles they come with (don't expect it to be simple to set DDR3 to 1.35V, for example, you might have to fiddle with setting it manually).

Huh...so they're essentially the same thing.  Interesting.  Guess that answers my last question. 

[Sakkura]

6 minutes ago, techstorm970 said:

Last question:  Could I put DDR3 SODIMM memory in a DDR3L SODIMM slot, or am I an idiot for even asking this question?

The slot's the same. Whether the DDR3 can run at 1.35V may vary, and it at least is likely to require fiddling with settings. And since we're probably talking laptops here, the BIOS might not have a lot of options for that.

[Techstorm970]

1 minute ago, Sakkura said:

The slot's the same. Whether the DDR3 can run at 1.35V may vary, and it at least is likely to require fiddling with settings. And since we're probably talking laptops here, the BIOS might not have a lot of options for that.

Oh ok.  Thanks! 

[Psittac]

When I got into the hobby there were certain chip's that could hit 250mhz DDR2, I couldn't afford the known one's but I got some mushkin value line in hope's that they were just rebadged B5? chips.  They weren't the right ones but I clocked the FUHQ out of them.  Think I hit 222mhz CAS2 and 233mhz CAS2.5  Back then your mobo northbridge had everything to do with it.  I tried several different motherboard's and the highest overall frequency I hit was on an Abit AN-7, the best fsb I hit was on a dfi infinity (all hardware was thank's to newegg RMA which I abused the crap out of, think cpu waterblock with push fittings and an aquarium pump with massive head pressure, still my ATI 960pro AIW survived the whole time, gotta love those 4 pixel pipelines doin their work).  But anyways I think that there are very few chip manufacturers, everyone just put's them under their own name.  But a word of warning, just today I searched for folding at home and saw a video from a guy who built a beast of a machine (5x 1070 water cooled) and his avexir ram went bad and he had to spend $100+ to ship it back to Taiwan and currently they have no response to whether or not he will get an RMA.

Granted his cooling loop burst twice, and I even think he put the inlet and outlet on the same side of his 5xsli folding loop (still shown in the background) and his loop exploded twice, the fact remains.  I was crazy and had no means of buying or replacing hardware, yet newegg came through like a champ, granted I abused it so hard that I had to create a new account with them after being non-crazy, but if you can't rely on your hardware supplier for RMA, you need to know that the company you buy from will follow through.  (last thought, corsair has an excellent rma service, also the one time I bricked an ssd with mushkin they kept it open for several month's, I just never sent it in because I smacked a power strip button and bricked it myself)

 

brand matters!

[asand1]

AFAIK, DDR3L is intended for use in mobos where the CPU really calls for DDR4. What are your specs?

[Techstorm970]

9 minutes ago, asand1 said:

AFAIK, DDR3L is intended for use in mobos where the CPU really calls for DDR4. What are your specs?

i3-6100u, Intel HD graphics 520, 4GB DDR3L, 1TB 5400RPM drive

[asand1]

http://ark.intel.com/products/88180/Intel-Core-i3-6100U-Processor-3M-Cache-2_30-GHz?q=i3-6100u

You should use DDR4. DDR3L will fork for a time, but even Intel warns against it. Something about overworking the memory controller built into the CPU.

[Techstorm970]

14 minutes ago, asand1 said:

http://ark.intel.com/products/88180/Intel-Core-i3-6100U-Processor-3M-Cache-2_30-GHz?q=i3-6100u

You should use DDR4. DDR3L will fork for a time, but even Intel warns against it. Something about overworking the memory controller built into the CPU.

OK.  That's helpful!  Thanks!  

...

...wait..."it will fork for a time"?

What is that supposed to mean?  

[asand1]

Just like a light bulb will work "for a time". If you overvolt it, it will still "work for a time" but it may me minutes rather than months. DDR3L is just a poor choice and a very bad compromise. Is it worth ruining a CPU?

[Techstorm970]

No it's not.

[Techstorm970]

Problem is...the laptop manufacturer put DDR3L ram in it to begin with just to save money. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Shiv78 said:

no not really as long as 

basically some good ones include

Crucial

Kingston/HyperX

Corsair

Team

Geil

G.skill

and more

Avexir

7 minutes ago, techstorm970 said:

Problem is...the laptop manufacturer put DDR3L ram in it to begin with just to save money. 

Not really. Most laptop do not support regular DDR3/4