Which is better: Kingston or Samsung or G.Skill?

By Eminem25
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Eminem25

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Thinkin of upgradin soon, what I have now is a joke, I need to know which is better performance wise?

Currently I'm lookin at this F2-6400CL5S-4GBPQ from G.Skill

http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=209

Thanks in advance for any help.

Grand Master

Phouchg

Posted
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Look for memory compatibility charts for your motherboard. Both Kingston and G.Skill usually have the best compatibility (all slots populated) but then Kingston has cheap but equally reliable ValueRAM series for budget computers. I haven't seen many Samsung modules for desktops, can't say anything about them.

Besides, you're looking at DDR2. What exactly are you "upgrayedd"-ing?

Grand Master

Astra.Xtreme

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Both Kingston and G.Skill make great RAM. I personally have the Ripjaw series from G.Skill and it's really really nice. Kingston is great too, if not even more reputable than G.Skill.

I also wasn't aware that Samsung made memory, so I don't have any comment on them.

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Eminem25

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Thanks Astra, I noticed they are reputable just makin sure.

Almost everyone around here have one of those "GUYS" products in their rig.

OK, I'm going with F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

Thank you all guys.

Grand Master

Phouchg

Posted
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I don't think Samsung sells retail memory modules, I think they are just the manufacturer.

They have entered the market with their own 30nm superslim and very low voltage sticks very recently.

My current setup is (as my friend said it) from the stoneage.

1GB

Where I can find those charts?

Sites of most notable motherboard manufacturers usually have them. Try googling your motherboard's model.

However, I must say that it's not practical to stuff huge amounts of RAM in your "stone age" system - other components will starve it and it will just consume power sitting half-empty. Performance-wise, nothing short of overclocking (and even then negligibly for most loads) will increase performance. And performance between brands of memory doesn't differ at all. Reliability does.

Lastly, I figure you might be running 32-bit system, too, so anything over 4 GB will not be available to you whatsoever - that's a physical limit. Motherboard might not even support such amounts (or large-capacity sticks in some weird cases).

Your best bet would probably be throwing in two random 1 GB sticks or one 1 GB stick (depending on whether you have 2 x 512 MB or 1 x 1 GB configuration currently) to have 2 GB in total. That would make it "bronze age".

Grand Master

Seizure1990

Posted
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However, I must say that it's not practical to stuff huge amounts of RAM in your "stone age" system - other components will starve it and it will just consume power sitting half-empty.

How do you know without first asking his usage habits? 1GB is pretty low these days, I can see that being a huge bottleneck if OP tends to have a lot of programs open at once.

So having said that, what exactly do you do on your computer OP? Knowing your hardware specs would also help.

PS: My computer uses DDR2 memory as well, and while it's certainly not the newest hardware around, it's good enough to power through all the games I've tried so far. Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz, with 4GB of RAM and an Nvidia Geforce 8600 GT. A computer doesn't need to be running hardware from the last year to be a workhorse.

Grand Master

Brandon H Supervisor

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the only time I've seen Samsung RAM was inside my MacBook Pro, and quite honestly I laughed my ass off when I saw it when I went to switch it out with the RAM I bought on Newegg

I've had good experiences with both Kingston and Gskill RAM, you can't really go wrong with either

Grand Master

Mr. Gibs

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They have entered the market with their own 30nm superslim and very low voltage sticks very recently.

If by very recently you mean like the past 10 years or so, then yes you are correct.

the only time I've seen Samsung RAM was inside my MacBook Pro, and quite honestly I laughed my ass off when I saw it when I went to switch it out with the RAM I bought on Newegg

Lol why? The past 2 laptops I've owned (8gb and 4gb respectively) have both come with Samsung RAM. Haven't had a single problem with any of them, and I generally never shut down (or even sleep / hibernate) my laptop.

Grand Master

Seizure1990

Posted
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the only time I've seen Samsung RAM was inside my MacBook Pro, and quite honestly I laughed my ass off when I saw it when I went to switch it out with the RAM I bought on Newegg

Samsung makes a huge portion of the RAM used in consumer machines. Most companies don't actually make their own RAM. They just buy the chips from companies like Samsung, finish the manufacturing process, and sell it under their brand.

Proficient

BillyJack

Posted
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Kingston is cheap and reliable but I don't think it is for performance. GSkill is cheap (although not as cheap as kingston) reliable and is good for performance. I have no experience with Samsung. If performance is what you are looking for then go with GSKill. It is the cheapest performance memory you can buy and it is reliable. The only thing that you have to look out for when buying GSKill is if the memory conforms to specifications. They have lots of memory so some does and some does not. The memory that does not follow specifications will only work on some motherboards. The problem with that memory is that you usually have to set the memory timing in the BIOS manually which means you have to know what you are doing. Then sometimes it needs a higher voltage than the specification calls for. This is not a problem if the motherboard allows you to set these settings. The reason the memory that does not follow the specifications like that is so that you can overclock or run it at higher speeds.

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Eminem25

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They have entered the market with their own 30nm superslim and very low voltage sticks very recently.

Sites of most notable motherboard manufacturers usually have them. Try googling your motherboard's model.

However, I must say that it's not practical to stuff huge amounts of RAM in your "stone age" system - other components will starve it and it will just consume power sitting half-empty. Performance-wise, nothing short of overclocking (and even then negligibly for most loads) will increase performance. And performance between brands of memory doesn't differ at all. Reliability does.

Lastly, I figure you might be running 32-bit system, too, so anything over 4 GB will not be available to you whatsoever - that's a physical limit. Motherboard might not even support such amounts (or large-capacity sticks in some weird cases).

Your best bet would probably be throwing in two random 1 GB sticks or one 1 GB stick (depending on whether you have 2 x 512 MB or 1 x 1 GB configuration currently) to have 2 GB in total. That would make it "bronze age".

thanks bro, my system is stone age but my MoBo is ASRock N73V-S

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Eminem25

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That's what I will be upgradin to:

Thermaltake Element V [VL200N1W2Z]

Core 2 Quad Q9450 (12M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB) ark.intel

G.Skill DDR2 800MHz (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ)

Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB IntelliPower 64MB SATA II WD10EARS

Old specs: [No LOLin' or laughtin')

Not so much case (I dont think it has a name)

CPU: Celeron 1.8GHz

1GB Ram (Don't know manfuctuer)

80 GB HDD (Don't know manfuctuer)

Grand Master

tsupersonic

Posted
Posted

Well the system you listed is much better than a Celeron. However, it may end up being more expensive in the long run, as your upgrade options are very limited. Buying a motherboard that uses DDR2 memory as indicated by someone else is a very bad idea. Also, some legacy hardware may be expensive to begin with. You're better off saving your money and building it right.

Grand Master

Phouchg

Posted
Posted

Ok then.

WD Caviar Blue. It's all colors: green - eco, blue - mainstream, black - enthusiast. Blue one spins at 7200 RPM, so no stupid slowdowns occur. Want to save power? Set a power profile to turn off hard disk when not in use for a certain prolonged time. Don't know about now when parts are in short supply, but thus far WD hasn't put very much people down.

Heh, well, hard disk probably is the one that will put the biggest dent in your budget. Damn those Thai floods :/

  • TEX4S and Eminem25
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Grand Master

Astra.Xtreme

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Definitely go with a Caviar Blue over a Green. Those green models are terrible and a lot of people have countless issues with them.

I'm willing to bet you could piece together an i3 setup with DDR3 for pretty darn cheap.

Also, I'm assuming you are buying the Q9450 used for somewhere, correct? If not, it's a pretty expensive CPU, and you could definitely get more modern components much cheaper.

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