MatG Posted August 5, 2006 Report Share Posted August 5, 2006 I just checked what kind of RAM i got, and found out that its 2x 512MB Corsair "value" RAM, and i noticed that they are cheaper.. Should i avoid "value" RAM in the future, even if its Corsair ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultima Posted August 5, 2006 Report Share Posted August 5, 2006 Dunno, you might've just gotten unlucky. I personally wouldn't buy ultra low-end parts (buy me, buy me, I'm only $10 for 1GB RAM! [exaggeration]), but at the same time I don't like/need to buy ultra high-end parts either (super duper gamer X parts!!), so if anything, I would just take the "middle road" -- that's generally just parts that don't have those stupid labels on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firon Posted August 5, 2006 Report Share Posted August 5, 2006 Corsair's value RAM is generally fine, but sometimes parts go bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsillup Posted August 22, 2006 Report Share Posted August 22, 2006 I've been meaning to reply here but did not have time until now. I support burn-in testers for a German memory manufacturer. Not all failing DRAM chips are scrapped after being tested, some categories of fails are sold as "non-conforming" (NC). These are typically retention or speed fails. DRAM cells cannot hold data very long, typically not more than 64 milliseconds (millionths of a second) therefore have to be refreshed (rewritten) periodically. Retention is very temperature sensitive and is a big problem as memory cell size is continually reduced in order to pack more bits on a chip (current production maximum is 1G). Unfortunately, retention time is difficult to test after a memory module (stick of RAM) is installed in a PC because refresh is a function of the memory controller hardware which cannot be adjusted by a test program. Cheap modules are very likely built with NC DRAM that was sold to the module builder at a lower cost than DRAM that fully meets all specifications. Using such RAM can result in intermittent problems that may not be detected by a test suite such as memtest86.Corsair and others building high performance memory modules buy top quality DRAM then retest to find chips that will work faster than specified, which is quite possible because DRAM manufacturers normally have no reason to do this, only to determine that their chips work as they should before being sold. I assume Corsair builds their Value RAM modules with DRAM that simply does not perform better than specified by the manufacturer, which is different than building with DRAM that was sold by the manufacturer as NC, known to be unable to meet all specifications. However, despite burn-in and extensive testing that top quality DRAM chips go through before being sold, as Firon correctly stated: RAM parts can go bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switeck Posted August 23, 2006 Report Share Posted August 23, 2006 You could also lower the ram timings in BIOS settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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